 Diem, whose brother was Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, gave extra rights to the Catholic Church, dedicated the nation to the Virgin Mary, and preferentially promoted Catholic military officers and public servants while severely restricting the practice of Buddhism and allowing Catholic paramilitaries to demolish sacred Buddhist temples and pagodas.In 1955, approximately 600,000 Catholics remained in the North after an estimated 650,000 had fled to the South in Operation Passage to Freedom.In 1975, after the withdrawal of US troops Communist authorities re-united the country by military force and claimed that the religious activities of Roman Catholics were stabilized and that there was no religious persecution.