UCANEWS.comSaturday, October 25, 2008
NEAK LOEUNG, Cambodia (UCAN) -- Catholics of Vietnamese descent in a rural parish in southern Cambodia are making every effort to preserve their faith even though they are poor, largely illiterate and face other challenges.
"We received our faith heritage from our ancestors, so we have to preserve it and pass it on to our children," says Pierre Ut The, a parishioner of Holy Family Church in Neak Loeung.
Speaking with UCA News on Oct. 19 in the church yard, the 66-year-old layman, who was born in Cambodia, recalled studying catechism with Vietnamese nuns as a child. Although he can read and write in Vietnamese, he said, his seven children and seven grandchildren are illiterate and have had little catechism.
The, one of about 1,000 Catholics of Vietnamese descent who live around the church in this village 60 kilometers southeast of Phnom Penh, makes his living by fishing. He said he prays for his family members every day, teaches them prayers and is trying to find Vietnamese prayer books for them.
Le Van Paul, the parish's only Vietnamese catechist, told UCA News the local Catholic families mostly originated in Vietnam's Dong Thap province, which borders Cambodia. They settled in Neak Loeung in the early 1980s, after Vietnamese troops forced Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge government from power.
Paul, 62, who was also born in Cambodia, had to flee to Vietnam in 1970, when the military government led by Lon Nol expelled all ethnic Vietnamese from the country. He returned to Cambodia with his family in 1982.
The father of nine recalled that at first local Catholics gathered at homes on Sundays to pray. Later, a Maryknoll missioner started providing pastoral care for them and they erected a thatched chapel. In 1991, they built the present church. Then in 2000, Colombian Father Omer Giraldo started to serve the parish.
According to Paul, a Khmer catechist now teaches catechism to the Vietnamese children, who understand a little Khmer, and also to 20 adult catechumens after Sunday Mass. Last July, 70 people made their First Communion.
However, many local people are not baptized because they have to move from place to place looking for work, he added. They work as carpenters and bricklayers, do fishing or run small businesses, earning the equivalent of about US$3-5 a day.
With such low earnings, it is hard for the villagers to contribute monetarily to the Church. Parish council head Pierre Ba Be said he asks for donations from benefactors in Vietnam. Through their contributions, he was able to cement the church's floor, and plant bonsai and flowers in the yard.
According to Be, 70, Mass is celebrated every Sunday morning at the church, and people who have to work at that time can attend prayers at the church on Sunday afternoon instead. The father of eight also leads daily prayers for children at the church.
Despite the people's struggle to make ends meet, Be is not worried. "If we live a good faith life," he said, "God will give us good health and enough food."
Jean Baptiste Truong Van Minh, a street barber and parish council member, elaborated on some of the challenges his people face.
Because the Vietnamese are not allowed to own land, they have to rent land from local Khmer to build their houses on, he said, adding that the rent amounts to US$20-50 a year.
The Vietnamese are not given Cambodian citizenship and their children do not have birth certificates. Many children do not speak Khmer and cannot study at state-run schools, said Minh, who has four children. The parish now has a Khmer teacher who teaches the language to 50 children.
Father Giraldo, based in Phnom Penh, told UCA News he visits the parish every weekend to celebrate Mass, hear confessions, administer sacraments and meet teachers of two kindergartens and the Catholic Study Center the parish runs.
The priest, a member of the Colombia-based Yarumal foreign mission society, explained the Church in Cambodia wants Vietnamese communities to be integrated into the national culture and its policy is to celebrate Mass in Khmer. He noted that of the country's 20,000 Catholics, about 16,000 are of Vietnamese descent.
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