Father Robert Venet, a Catholic French Missionary who loved Cambodia and the Cambodian People

Father Robert Venet

Fr. Venet Robert, MEP, pass away

Published on Saturday, 19 January 2013
Source: http://www.catholiccambodia.org/home/en/english/145-news-eng/506-fr-venet-robert,-mep,-pass-away.html

“When I arrived I was requested to study Vietnamese language, however, I refused because of the Vietnamese executions of Khmer people. I believed with was my duty to learn the Khmer language and be closer to the Khmer than to the Vietnamese, since we were living in Cambodia”

Fr. Robert Venet, 96 year – old was pass away on January 18, 2013, is a French Missionary who belongs to the Paris Mission Society (MEP, French acronym). He has been as a missionary in Cambodia for 60 years, with the exception of the years after the Pol Pot regime when all foreigners were expelled from the country. Father Venet arrived in Cambodia in the last decade of the French colonial period -1945-, at the end of the World War II.

Being ordained as a Catholic priest in 1944 in Versailles, he was sent to Cambodia by the MEP the following year after completing some ecclesiastical studies. In dialogue with CSC reporters in April 2005, father Venet openly spoke about his first years in Cambodia, struggling to learn the Khmer language. “My superiors decided to send me to Cambodia, it was not my decision. However I accepted with joy”, said father Robert. From 1945 to 1948 he studied the Khmer language. “When I arrived I was requested to study Vietnamese language, however, I refused because of the Vietnamese executions of Khmer people. I believed with was my duty to learn the Khmer language and be closer to the Khmer than to the Vietnamese, since we were living in Cambodia”. Father Venet explained also that in those years it was the custom in the Church to oblige the few Khmer Catholics to learn the Vietnamese language. “According to my personal point of view it was not a good policy.

Due to Father Robert’s refusal to learn the Vietnamese language he was sent to the region of Kompong Kor in Kompong Thom province in 1948. From 1948 to 1975 father Venet worked very hard as a missionary, converting this town and in a prosperous Catholic Community, with nearly 1,000 Catholics. During those years Father Venet dedicated himself to study the Khmer culture and civilization and to develop agricultural projects in order to generate better income to the villagers and to enhance the living standard of people. Two leading agricultural projects were the construction of reservoirs of water and the provision of plugging machines. Another important social program was the improvement of housing for people and the provision of food to the poorest.

Concerning the Evangelization work in those years, father Venet founded several Churches in the region with Kompong Kor as the mission center, Preik Sbao and at the old market in the city of Kompong Thom.

Unfortunately, the civil are arrived in Cambodia at the early 70’s as a consequence of the Vietnamese war. With the arrival of Pol Pot’s guerrillas to Phnom Penh Father Robert was obliged to leave Komong Kor. After arriving with great difficulties to the capital he was then deported with all his missionary companions. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge father Venet came to live at the refugee camps along the Cambodian-Thailand border for several years. After the famous “Peace Accords” of October 1991 in Paris the civil war was officially over, with the participation of the by United Nations. Fr. Venet decided to enter back in Cambodia in 1992. After a time of adjustment the bishop required him to rebuild the Church in Sihanoukville, southwest of Cambodia, Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh. Year after year his main mission was to gather the old Christians and with them to witness the Christian faith to other Khmer people. Father Venet also founded the Church in Koh Kong a Cambodian isle close by Thailand border, 4 hours by boat from Sihanoukville. At the present moment there are 5 flourishing Catholic communities in the area. After retiring in the year 2002 father Robert Venet went to live at the MEP house in the city of Phnom Penh, serving the Church with silence and prayer. The Church in Cambodia pays tribute to him for his courage in serving the Cambodians during so long years. He went back to French in May 2009.