Cambodia: Catholic chapel being built in nature reserve

Blessing the cornerstone

Source: Fides

A Catholic chapel is being built in the Keo Seima nature reserve in eastern Cambodia, for the indigenous Bunong people who live there. The Bunong are traditionally animists. They practice subsistence farming in small forest villages. they believe that nature is populated by good and evil spirits and also practice ancestor worship. Several families have now become Catholic.

Mgr Pierre Hangly Suon, Apostolic Prefect of Kampong Cham, presided over the Mass and ceremony laying the foundation stone in Keo Seima on 1 February, in front of an assembly of priests and nuns, as well as about 150 Catholic believers from various communities in the Mondulkiri region. He explained that the construction of a church in this 'natural paradise' was a response to the growing number of believers in the area (70 Catholics and 15 catechists) and that it could now continue to grow according to God's plan.

This church will be "a centre for the proclamation of the Gospel, a point of light and evangelization to proclaim the love of God to all the people in the area." he said. "This small church, but above all the church made up of people, should be a light of God's grace to those around us, so that they may know Christ and be saved by him," the bishop said.

Father Jean Marie Vianney Borei Phan, priest in charge of the parishes in Mondulkiri, recounted the beginnings of the Bunong Catholic community in Keo Seima. He described how in 2009, some local people had traveled to Vietnam, where they met a Catholic community and saw how people living the faith help the sick and poor. At the end of December 2009, two Bunong families from Keo Seima converted to Catholicism and in 2010 they met the priest in charge of Mondulkiri Province.

The provincial government has now given permission to build a church. The Apostolic Prefect Suon laid two stones in the ceremony: the first came from the village of Gati, where the proclamation of faith began in Mondulkiri; the second was from the parish of Nak Loeung in Banam, in Kampong Cham Prefecture, one of the oldest parishes in the country, founded 160 years ago.

The building is expected to take almost a year to complete and locals have agreed to work on it.