Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kompong Cham (Agenzia Fides) - For the past year Cambodian Catholics have been celebrating 450 years since the arrival of the Good News of Jesus Christ in their land. Various anniversary initiatives presenting the history of these 450 years over the past twelve months (see Fides 17 and 28/10/2006). In July some 130 representatives of Cambodia’s three Catholic dioceses Phnom Penh, Kompong Cham and Battambang met to reflect on the significance and role of the Church.
The Jubilee year will close on 3 December with a special Mass presided by the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, and concelebrated by the local Bishops and about sixty priests. About 2,000 Catholics are expected to attend, members of the Cambodian royal family have been invited.
The Mass will be celebrated in the village of Taing Kok, over 100 km from Phnom Penh. This place was highlighted during celebrations for the Great Jubilee of 2000 to recall Cambodian Christians martyred for the faith. It was in Taing Kok that the first Cambodian born Bishop Joseph Salas, ordained in 1975 during a bombing attack shortly before the Red Khmers marched on Phnom Penh, died of privation 1976, under the regime of Pol Pot. A “Land of martyrs, land of hope”, this little village has become a place of pilgrimage. “Unless the grain of wheat dies…”: history shows how the Word of God continues through joys and vicissitude to bear fruit.
The state religion in Cambodia is Buddhism, but the Constitution recognises religious freedom of belief and practice. There have always been good relations between the Catholic community and the government. Catholics are a small minority, 25,000 Catholics in a population of about 14 million. In these 450 years Catholic missionaries, NGOs and later parish communities have served the country in the field of education, healthcare, development of agriculture, promoting the national culture, language and art with profound respect and appreciation. (B.C.) (Agenzia Fides 29/11/2006; righe 26, parole 379)
