Archbishop of Sydney

Nguyen Tuong Van

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
11/12/2005

It was 9.00am on last Friday week that Nguyen Tuong Van, the young Australian from Melbourne, was executed in Singapore for drug running.  I was driving out to visit the parish of Bass Hill and I was surprised at how sad I felt at the news.

I had no illusion that he had been a saint because he was carrying enough heroin for 26,000 doses.  The drug trade is evil.  But he was small fry and it is disappointing that the rich masterminds, are often untouched.

Nguyen’s legal team had asked me for help before Christmas, and I wrote to the Vatican on his behalf.  They interceded for him to Singapore a couple of times, once under Pope John Paul and again under Pope Benedict.  To no avail.

Capital punishment is common throughout Asia and Singapore has regular executions, sometimes at the rate of one a week.  Like most Christians I am opposed to the death penalty, although there could be exceptions e.g. when there is no other way of defending the community.  But to be executed for running drugs, even terrible drugs, is totally disproportionate.

From nearly all accounts Nguyen Tuong Van handled himself well after his arrest.  He never denied his guilt and he found faith in Christ to become a Catholic.

A genuine Christian faith is a great consolation in times of suffering.  The conviction that God loves you, whatever the circumstances and the attitudes of others; that God forgives every crime if there is genuine repentance and that the happiness of heaven awaits all people of faith and love – all this brings meaning and deep hope.  It did for Nguyen because he walked freely to his death with a small quip for a special friend among his jailers.

One of the activities Christ explicitly endorsed was to visit and help those in prison.  Father John Therry, the first free Catholic priest to work in New South Wales, often attended the poor wretches who were executed here, a regular occurrence in convict days.  So too the Catholic priest chaplain in Singapore supported Nguyen during his last hours continuing this important tradition.

Are there any lessons to be learnt from this tragedy?

First of all no one should anticipate any mercy for drug runners caught in Asia.  In all probability they will be executed or at least jailed for many years.

While opinion in Australia is divided on the death penalty, with many strong supporters, majority opinion is still pro-life in a muddled way.  Many are appalled by executions.  Most do endorse a woman’s right to abortion while lamenting the death toll of 90,000 terminations a year in Australia and disapproving of those who have multiple abortions.

And finally heroin usage can be fatal, especially for young males.  One in four heroin users become dependent, while heroin accounts for 80% of deaths from illicit drugs and 7% of all causes of death for young adults.

The young should be warned.