'New' Missioners Learn Khmer Liturgy And Local Church History

Posted: 17th June 2008

PHNOM PENH (UCAN) -- Twenty missioners who have worked in Cambodia for up to four years came together to learn more about Khmer liturgical terms and local Church history, and visit Catholic historical sites.

The laypeople and Religious came from their mission areas across the country to the Catholic Cambodian Culture Center (CCCC) in Phnom Penh for the seminar, which started on June 2. After three days of studying Khmer liturgical terms and 450 years of Church history, they spent another two days visiting historical sites near the capital.

The goal of the seminar was to bolster the missioners' knowledge and understanding so they can help new Catholics appreciate their faith and the local Church, according to CCCC director Father Francois Ponchaud.

The Paris Foreign Missions (MEP) priest told UCA News that for missioners to understand the local people, they must understand Cambodia's main religious traditions -- animism, Buddhism and Hinduism. "We cannot say other religions are bad. They are also looking for a way to heaven," he asserted.

Several participants told UCA News the seminar was useful.
However, Valeria Spelta, 36, admitted it is not easy to explain Catholicism to Cambodians even when using Khmer terminology. For instance, it is not easy to explain that Catholics believe in "one God" and, at the same time, the Holy Trinity, explained the lay missioner with the Rome-based Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME).

MEP Father Vicent Senechal was intrigued to learn that from the 16th century, many missioners came to meet the Cambodian king to build relations. Understanding this and other aspects of Cambodian history will help him work with the people, said the parish priest of St. Joseph Church in Phnom Penh.

Father Denis Carrier, working in Kampot province, added that he can now explain Cambodian history to friends and relatives. "For sure I will stay with the Cambodian people. I understand a bit more about the formation of the (local) Church," said the 35-year-old member of the Canada-based Quebec Missionary Society.

During their last two days together, participants visited historical sites associated with Catholic missioners from 1555 to the 1970s in Kandal province, which surrounds Phnom Penh. War has destroyed some of the places, and others now belong to the government.

Portuguese Dominican Father Gaspar da Cruz introduced Catholicism to the country in 1555. More than 100 years later, in 1659, French missioners based in Siam, as Thailand was then known, took responsibility for pastoral care of Cambodia's Catholics. The Vatican established the Apostolic Vicariate of Cambodia in 1850. The local Catholic community grew mostly in the period 1902-1939, and the vicariate was renamed Phnom Penh vicariate in 1924. Kompong Cham and Battambang prefectures were carved from it in 1968.

Church sources claim Cambodia had 65,000 Catholics in 1970, but civil strife and the brutal 1975-79 reign of the Khmer Rouge destroyed local Church structures. Few Catholics and no native clergy or Religious survived the Khmer Rouge, and Cambodia did not restore religious freedom until 1991, more than a decade after Vietnamese troops forced the radical communist group from power.

Dominican Sister Filomena D. Villacruz told UCA News, "I feel sorry about the Church in Cambodia, because many of its historical places now belong to the government or are private property."

Spelta, looking at the tomb of 18th-century MEP Bishop Guillaume Piguel in a village 15 kilometers north of Phnom Penh, commented: "People living here now do not know anything about the history of the Church. They are not Christians, and there is no one to tell them about the history."

In light of this, many participants suggested holding similar seminars for local Catholics.

Marie Madeleine Dim Chanda, a novice of the Sisters of Providence of Portieux, told UCA News: "Cambodians themselves should know (their history), especially Catholics. We should not forget our history, which we can teach the next generation."

Article Source: UCAN