Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “We come here as sons of the Church anxious to listen and serve the Church of Rome. Our ad limina visit helps us realise we are not alone. It is most important for us to see that the Pope and his co-workers are concerned about us, about our little Church which is very poor. Nevertheless we are held in high esteem in the universal Church and for us this is very encouraging for our mission in Laos”. This was part of an interview given kindly to Fides by Bishop Jean Khamsé Vithavong, OMI, Apostolic Vicar di Vientiane, at present in Rome with other bishops from Laos and Cambodia on the five yearly ad limina visit.
Bishop Khamsé recalls that the Church in Laos is a young community since the Gospel was first heard here only about 120 years ago “thanks to the first missionaries who came across the border from Thailand, since our two countries have similar languages, ethnic composition and culture. It was French missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society MEP, who opened the first missions in 1885. Then they evangelised to the north and the south and when the first Apostolic Vicariate was created in 1899, there were already 10,000 baptised Catholics. Later in 1935, the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (OMI) arrived in our country”.
The Bishop recalls “the missionaries were an important presence for the people. They learned our language and shared daily life with the people, preaching to them the Good News of the Gospel and helping to form the first small Catholic community”. The process was harshly interrupted in 1975, when Pathet Lao socialists came to power and foreign missionaries were expelled: “We Laotian priests were few and we were alone. Those were difficult times for the Church in Laos. Some of the priests and bishops were imprisoned. After fifteen difficult years the situation improved slightly and the authorities granted us a little more freedom and gradually the situation changed but not very much”.
In this situation of suffering there are small signs of hope such as the recent ordination of a few Catholic priests. Today we have 15 priests to care for 43,400 faithful so a priority for the Church is to intensify pastoral care for vocations to the priesthood: “I should point out that the government does not give entrance permits to teachers from abroad. And the formation which we ourselves are able to give our young men preparing for the priesthood is inadequate from the philosophical and theological point of view. We have opened a Seminary in the diocese of Savannakhet, but the question of adequate teachers is serious. We do what we can and rely on the assistance of religious congregations such as the Oblates Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, or an opportunity to send seminarians to study abroad for a while”.
The Church in Laos also gives special attention to the laity the bishop explains: “We give our lay people special care and gradually they are growing in the faith: today in Laos we have about 250 catechists. In my diocese of Vientiane, we have three Sisters from the Philippines who provide pastoral care fpr married couples, children and adolescents. A group of our young people were at the last World Youth Day and they hope to take part in World Youth Day in Australia in 2008. Our women religious, Daughters of Charity, work hard. We all do our best and this is all we can do as a small Church in Asia. We trust in God, in the help of the Church of Rome and the support of religious congregations”.
Religious men and women spent many years of their lives serving the Church in Laos. Bishop Khamsè recalls two of his OMI confreres who were great examples for the people of Laos: Fr. Mario Borzaga, whose beatification cause has been started, and Archbishop Marcello Zago (former secretary of Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples) : “I met Fr Mario Borzaga when I was very young. He was a good musician and we played together sometimes. He was a person of great tact and transparency. Of Fr Marcello Zago I appreciated his great heart ready for charity and dialogue: I recall the relationship of sharing of life and sincere friendship he established with the Buddhist monks here. Then he was called to Rome to more important duties, but his charisma left its mark on the country”.
Thanks also to the contribution of Christians like these, “the Catholic faith, generally seen as a 'foreign religion', became better known and attitudes towards us have improved. Today we have conversions although we cannot speak too openly of officially it. But the seeds of the faith are gradually taking root”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 7/9/2007 righe 44 parole 437)
