REVIVAL OF THE CHURCH IN CAMBODIA

Posted: 14th July 2004

Group work during a synod

REVIVAL OF CAMBODIAN SOCIETY
The Catholic Church in Cambodia plays an important role in the revival of today’s Cambodian society. Since the early 90’s the accompaniment and strengthening of the small Catholic Communities spread all over the country has been the policy of the Catholic bishops of the three Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions of the country: Msgr. Emile Destombes, MEP, Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh; Msgr. Enrique Figaredo, SJ, Apostolic Prefect of Battambang and Msgr. Antonysami Susairaj, MEP, Apostolic Vicar of Kompong Cham. With around 30.000 faithful (10.000 Khmers and around 20.000 Vietnamesse), the Catholic Church in Cambodia gets ready to face the challenges of this new millennium.

In the early 70’s, when the political turmoil burst up in this small Southeast Asian country with the military coup led by general Lon Nol, the Catholic Church was very much active and used to play an active role in leading the Khmer society with a great influence, especially in the field of education. The bloody years of the early 70’s were already the premonition of the years to come under the Pol Pot Communist regime. Many Catholics were among the victims of the violence that spread throughout the country as a consequence of the Vietnamese war. The peaceful and neutral years of the post-independent Cambodia were already gone. Several members of the MEP (Missions Étrangeres de Paris), French acronym of the Foreign Mission Society of Paris, lost their lives in their attempt to defend the rights and lives of many of their parishioners. It is well known in the region of Kompong Cham the story of father Pierre Rapin, who was killed by the explosion of a bomb, purposely targeted to his house in Kdol Leu, province of Kompong Cham, in 1972. Minutes before he died father R. expressed these words of pardon and love to the Christians who were with him: “Please, dear brothers and sisters, do not take any vengeance against those who have attacked me. I have already forgiven them and I have prayed God to have compassion of them”. Sister Mary Claire, from the Congregation of Providence Sisters, exclaim just before dying, victim of an attack: “They will be able to destroy everything, but they won´t be able to destroy the temple every Christian have in the heart”.

The real challenge for the local Church came when the French Missionaries were obliged to get out of the country on the arrival of the Khmer Rouge -led by Pol Pot- in Phnom Penh on April 17th, 1975. Some local priests, religious sisters and lay leaders who remained in the country to lead the Church and accompany the people in their suffering, lost their lives. Msgr. Joseph Salas, consecrated bishop of Phnom Penh during the last days of general Lon Nol, said: “I came back to my country to die with my people”. Two years later bishop Salas died of starvation, abandoned by the Khmer Rouge at a Buddhist Pagoda in Tang Kork village. After his death some Christians took the Cross of the bishop and hid it under a hen’s net. Very often they used to gather around the hidden bishop’s Cross to keep their faith and strengthen their hope.

Fr. Francois Ponchaud, a French Missionary comments: “In 1990 the Church in Cambodia was in ruins. Most of Christians had disappeared during the stormy years. The survivors were dispersed and discouraged. The Church leaders had been suppressed with the exception of some old religious. The temples had been destroyed and the schools and educational Institutions of the Church had been confiscated as a booty of war.

UCANEWS reporters found out that the former bishop of Phnom Penh, Msgr. Ives Ramousse, MEP returned the first time to Cambodia after 14 years of absence as a member of CCFD, French Acronym: Comité Catholique Contre la Faim et pour le Développement. It was a real shock for him. He went to a hotel as everybody, while his former Episcopal house was occupied by the Major of the city of Phnom Penh. One of those days during this visit a Christian lady came behind him and secretly told him: “We will wait for you in tel restaurant”. At that hour Msgr. Ramousse reencountered the remaining members of the Catholic Community of Phnom Penh. That day they constituted a Church Committee, responsible of the Local Church.

In a pastoral letter addressed by Msgr Ives Ramousse, bishop of Phnom Penh in 1996 to the faithfull in Cambodia he affirms: “The real temptation we have now is to reconstruct what has been destroyed very quickly, thanks to means and personnel coming from outside, with the risk to paralyze the local Christians, and to construct a Church for them with the “keys at their hands”. “It would be a foreigner Church that would not be the fruit of their own effort and sacrifices”

Msgr. Ramousse continues: “During 15 years Christians had to follow and obey the orders given by the Party. Once reencountered, with the freedom to meet, Christians may recover and reinforce their faith, their prayer life and learn to share in common. After 15 years of dryness Catholics in Cambodia could easily fall into a submissive and passive attitude. Therefore, we must return the word that was confiscated from them during long years”.

Article Source: UCANEWS and C.S.C.