Vietnam's authorities have banned Catholic priest Joan Luu Ngoc Quynh from the Hanoi-based Thai Ha Redemptory Church from traveling abroad, citing national security as a reason for the ban. On the evening of December 5, security forces in Noi Bai International Airport in the capital city of Hanoi stopped the priest at the border gate when he was going to take a flight to Paris where he was invited to participate in a religious event. Priest Quynh is the third clergy of the Thai Ha Church barred from going abroad. In 2010, police in Hanoi also stopped priest Juse Nguyen Van Phuong from leaving the county and in June they did not permit priest Nguyen Ngoc Nam Phong from going to Australia where he would take part in a religious training program. The bans were reprisal of the Thai Ha Church's opposition to Hanoi's attempt to seize its properties, and the church's vigils in which its priests call for protection of the country's sovereignty and criticize the government about human rights violations, systemic corruption and economic mismanagement. After taking power in 1954 in the northern region, Vietnam's communist government borrowed many properties of Catholic churches, including the Thai Ha Redemptory Church for hosting hospitals and schools. Recently, the government has turned these properties into public facilities or private properties without returning them to churches. The property disputes between the churches and the government has not been solved for decades. Along with taking various tricks to prevent local activists from meeting with foreign officials and diplomats, Vietnam's government has bared hundreds of political dissidents, human rights defenders, social activists and online bloggers from leaving country to attend training courses or meet with other activists from foreign countries. National security is often used by police in these cases. Vietnam, with a population of around 93 million, has over seven millions of Catholic followers. Vietnam set the appeal hearing of human rights activist Tran Thi Nga to be held by the Hanoi Higher People's Court on December 22. On July 25, Nga was convicted on charge of "conducting anti-state propaganda" under Article 88 of the country's 1999 Penal Code and sentenced her to nine years in prison and four years under house arrest afterward. Nga, who was arrested on January 21 this year, has not been allowed to meet her relatives, including her two kids at four and seven years. Authorities said the family visit was denied as she refused to admit wrongdoings and accept the decision of the People's Court in the northern province of Ha Nam in the trial.