First Catholic secondary school opened in Cambodia

13/3/2010

Educational institutions and vocational schools are instruments through which the Catholic community in Cambodia contributes effectively to social growth and cultural development of young Cambodians, making their contribution to building a just, open, and free society characterized by respect for the dignity of the person and fundamental human rights.

Takeo (Agenzia Fides) – The new St. Paul Higher Learning Institute was recently inaugurated in Takeo, 70 km south of Phnom Penh, to train young people in agricultural sciences and informatics. This is the first institute of higher education opened and managed completely by the Catholic Church in Cambodia. As the local church tells Fides, the solemn inauguration ceremony was attended by senior authorities of the Cambodian Government, including the Vice-Prime Minister, representatives from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Agriculture, and the Apostolic Nuncio in Cambodia, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio.

The institute was founded and built by the Catholic Church in Cambodia, thanks to the efforts of Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler MEP, new Coadjutor Bishop of Phnom Penh, with the specific aim to promote growth and social advancement of rural youth, who do not have the financial ability to relocate to study in the capital Phnom Penh.

The Apostolic Nuncio expressed great appreciation for the work accomplished, thanking the members of the local Church and the Cambodian authorities for their cooperation. The Higher Learning Institute will offer training in agronomy and information technology, acting in partnership with the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh and the Ngee An Technological Institute of Singapore, as well as other specialized institutions.

The school accepts 190 students currently, has 24 classrooms, a large library, and a computer room equipped with 100 personal computers and wireless Internet.

"St. Paul Higher Learning Institute - a source of the local church told Fides - will offer young people a place of education, from the intellectual, human and spiritual standpoint."

Within the Institute, there is also a small chapel, a place of meditation, prayer, and encounter with God. The chapel was consecrated and inaugurated with a Mass presided by Archbishop Pennacchio.

The Cambodian Ministry of Education thanked the Church for her efforts in training the younger generations.

Educational institutions and vocational schools are instruments through which the Catholic community in Cambodia contributes effectively to social growth and cultural development of young Cambodians, making their contribution to building a just, open, and free society characterized by respect for the dignity of the person and fundamental human rights. This is the vision that inspires commitment to education and training of various religious congregations in Cambodia. That commitment, which is expressed in the creation of new institutions across the country distinguished by expertise in education, is appreciated by the population (a largely Buddhist majority), which is now turning to Catholic schools with a greater frequency.

CAMBODIA: Nun is 1st local Salesian to take vows

Sister Mary Tang Sovathanak takes her first vows -- Photo by Ly Sovanna
Sister Sovathanak is the first Cambodian nun of the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco -- Photo by Ly Sovanna

August 10, 2009

PHNOM PENH (UCAN) -- The Salesian nuns in Cambodia have cause to celebrate. For the first time since the congregation started here 16 years ago, a local member of their congregation made her first vows.

Wearing a white habit and with her head covered, Sister Mary Tang Sovathanak, 29, described the occasion as "a special day" since she is now a "bride of Christ."

"I don't have anything to give him back," she said, "only my life to him."

More than 150 people attended the special Mass, concelebrated by the heads of the three Church jurisdictions in Cambodia, to mark the occasion on Aug. 5.

Monsignor Antonysamy Susairaj, apostolic prefect of Kompong Cham, where Sister Sovathanak comes from, presided at the Mass, held at the Don Bosco Vocational Training Center for girls at Tek Thla, Phnom Penh.

Sister Sarah Garcia, superior of the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco in Cambodia said she is overjoyed at the occasion. "My prayer is that she will be able to live out her journey faithfully," she said.

All the other 20 Salesian nuns in Cambodia are foreigners.

Bishop Susairaj, in his homily, said he is aware that Sister Sovathanak's parents may not be entirely happy with her decision. However, he reminded everyone that being a nun does not mean leaving one's family.

Moreover, the bishop asserted that Sister Sovathanak, in responding to God's call, "will help many young people who need education" through her ministry.

The bishop also pointed out that Sister Sovathanak's mother was one of the first Catholics in Kompong Cham when the Church revived here in the 1990s after decades of civil war and religious persecution.

Sister Sovathanak studied at the Don Bosco Vocational Training Center for girls, run by the Salesian congregation, and graduated in 2003 in secretarial and computer studies. It was while studying at the center that she first decided to become a Salesian nun.

"I was attracted to the simple life of the nuns. They are always smiling and putting their lives in God's hands, even though they encounter problems." Moreover, she said, "holiness does not come from just impressive deeds, but also from small acts carried out with love."

Sister Sovathanak is the oldest in her family of four children. Her father, a Buddhist, is director of a primary school, and her mother, a Catholic, is a vendor at the local market.

Speaking after the ceremony, Sister Sovathanak's father, Tang Phirom, 51, admitted he had wanted his daughter to marry and have children, but now accepts his daughter's decision.

The Salesian Sisters in Cambodia run a secretarial and computer program, a food and home management program, and a literacy and sewing program for girls in Phnom Penh and Battambang. They also run two kindergartens, one primary school, and a hostel for 20 high school girls in Phnom Penh.

Out of a total of about 100 nuns in Cambodia, only seven are Cambodians.

Young Catholics learn of Khmer Rouge horror

May 28 2009
UCAN

PHNOM PENH : "Year Zero" is a blank for most Cambodians. For those born after the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 reign of terror, there are few visible signs of the period when communist leader Pol Pot tried to forcibly return the country to a pre-industrial age.

It was with this in mind that the Catholic Social Communications office in Phnom Penh decided to hold a workshop on May 23 for young Catholics to learn more about their country's painful past.

The office is also planning to take small groups of youths to the ongoing trial of Khmer Rouge cadre charged with involvement in what many have called genocide, including the trial of Tuol Sleng prison guard Kang Kek Iew, also known as Duch.

"It was a shocking period in Cambodia's history that I still find hard to come to terms with," said Oem Sokhorn, 23, during a discussion session.

"My parents said they did not have enough food then but were forced to do hard labor," said the undergraduate. "I was even more shocked when they said my grandfather was killed in front of them. I have tried to imagine what it was like to suffer during that period."

Sokhorn also said her parents told her of boys who were taught by Khmer Rouge soldiers to kill others, even their own parents.

Yim Sotheary, 26, a senior staff worker at the Center for Social Development, an NGO, said some social issues, such as domestic violence and drunkenness, could be a result of the mental suffering experienced by people under the Khmer Rouge.

"Based on my own experience, I think that the Khmer Rouge's atrocious behavior could have contributed at least in part to these social problems," she said.

Some children thought that their parents were uneducated or bad people because they were violent at home, or they drank, but sometimes this is not true, Sotheary said. Sometimes the root cause of such behavior lies in the dark days of the past, she said.

Children should learn about what their parents had gone through, she added.

During the workshop, people in their 50s and 60s also shared what life was like under the rule of Angkor, as the regime referred to itself.

Mary, a 23-year-old undergraduate, said the workshop gave her a better understanding about what life was like then.

"My parents talk so little about what happened then," she shared. "I rarely ask them about their life at that time, because they would cry. But this workshop provided me with more answers."

Ly Sovanna, director of the Catholic Social Communications office, said the main aim of the workshop was to help the younger generation have a better idea of the brutality that people endured under Pol Pot.

While young people can learn a certain amount from books, this workshop is a good opportunity for them to learn about the period from others, he said.

During its brutal reign, the Khmer Rouge outlawed all religions. Religious believers, including Catholics, were either executed or deported. Many churches were destroyed.

In 1977, Khmer Bishop Joseph Chhmar Salas, former apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, died in a labor camp in Kampong Thom, a northwestern province.

Catholics remember Khmer Rouge victims amid war-crimes trial

Bishop Emile Destombes, apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, blesses what used to be the bed of the late Bishop Joseph Chhmar Salas
You Prakort, younger sister of Bishop Joseph Chhmar Salas, tells the story of her brother’s death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge at a memorial service on May 7 at Taing Kauk Parish. Behind her is a picture of her brother

May 14, 2009

KOMPONG THOM, Cambodia (UCAN) -- As the U.N.-backed trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders continues in the capital, Catholics gathered to remember a bishop, priests and laypeople killed by the brutal regime about 30 years ago.

About 40 people from across Cambodia came together on May 7 for a special Mass at Taing Kauk, 100 kilometers north of Phnom Penh, a place Cambodian Catholics call Memorial Place or Land of Hope. Here they prayed on a day specially dedicated to remembering all the Catholics who died during the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror which ended in 1979.

Bishop Emile Destombes, apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, said in his homily that they were there to remember Khmer Bishop Joseph Chhmar Salas, former apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, and all the priests, brothers and sisters who died during the religious persecution then.

Bishop Destombes gave thanks to God for their missionary work, which laid the foundations of the Catholic Church in Cambodia. "We have to continue this mission," to be "witnesses of Jesus" in Cambodia, he said.

Om Lan, 63, a Catholic living in Taing Kauk, told UCA News he was very proud of Bishop Salas. "Because of him we have a Catholic community here," he said.

According to Father Gnet Viney, a Khmer priest, the local Church chose this place as a memorial site as it is closely connected with the lives of Bishop Salas and some priests. They were forced to leave Phnom Penh Khmer when Khmer Rouge soldiers marched into the city on April 17, 1975, and eventually came to the Taing Kauk area.

According to You Prakort, a younger sister of Bishop Salas who also attended the memorial, the new arrivals in the area faced immediate discrimination by the local people. She said the Khmer Rouge forced her brother and his priests into hard labor by working in the fields. Bishop Salas later died from a combination of exhaustion and malnutrition, she said.

The prelate reportedly died in Taing Kauk in September 1977 at the age of 39.

In the Land of Hope compound, the church has erected a cross dedicated to Bishop Salas and reconstructed the hut where he and his priests used to live and celebrate Mass, said Father Viney.

Thirty years after the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror, alleged surviving leaders of the regime are now being tried for crimes against humanity by a joint U.N. Cambodian government court.In his Easter message, Monsignor Enrique Figaredo, apostolic prefect of Battambang prefecture, said the trial will conclude an era in Cambodian history. "Any justice from the trials may not impact much on peoples' lives now, but at least we will be able to look toward the future with some healing of past hurts and injustices," he said.

"We can hope that those who act with impunity now, will be brought to justice," he added.

Cambodian Christians recall slavery

A small Catholic community survived a genocidal onslaught by the communist Khymer Rouge. Christian Cambodians recall priest of the 1880s who bought their freedom from slavery.

Sunday, August 19, 2007
Spero News

People of various ethnic backgrounds, united by their status as former slaves and their desire to follow the one who freed them, provided the foundation of one of the country's oldest existing Catholic communities.

Established about 125 years ago, Kdol Leu, about 150 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh, survived the civil war from the 1960s and the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge. The radical communist group suppressed religion and is generally regarded as having killed or caused the death of almost one in four Cambodians.

Today the faith life of the community has revived.

Paris Foreign Missions (MEP) Father Francois Ponchaud, director of the Catholic Cultural Center in Phnom Penh, recently spoke to UCA News about the history of this community.

It all began in 1881, when MEP Father Lazard came to the region of Krouch Chma, near today's Kdol Leu, to buy wood to build a church. To the priest's surprise, he found many slaves being used by businessmen from Malaya (now Malaysia) to cut down trees. Father Lazard then wrote to the head of the Church in Phnom Penh, informing him about his decision to buy the slaves rather than wood to build a church.

By 1889 the priest had bought all the slaves and freed them, according to Father Ponchaud. His book The Cathedral of the Rice Paddy traces the history of the Church in Cambodia. "Father Lazard was profoundly shaken by this slave trade, which persisted despite the French presence," Father Ponchaud said.

"While some of the former slaves decided to go to different places to look for new jobs, others followed Father Lazard, and he started the Catholic community of Kdol Leu in 1889," explained the missioner, who ministered to the Kdol Leu community 1968-69.

He said Father Lazard wrote in one of his letters that the Kdol Leu community was made up of people from at least seven ethnic groups -- Cham, Inan, Kha, Khmer, Lao, Rhade and Stieng. "They speak their own languages but recite prayers in Khmer."

This Catholic community lived peacefully until the time of the civil war and Khmer Rouge. In February 1972, MEP Father Pierre Rapin, then serving as parish priest of Kdol Leu, was killed. Some days later a bomb attack destroyed the church. During the Khmer Rouge time, the community dispersed.

It wasn't until 1992 that Father Ponchaud went back to Kdol Leu to minister to Catholics who had returned to their village. The priest helped the people rebuild their church and re-establish their faith community.

According to Father Ivan Campana, current parish priest of Kdol Leu, the Catholics during the Khmer Rouge rule kept their faith by praying every day and teaching their children to pray. "Their relationship with God was the only hope they had during that hopeless period," the Ecuadorian missioner of the Colombia-based Yarumal Institute for Foreign Missions told UCA News.

Kdol Leu village today has 20 Catholic families. About 10 other villagers are catechumens. The villagers are mostly farmers.

Pastoral activities include monthly workshops for catechists, Father Campana said. "Every week a group of Catholics, especially young people, come together to hear a weekly radio program called Emmanuel, which features a Sunday Gospel reading and explanation," he continued. The Catholic communications center in Phnom Penh produces the program.

"I have witnessed the strong faith of the Catholics of this village," Father Campana said.

Thy Pich, 28, the village barber, told UCA News he was baptized only in 2005 because of the lack of priests. "But I had learned a lot about Christianity from my mother since I was a child," he said. He now teaches catechism to children and adults.

Former catechist Srey Aem, who makes a living by sewing, recalled, "Although we are very poor and my parents never went to school, they taught me to share love with our neighbors." Aem, 27, is also receiving training to become a kindergarten teacher. "Some people's criticism of my Christian faith," she said, "has made me love Jesus more and not be afraid of sharing my faith with my neighbors."

Sisters launch apostolate to serve 'beer girls'

7/25/2007
Union of Catholic Asian News

SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (UCAN) – Some young church workers regularly visit a string of bars and clubs in a tourist town on Cambodia's southern coast.

The workers, like the many foreign tourists who stream to the unspoiled local beaches, are attracted to the many "beer girls," young women working in the 20 or so small clubs in Sihanoukville, about 185 kilometers (about 115 miles) southwest of Phnom Penh.

"We regularly visit the girls who sell beer at the clubs and encourage them to attend our education program," Kakda, a member of the Volunteers of the Good Shepherd Sisters, told UCA News. The volunteers give lessons on English and beauty care, she said, so that the beer girls can have a better future.

Kakda, 20, was speaking just before starting her English lesson inside a club amid the sound of romantic music mixed with that of rain hitting the roof. She said working with the beer girls is not easy because the bar owners make them work long hours and "are afraid we will take the girls away."

Sitting nearby is 19-year-old Roath, another volunteer. "I face a lot of difficulties doing this, but I am convinced it is important for these girls to look for something different in their lives, a more dignified career and a better way of living," she told UCA News.

The beer girls are looked down upon in local society, Roath said. "I am a Khmer girl like them, and I want to share with them my skills and knowledge."

Good Shepherd Sister Michele Lopez, an Indonesian who heads her congregation in Sihanoukville, told UCA News she began the project with another sister at the beginning of this year. However, the other nun "went back to her country," she said, "so I continued with a group of six Khmer volunteers."

"This job is not hard," Sister Lopez remarked. "It is part of the charisma of our religious congregation." She added that she stresses to the volunteers it is important for the beer girls to recognize the dignity of human work and to have an opportunity for a better future. The nun speaks only limited Khmer, so she prefers to let the volunteers without her go to the clubs.

Samnag, 20, is one of the beer girls who told UCA News about themselves. She has been a beer girl for two years and she said she thanks the volunteers for their lessons because that helps her communicate well with foreign guests.

Asked about her ambitions, she responded softly, "I would like very much to run my own business, a beauty shop or a small store at the market. I work here because I could not find any other job. However, I would rather do something else."

Sophal, another beer girl, has another view. "I do not have enough time to study English with the Good Shepherd Sisters' group because I work at night and I have to sleep during the day," she explained.

Even so, the 30-year-old woman from Kompong Chhnang province, just north of Phnom Penh, realizes she cannot work here for long. "I am getting older," she admitted, "and I also want to open a business from my house."

Srey Nang, 23, has a different story. She said she used to work in rubber plantations in her hometown in Kompong Cham, northeast of Phnom Penh, but prefers to work as a beer girl, even if the pay is about the same.

"I cannot go back home because I feel very shy with friends and neighbors," she said. Back home, she explained, a man used to rape her and she became pregnant. "After I delivered, I left the baby with my mother and ran away."

Nonetheless, Nang does want to return home eventually. "I am trying to save money to go back and start my own business," she said.

Sister Lopez pointed out that the Good Shepherd nuns also run a center for marginalized women and children in the town. "For that program, we spend about $1,000 (USD) a month, with the support of donors from Thailand," she said.

The ‘Karaoke Church’ on the river

Above, the floating church, also known as the Karaoke Church, can be seen on Siem Reap River and it caters to about 70 people in the river village community.

Saturday, April 7th, 2007
By Sia Cheong Yew
Singapore Catholic News

A group of Singaporeans holidaying in Cambodia were delighted when they came across a floating church. It was once a karaoke lounge.

IT WAS A sight that was totally unexpected – and a pleasant surprise – for a group of Singapore Catholics holidaying in Cambodia recently. The group of four couples, including myself and my wife, were taking a leisurely boat ride down the Siem Reap River to have a look at the floating village when one of them spotted a wooden cross on top of a wooden structure from afar.

As the boat drew nearer, they discovered to some excitement that the wooden structure was that of a Catholic church. So happy were the holidaymakers to see such an unusual sight that they asked their guide to make an unscheduled stop so that they could have a look inside. With a bit of rocking and rolling, the group of not-so-young tourists managed to climb on to the church where they met the caretaker, said a little prayer, took some pictures and made a little donation.

We found out that the church is also known as Karaoke Church because it was a karaoke parlour before the Jesuits bought it to serve the small number of Catholics in the village. Upon our return back to Singapore, I wrote to Jesuit Father Heri Bratasudarma, the parish priest, as I wanted to know more about this fascinating church.

Below, an altar within the floating church bears witness to how the space has been converted from karaoke singing to worshipping the Lord.

He told me that he was originally from Yogyakarta in Central Java, Indonesia, and went to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in August 2000. After some months of studying the Khmer language, he was sent to Siem Reap, which is now his parish and part of the Diocese of Battambang where the bishop is a Jesuit.

It has many floating villages and three of them have Catholic communities. The one we visited is known as Chong Khnieh, which is nearest to Siem Reap. When Father Heri first arrived in Siem Reap, there were about 20 people attending Mass on Sunday. Gradually, the number increased.

“The newcomers were old Catholics who did not know that there was a resident priest and a Catholic community,” Father Heri said. “Thanks to the Missionaries of Charity Sisters, the Sisters of Mother Teresa who went around visiting the poor in their habits. Their presence is like an advertisement of the presence of the Catholic church in Siem Reap.”

It was only a year after his arrival in Siem Reap that Father Heri learnt about the presence of some Catholics in the floating village of Chong Khnieh. He said, “There were about seven families comprising about 70 people. But in each family, there was only one who had been baptized.

“When I asked them, they told me that it was for the first time that they had seen a priest in 26 years. That was why they could not join any catechism classes, no Catholic education for their children, no sacramental services for them etc…”

After discussing with the bishop, they decided to buy over the floating karaoke parlour and turned it into a centre of activities for the Catholic community. These include prayer sessions, Masses, Catechism, English and Khmer lessons for Vietnamese children and a day in a week when they feed rice soup to the poor.

the Cambodian language, as they were Vietnamese who had settled there for many years. Hence the priority placed on language and literacy classes to help them integrate into Cambodian society.

Because the government now recognizes the church’s literacy classes, children who graduate from the two-year course can join the government school in Grade Three. “This gives me satisfaction,” Father Heri said, “because, before, Cambodian children always looked down upon Vietnamese children. Now they respect them because some of the Vietnamese children have become the best students in their classes.

“Before, we could not have Mass in Khmer language in the floating church because they could not speak the language. Now we can and they can follow. They are active in singing and responding during the Mass.”

Another big hurdle facing the church there is poverty. Because the people are poor, joining the Catholic community is not their priority. So, the attendance at Mass varies. As do the Khmer and English classes.

“Sometimes, we have many people joining our activities, some other time only a few,” Father Heri said. “The children are all busy helping their parents who go out fishing. As for the parents, education is not the first priority. “We have been serving them for more than five years, but the number of baptisms is very low.”

What is heartening for Father Heri, however, is that “we have many guests coming to help us”. Their donations can sometimes amount to about US$60 a month. The money goes towards paying the teachers and for the rice soup.

“You know, for the rice soup, we need about US$20 to feed about 120 children for each session. Now we do this only once a week. When it is needed and we have money, we can give them twice a week,” said Father Heri. He was convalescing in Bangkok after an operation when he replied to my email.