Goals and Priorities

Initial Goals

During the first three years the priorities of the Diocese have been:

1. To get to know the Catholic communities, their particular histories, their needs, desires and plans;
2. To understand better the social life, needs and resources of the people, especially those most vulnerable, who live in the Prefecture of Battambang;
3. To recruit suitable personnel and build the team for the Prefecture;
4. To strengthen existing and begin new pastoral and social action programs that will respond to the immediate and long term needs of the people;
5. To build up the infrastructure and resources that will enable the Prefecture to implement these programs.

Priorities for the Catholic Church in Battambang

At various times, particularly at the annual gatherings of pastoral workers, we have formulated the priorities for the Catholic Church in Battambang. All must be undertaken at once in an organic and integrated manner. Each builds on and supports the other:
Our priorities are:

• Offering the people the possibility to experience the faith and love of Jesus
• Deepening and strengthening the faith of the Catholic communities, with special attention to the children and youth
• Working for reconciliation and justice
• Promoting Cambodian art and culture
• Promoting and facilitating inter-religious cooperation and dialogue
• Offering service to the poor and the needy

Offering the people the possibility to experience the faith and love of Jesus
The traditional and official religion of Cambodia is Theravada Buddhism. The country is full of pagodas and temples which help its people to be aware of the Buddhist beliefs and traditions. In such a context we cannot hope that this country, with its own strong religious traditions, so deeply rooted in the ordinary life of its people, and which in large part have been the means by which the people sustain their identity after so much conflict, will overnight declare Jesus Christ as God. There are some fundamentalist Christian groups that publicly propose this with an aggressive attitude towards other religious raditions.

The priority in this country, poor and broken, yet rich in possibilities, is that its people can experience the faith that Jesus taught with his life. He prayed for this faith in a new way and he moved the hearts of the multitudes. We do not have any other means than a merciful heart, full of justice towards the poor and ready to respond to the deep needs of people. We are not talking here of social work, development activities or of plain works of charity. It is something much deeper; it is to respond with responsibility, as did Jesus of Nazareth, to the liberating power of the Spirit in our lives.

Deepening and strengthening the faith of the Catholic communities, with special attention to the children and youth
Just like most of Cambodian society, the Church too has seen its institutions reduced to ashes.
Today the Church is recovering from these ashes with great liveliness. The faith never died, although it could not be manifested freely in public. Today we feel that we are in a position to strengthen and deepen the Christian men and women who seek to live in Cambodian society proclaiming the faith of Jesus, with a mission of service to this broken society.
In this attempt to strengthen the faith, the formation of the children and youth becomes a priority. The Catholic communities are not isolated within Cambodian society. It is very important to enable the Catholic community to be present and to speak within society. So the task of helping the Catholic communities through education in faith, both in its practice and in its celebration, is an essential priority.

Working for reconciliation and justice
In Cambodia today, one of the burning issues is the international tribunal to judge the crimes against humanity that occurred in the time of Pol Pot. We believe that this will help to reconcile Cambodian people with their own history. Yet the fundamental justice that will enable the people of Cambodia to be reconciled with themselves and with God, is the capacity to give food, education, medical care and work to the poor and excluded; and for them to have this together with a responsible freedom. It is from this focal point that we must orient ourselves in order to be able to take clear steps guided by the Spirit of the Lord.

Phat and his daughter Sivon

For the growth of the Christian faith in Cambodia, our participation together with other groups and leaders in the country: the government, the non-government organisations, other faiths and other religions, is an essential element. Serving the poor and the excluded in their needs, together with others, in a spirit of mercy and forgiveness, is the contribution that the Christian faith is able offer in the task of building reconciliation and justice in this land.
On the other hand, the Catholic community shares in one of the crucial, conflictive and urgent questions of Cambodia, namely the presence of a large population of people of Vietnamese origin. Many of the Catholic communities are ethnically Vietnamese but in most cases have been in Cambodia for generations. Being itinerants and because of the wars, they have hardly been integrated into the social fabric of Cambodia. They are hard working but generally poor and struggling to survive. Many of them live isolated on floating villages on the great lake of the Tonle Sap or on the banks of the Mekong river. Many of the elders are illiterate and their children do not have an access to education. Their situation still needs to be clarified and this is a challenge for us.

Promoting Cambodian art and culture
Cambodia is very rich in art, traditions and culture. Its dance, music, architecture and poetry are part of the heritage and historic identity of all Cambodians. We are making a big effort so that the liturgy and other expressions of the faith are performed in a Cambodian way.
The work of inculturation of the faith is not simply to give the liturgy a Cambodian disguise. It must be something much deeper and creative. It must be the Cambodian people's way of expressing their experience of God. It is a dialogue with the Cambodian manner of celebrating festivals and with the major problems facing Cambodian society. All this orients us and helps us to find the path which will enable the gospel and its message not only to come closer to the people of Cambodia but to be expressed by them as their statement of their own experience of a Saving God.

Promoting and facilitating inter-religious cooperation and dialogue

For Cambodia it is fundamental that we encourage social dialogue at all levels. The very fact that we are in a country where Buddhism and Islam are already so markedly present, which is also linked with many local religious traditions, helps this dialogue happen easily without looking for it.
This society, punished by authoritarianism and regulations that were meaningless, now naturally and urgently seeks space for dialogue, understanding and acceptance of diversity. It is fundamental that we seek to open up spaces for dialogue. This is to be done not just in formal, religious settings, something which is indeed helpful. It must occur in the dialogue of life, such as through cooperation in the social field and in social services. In Cambodia we need what Pieris would call a "symbiosis", where each religion is challenged by the other to give the most adequate responses to the vital needs of the Cambodian society as it emerges from the time of war.

Offering service to the poor and the needy (see "Programs of the Prefecture")