Hanoi, Vietnam - A high-level Vatican delegation began talks with the Vietnamese government Tuesday as the Holy See's representative said he plans to discuss the recent police detention of dissident Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly as well as the thorny issue of the appointment of bishops.
"We have started the discussions and in these discussions we will ask about Father Ly," Monsignor Pietro Parolin, the Holy See's undersecretary for relations with states, said Tuesday after the first round of meetings with Vietnam's Religious Affairs Committee.
The annual bilateral talks, aimed at re-establishing diplomatic relations after more than 30 years, follow a recent high point between the Vatican and communist Vietnam - and yet amid a new controversy.
In January, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met with Pope Benedict XVI in a groundbreaking meeting that the Vatican called "a new and important step towards normalization of bilateral relations."
But just two weeks later, Vietnamese police raided a Catholic diocese in the central city of Hue, seized papers and computers and detained Father Ly.
Local media reported that he had been charged with "spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic," apparently over an independent, pro-democracy newsletter he was editing.
Father Ly had previously spent four years in prison on similar charges and was amnestied in 2005. Since his new detention - Vietnamese authorities deny he is under arrest - the priest has been moved to another church by local authorities and his movements are restricted.
It was unclear if the police raid on the Hue church would delay Vietnam's long-awaited establishment of normal relations with the Vatican, which were broken off after the communists won the Vietnam War in 1975.
Nguyen The Doanh, deputy chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee, downplayed Father Ly's status and said that Vatican representatives have praised increased freedom for Vietnam's estimated 6 million Catholics to worship.
"The relation has been developing in the right direction," Doanh said.
This week's talks are also expected to address the appointment of priests and bishops. Hanoi has insisted on having a say in approval of church officials, a right which the Vatican reserves for the pope.
In recent years, however, both Hanoi and the Holy See have agreed on the same bishops and priests.
On Tuesday, Doanh appeared to move a step closer to the idea that church affairs are separate from the state but said the government still must have a say in bishop appointments.
"The two sides will discuss (the need) to have consensus because whoever is appointed to be a bishop here belongs to the church, not to the government," Doanh said.