1554 : Fernando Mendez Pinto, Jesuit, visits Cambodia.

1555 : Gaspar de Cruz, Dominican, resides at the court.

17th cen. : Jesuits, Dominicans and Fransiscans found a few posts.

1665 : Arrival of F. Chevreuil, MEP (Missions Etrangères de Paris - Paris Foreign Missions), at Colompe (Phnom-Penh) and Pinhalu.

Difficulties of the mission due to the upheavals of war.

1768 : F. Levasseur embarks upon evangelisation and translates a catechism in Khmer. Dispersion of Christians following the war between Siam and Vietnam.

1850 : Erection of the Apostolic Prefecture of Cambodia (Phnom Penh) which includes Cochin China (south part of Vietnam), peopled with Khmers.

1861-65 : Arrival of numerous Vietnamese Christians driven out of Vietnam by persecution.

1955 : The Apostolic Prefecture of Phnom Penh, becoming Apostolic Vicariate in 1924, is reduced to the geographical boundaries of the country.

1957 : Ordination of the first Cambodian priest.

1968 : Creation of 3 ecclesiatical constituencies: Mgr Tep Im Sotha Samath becomes first Cambodian Apostolic Prefect, at Battambang.

1970 : 61 000 catholiques (Khmers : 3000; Chinese : 1500; Vietnamese : 56 500). Priests : 64 (4 Khmers, 15 Vietnamiens et 45 français). Between May and August : more than 40,000 Vietnamese catholics leave Cambodia for Vietnam. Their clergy, Vietnamese and French, accompanies them.

1970-72 : 5 French priests and 2 Vietnamese priests are killed.

1975 : 14 April: episcopal ordination of Mgr Joseph Chhmar Salas (37 yrs old) as Bishop of Phnom Penh.

30 April : expulsion of all foreigners, including the French missionaries. Assassination of Mgr Tep Im and F. Jean Badré, Benedictine monk at Kep.

1975-79 : Disappearance of all the clergical members of the Cambodian Church. Death of Mgr Salas, the priests, religious brothers and sisters. Systematic destruction of all the churches.

1983 : Creation by Rome of an "Office for the Promotion of the Apostolate among the Khmer people" (BPAC), placed under the responsability of Mgr Yves Ramousse (MEP) and responsable for all Cambodians, throughout the world. This office has representatives in Asia, America and Europe. Headquarters in Paris.

1986 : The 5th assembly of the BPAC - held in Paris with 25 participants representing the 500 000 Cambodians dispersed around the world elaborates a program of catechism which respects the Khmer culture.

1989 : May : 14 years after having been expelled, Mgr Yves RAMOUSSE, previously Apostolic Vicar, was able to visit Cambodia, in the context of a mission with the CCFD.

1990 : 7 April: Through a note addressed to the national Council of the Front of Solidarity, the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Party authorises the opening of a "Church of Christian Religion". For the first time since 1975, the Cambodian Catholics assist openly, on Easter Day, with a mass celebrated by Father Emile Destombes, MEP, representing Caritas International.

Revival of the activities of the catholic communities.

1992 : Nomination of Mgr Ramousse as Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh and Apostolic Administrator of the Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang.

1993 : Religious freedom acknowledged by the New Constitution.

1994 : 25 March : Establishment of diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

1995 : July : Ordination of a Cambodian priest, Pierre Sophal Tonlop, the first in 22 years.

Arrival of new foreign priests of diverse origins.

1997 : 5 October : ordination of the new coadjutor Bishop of Phnom Penh, Mgr Emile Destombes of the Paris Foreign Missions (MEP).

The same year, the Holy See named Father Antonysamy Susairaj Apostolic administrator of Kompong Cham (he was sent to Cambodia in May 1995).

1998 : 5th June: More than 300 people are re-united at the Russian Cultural Centre in Phnom Penh for an ecumenical celebration for the occasion of the publication of a new translation of the Bible in Khmer under the direction of F. Ponchaud. The previous translation dated from 1954 (the translation of the New Testament was achieved in 1993).

1999 : "The Catholic Church of Cambodia is just started to raise its head. But with it's 20,000 or so faithful - among whom a strong proportion are Vietnamese immigrants - her dynamism delights all thos, missionaries or religious brothers and sisters, who participate in her ressurection since the beginning of the 90's. The emphasis placed on formation, the consitution of small responsable and autonomous communities and the participation of the faithful in the numerous social and caritative activities bear daily witness to her vitality. A vitality also vouched for by the presence of 6 seminarians in Phnom Penh and the recent ordination of a new coadjutor Bishop in the capital: Mgr Emile Destombes, priest with the Paris Foreign Missions (MEP), having arrived in Cambodia during the 60's and having been one of the first to settle back there in 1991. But Cambodia is also, and above all, a living witness of the role played by the Christian communities in Asia. And an illustration of the spiritual and religious stakes of this region of the world where Christianity must live together with Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and persitant animist practice."

2001 : Ordination of 4 Khmer Priests, followed by the entry of 4 seminarians to the seminary of Phnom Penh.

2004 : March: religious vows of two new Khmer religious sisters of the order of the Lovers of the Cross in Kompong Cham province.

© Les MEP