Cover
story Catholic church, decimated by war, tries to rebound
By DENNIS CODAY
Special to the National Catholic Reporter Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
The Catholic church, a tiny minority
in this country but a significant player in the delivery of human services,
suffered severely under the Khmer Rouge regime and is now working persistently,
if slowly, to help rebuild.
The church in Cambodia has always been small. In 1970, after more
than 400 years of mission activities, Cambodian Catholics numbered 62,000.
Forty-four priests served the community with several hundred nuns and a large
congregation of brothers.
Two Catholic schools in the capital -- premier institutions then
attended by elites -- had more than 3,000 students between them. But the war
years and the genocidal campaign against free thought have taken a toll on the
Catholic church, as well as other institutions in Cambodia. Today the church in
Cambodia numbers about 10,000. It has no Khmer priests, nuns or brothers. The
elite schools are all gone, as are the smaller schools, the hospitals and the
churches.
Priests and nuns from outside the country now work on the most
basic level in the villages, just trying to reconstruct a bit of trust and
visibility for the church.
Kbal Tomnup is a village on the southwest outskirts of Phnom Penh.
The houses are built on tall stilts, because for about half the year the area
is a lake two- to three-meters deep. Boats shuttle people back and forth
between the houses, dry land and their crops.
The village development association, a project assisted by the
Catholic development aid organization, Caritas Cambodia, manages a credit
program that helps farmers finance the purchase of seed, fertilizer and other
agricultural needs. It also manages a social assistance fund for
emergencies.
Fear of group activities
Sok Sakhorn, 45, a Caritas Cambodia field worker, has been
visiting Kbal Tomnup since 1994 when the houses were small, precariously built
and widely scattered. People were quiet and kept to themselves. They lived in
the same area but were not a community. They didnt like to work together,
Sok said. They had no desire to form any kind of an association. Another
Caritas field worker, Samol Nunth, said forced communal living under the Khmer
Rouge made people fearful of organized group activities. After that time,
people preferred to eat alone and work alone, Samol said.
Sok said, We had to spend a long time building trust.
It took two years before an association could form but it worked.
Fr. Verachai Sripramong, a member of the Thai Mission Society,
remembered how afraid people were in 1993 when he arrived in Cambodia. Newly
ordained and on his first posting, he would visit villages where he knew
Catholics lived, but when he called people together few if any would come. It
took quite awhile before they were willing to come together, he said.
Later people explained to him that in the past being Catholic was
enough to get a person killed, so they trusted only their closest circle of
friends and family. Little by little, we build the parish. I stay with
the people, and they feel happy to have a priest, he said.
Today, Verachai works at the Catholic parish in northern Phnom
Penh and has care of three village communities, about 1,000 families in
all.
Even with his decades of mission experience in Cambodia and in
Brazil, Bishop Émile Destombes of the Paris Foreign Missions had as much
trouble meeting Khmer Catholics as the young priest, Verachai. In the
beginning it was difficult. Because for 15 to 20 years they didnt have
the possibility to speak freely, they had to learn how to express themselves
again, Destombes said.
He came to Cambodia in the 1960s, and the Khmer Rouge expelled him
with all foreigners in 1975. He returned in 1989; it was still illegal to
function as a priest, so he first worked as a director of an international
relief agency.
Yes, people are angry, the bishop said. They are
angry with sad feelings about the past. They do not dwell on their anger,
he said, because most are fighting day-to-day just to survive, as they have
over much of the last 30 years. The difference today is now they have the
possibility to live, Destombes said.
The first aim of the Catholic church in Cambodia is to
rebuild the church. For it was almost destroyed, said Fr. François
Ponchaud, a Paris Foreign Mission priest first posted to Cambodia in the 1960s
and expelled in 1975. From France he visited exiled Cambodians in Europe,
Canada, Australia, the United States and refugee camps in Thailand until he
could return in 1993.
Church people in Cambodia talk a lot about rebuilding, but they
very clearly do not mean bricks and mortar. As soon as Destombes and his fellow
Bishop Yves Ramousse, also of the Paris Foreign Missions, took up pastoral
duties, they declared a moratorium on construction that has lasted nearly a
decade and apparently will remain in place indefinitely.
Destombes said this is a request of the Cambodian Catholics
themselves. He said they told him they dont want a church like
before.
Before the church had a big face in society. A big
cathedral, big churches, schools, institutions for formation. They said,
No, the most important thing is not to build -- the most important thing
is to build the communities. For me it was very good, he said.
It is true the church is not a building. It is the community of believers
or the witnesses.
Instead of building, the missionaries set about establishing small
Christian communities. Today about 50 formal communities have been formed in
the countrys three dioceses. Half the communities are Cambodian and half
ethnic Vietnamese. Early on, each community was asked to form three committees:
worship, catechism and charities. All who serve are volunteers. These
committees have full responsibility for planning community liturgies, teaching
community members and giving material assistance to the needy within the
community area.
Because they are Christians
Now we are building a church without priests, Ponchaud
said. The people gather together, not because there is a priest, but
because they are Christians and they share their faith. They speak together,
they have a good relationship together. It is an interesting way, for now and
for the future. For a few years, as church administration was getting
re-established, national synods were held twice a year. In recent years, they
have become annual events, but national committees on worship, charities and
catechists still meet frequently.
Synods are open to all, not just the church and community
leadership. It is very important for the people to know each other and to
share their experiences and the difficulties and the way to be witnesses in
Cambodia, Destombes said.
He also emphasized that the synods are for sharing, not
instructions. It is very good, because during the synod people speak and
express their feelings and difficulties and their hopes. They help each other
to find the way to be witnesses of the gospel. Formation is at the top of
the churchs priority list.
When I came back, so many people would say to me, We
are Christians, especially the youth, Destombes said. But
when I asked them who is Jesus Christ, they didnt know. They had kept the
faith but really ... well, they didnt know anything about the faith or
about witness. They had good will and wanted to learn.
Ponchauds commitment is to formation. My personal work
is to train leaders. I teach the seminarians. I train many, many catechists --
Cambodian and Vietnamese -- more than 100 in four years.
He also directs the catechetical center where he and a small staff
produce scripture commentaries in Khmer, a wide assortment of catechetical
material including print and video. Because 63 percent of the population is
illiterate, the center employs artists to put formation lessons into picture
format.
The catechists, they are the missionaries more than
me, Ponchaud said, which is why the priest works so hard to get them
materials they can use, most importantly the Bible and commentaries in their
language. Ponchaud himself completed the first Khmer translation of the New
Testament in Paris in the early 1980s.
Six Cambodian men are studying for the priesthood. Four in their
late 20s to early 40s began studies in 1992 and 1993. Destombes said they will
be ordained within the next two years. Two more young men, 28 and 20 years old,
just joined seminary formation.
A small group of women interested in religious life have been
meeting twice a year for encouragement and support. The bishop hopes to begin a
novitiate for women in about two years. The church is small, so we cannot
hope for too many vocations, he said. We are rebuilding from
nothing. We are working slowly.
Despite the focus on small communities and formation, they are not
building an inward-looking church. The whole point of formation, Destombes
said, is to help people take responsibility to know about our mission
inside the country, not only inside the church but also for the society. To
understand that we are not Catholics for our own duty but we are Catholics to
become witnesses for the people.
Ponchaud said, We train them [catechists] to be in touch
with the poorest people.
This is the first condition to be
Christian. Yet, he said, this attitude is very different from the
mainstream of society who only want money. Reflecting on his early years
in the country, Ponchaud said, These are a different people [today].
Before, they were a very kind people. Now it is very rough. So much corruption.
Before, the people were concerned with Buddhist values, for example,
family values. Now nobody is concerned. The U.S. dollar is king.
He told of a mother with nine children and a newborn he was
helping with food and milk. One day he learned the mother had sold her baby for
$50 and her eldest daughter for $300. Before, I never saw such a thing.
This family has lost Cambodian values. There is no love anymore. There is a big
change in the mentality of the people. Now they only want money.
The first mission of the church in Cambodia is reconciliation,
Destombes said. Reconciliation inside the church, too. One change
for the better since 1975, the bishop said, is church relations with Buddhists.
The Catholics are living with the Buddhist people very well. The dialogue
of life is very good now. They had to live together [when] nobody had freedom.
They suffered together, so there was no tension between Buddhists and
Catholics.
Every day, we are thinking about dialogue. We are not here
to convert others. Only God, the spirit of God can convert people. We have to
be witnesses and dialog together. Unity, Destombes said, is the greatest
gift for Cambodia. We need the unity of each other ... We are suffering.
We all have difficulties in life, but we cannot hope for help from the
government or from the rich people. We have to help together to help each other
for a better future.
We have hope because now people are taking responsibility
and want to be witnesses. We have hope the peace will endure. Without hope it
is not possible to live here. We have hope because we have faith in Jesus
Christ and the Holy Spirit present in Cambodia -- not just in the church -- in
Cambodia.
National Catholic Reporter, June 30,
2000
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