On the 50th anniversary of when the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia and left close to 2 million people dead, the Catholic Church there, still a fledgling minority, is making strides, according to religious missionaries who have spent significant years of service in the southeast Asian country.
Over half of the country’s Catholics — including almost all of its priests that did not evacuate from Cambodia prior to tragic events — perished along with Buddhists, Muslims and other ethnic minorities under the Khmer Rouge’s all-agrarian vision that drove the nation’s urban population to the countryside. The regime placed them along with moderates, resisters and dissident communists in concentration camps and forced farm labor, where they died by starvation, fatigue and execution. The genocide started April 17, 1975.
French historian Henri Locard estimated, after demographer Marek Sliwinski, that in 1975 when the genocide began there were about 100,000 Catholics, mostly of Vietnamese origin, in the country.
While some fled, “the highest rate of extermination” — 49 percent — “was of the Catholics,” he told UCA News April 7.
Today, in this predominantly Buddhist nation, only about 0.2 percent of the total population is Catholic.
Bishop Enrique Figaredo Alvargonzález, prefect of Battambang province on Cambodia’s western edge, first went to Cambodian refugee camps along Thailand’s southeast border in 1988. The Jesuit said that was nine years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, which left an internal conflict of four factions including the Vietnamese Communist regime that ousted the notorious leader Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge.
“My mission was to work for reconciliation with all factions and at that time also we were already working to eliminate the landmines and we were very, very clear that the war had to be finished, to stop violence and one way of stop violence is no more weapons and no more landmines,” Bishop Figaredo, 65, told OSV News.
The prefect said he helped more than 20 landmine accident victims per day in those early years, describing the logistical difficulties of providing emergency services. Today, he said the church helps victims of landmines and leftover ordnance every five days.
In 1990, missionaries started to trickle back into Cambodia, even under conflict and political strife, and the Vatican established diplomatic relations with the country in 1994. But they were allowed in only as nongovernmental organization workers. The bishop, originally from northwest Spain, said even St. Mother Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity, had to register with the government as an NGO to enter. Bishop Figaredo said stability came only after Pol Pot’s death in 1998.
The bishop said today Cambodia has a young population with half its 17 million people born after decades of conflict.
“But they have the scars of the war. Like the lack of communication, the lack of trust, the mentality of (those) who have been survivors. It’s still there. So the community is very healing. Talking, sharing … and also to look for the common good is very healing. So we are there,” said Bishop Figaredo.
He said accompaniment is a big part of the church’s ministry to the local population.
Bishop Figaredo said Buddhists, of the majority religion, are “so open” to the faith and they regularly receive blessings. The head of Caritas Cambodia said some of his staff, from working for the church and learning Catholic social teaching, have converted.
Father Kevin Conroy of the Diocese of Cleveland is based in Phnom Penh, the capital. He said when he arrived in Cambodia in 2005, he was the only PhD in clinical mental health in the country. Father Conroy said he established the masters program in clinical psychology and trauma therapy at the Royal University of Phnom Penh in the country whose people suffered the mental ravages of conflict.
He told OSV News, “The genocide destroyed systems. There were only about 370 people in 1979 who had a high school education in the country. That’s not many people, and so your health system is connected to your education system, and so it was pretty much destroyed. I mean, non-existent … for health.”
Father Conroy has a project that ministers to the mentally ill, whose impoverished families chain their loved ones in place so they do not harm themselves or others. His team removes the chains, visits, counsels and provides other help for them.
Father Conroy also celebrates Masses for a Catholic population that he said is growing, but is still “a very young church.” He said he used to go to 14 villages but now other priests, including a handful of locals cover those.
Paris Foreign Missions Society Father Will Conquer has been in Cambodia for five years. Father Conquer, 35, said in the 97 percent Buddhist country he is noticing “small, small” growth in the church. He remarked that every province is holding Easter Masses this year. But he noted, in his parish at a popular beach destination on the southern coast, he can have up to 500 foreign nationals attending Mass, while in a smaller village there can be just 10 locals present.
He said, “It’s a beautiful time to be here, but we need to be honest. It’s difficult because we are struggling to reach these people with the heart of the good news. It’s easy to give a rice bag. It’s much more difficult to give faith … And so how do you share the faith? That’s what we’re discerning.”
Father Conquer said sharing the faith is challenging in a country where Buddhism is essentially the state religion and the weak education system means some villagers in his smaller far-flung, rural churches cannot read.
According to several clergy OSV News talked with, the church in Cambodia is heavily involved in inter-religious dialogue and partnerships with the Buddhists. At the same time, Bishop Figaredo said the church is a welcome guest of the government, helping to strengthen the public schools with its emphasis on participation, discipline and human dignity. Also, he said the focus now is on building up church lay leadership and forming strong catechists among converts.
Maryknoll Sister Maria Leonor Montiel entered Cambodia in 1997, helping AIDS patients when it was the worst-hit AIDS epidemic country in Asia. She returned to Maryknoll headquarters in Ossining, New York in 2019. Sister Montiel said her ministry mostly involved helping to empower the poor to speak up and seek social services.
“What the Khmer Rouge did was try to erase the soul, the culture, education,” she said. “And literally they said, ‘Year zero, we restart everything.’ How does one rebuild from that, or recover or reconcile? We haven’t found that answer. In the 20 years I was there, I don’t think the Cambodians found it. I don’t think I found it, I’m still learning … We’re still on the journey. (But) the Christian faith is a hopeful faith. There’s Easter.”
Bishop Figaredo said in Battambang Prefecture, 140 adults and about 200 from Phnom Penh Apostolic Vicariate will be baptized this Easter.
Cambodia officially recognized the presence of Christians in the country on April 7, 1990. Seven days later, Mass was celebrated for the first time in 15 years. That celebration of the Easter Vigil is remembered as the sign of the church’s rebirth in Cambodia, the Aid to the Church in Need pontifical charity said. Back then, Bishop Figaredo estimated, Cambodia had several thousand Catholics, and while today the official number stands at 20,000, the prelate told OSV News that the number may be double that.
The country will also have its first cathedral in 50 years, set for completion in the Phnom Penh area this coming July. Made up of a mixture of traditional southeast Asian and western design, the church, which seats 700, is scheduled for consecration in November.
