ASIA/CAMBODIA - Coadjutor of the Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh: "An important step for the Catholic Church in Cambodia"

Phnom Penh (Agenzia Fides) - In 1975, the young Cambodian priest Joseph Chmar Salas was appointed coadjutor of the Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh by Pope Paul VI. He was the first Cambodian bishop in history. Cambodia and the Cambodian people were experiencing the darkest period in their history at that time: Chmar Salas became one of the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime and died in 1977 in Tangkok, far from his Vicariate. In the 1990s, after this sad period, marked by death and suffering, when religious freedom was reinstated in the country, the Holy See entrusted the local Church to the priests of the Paris Foreign Missions (MEP). The Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh was initially Yves Ramousse (MEP), then Émile Destombes (MEP) (since 2001), and finally, since 2010, the current Vicar, Olivier Schmitthaeusler. On June 28, 2025, fifty years after the appointment of the first Cambodian bishop, history repeated itself: Cambodian priest Pierre Suon Hang Ly was appointed Coadjutor Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh. The current Vicar, Bishop Schmitthaeusler, told Fides: "Leo XIV has given the Church of Cambodia a great gift by appointing a Cambodian as Coadjutor of the Vicariate of Phnom Penh. Priests, religious, and all the communities are full of joy and happiness and warmly welcome Pierre Suon Hang Ly to Phnom Penh." "This is a very important step for the Catholic Church in Cambodia," Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler continued. "I have been asking the Holy See for this for some time. Now the time is ripe." "The appointment of a Cambodian Apostolic Vicar is a sign of the maturity of our local Church and a strong signal to root the small Catholic Church even more deeply in the society, culture, and life of the country," he continues. "As for me, I will continue my service as Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh for some time, flanked by Bishop Ly. Together, as brothers in the episcopate, as successors of the Apostles, we will now be the shepherds of this part of the People of God, serving the Church with love, but also with greater readiness and renewed dynamism to proclaim the Good News in all parts of the Vicariate." "We will be on this journey together with our brother priests, our seminarians, all religious orders, diocesan offices, parishes, Catholic NGOs, and lay missionaries," assures Bishop Schmitthaeusler, who invokes the protection of the Virgin Mary: "We entrust ourselves to Our Lady of the Mekong to guide us in our mission during this Holy Year of Hope. Let us pray for one another in this historic moment for our Catholic Church in Cambodia." And he concludes: "We thank the Lord for the presence of Bishop Ly as Coadjutor of the Vicariate, and we thank him for having accepted this new task of serving the People of God in Phnom Penh with trust and dedication. Bishop Ly already knows the Vicariate of Phnom Penh very well, with its diversity, its dynamism, and its challenges in this new society that is being built". Pierre Suon Hang Ly was born on April 15, 1972, in Pho Thom, the hometown of Bishop Joseph Chmar Salas. He attended the major seminary first in Battambang and then in Phnom Penh. He was ordained a priest on December 9, 2001. From 2002 to 2007, he he carried out pastoral service in Kampot and Takeo, and then studied at the Catholic Institute in Paris until 2015. Upon his return to Phnom Penh, he was appointed parish priest of the new pastoral unit of Thmey and Vicar General. In July 2022, he was appointed Apostolic Prefect of Kompong Cham, a position he has held so far. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 30/5/2025)

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