"Floating parish" in Ton Le Sap Lake, Cambodia
The church was set up in a village of fishermen, who all live in floating houses. Every Sunday, a Vietnamese priest celebrates Mass in Cambodian and they are often visited by western missionaries. But the problem of language remains.
Ho Chi Minh City (Asianews) The "floating parish" of Ton Le Sap lake in Cambodia has steadfast worshippers but a lack of Cambodian-speaking priests. A Vietnamese priest goes to Chuork Trou, 140km north-east of Phnom Penh, to celebrate Mass for 250 Vietnamese people who live close by the floating church. It is a poor, needy area, where people face floods two months a year. All live in floating homes and survive by eating fish.
An old man of the parish told Asianews: "Every Sunday a Vietnamese father comes here to say mass in Cambodian. Some time western missionaries come to say mass and to organize activities for people here. So, we do not feel alone, because missionaries come here frequently and encourage us."
A young man underlined the problems facing the people there: "We just doing fishing, earning little. We have no teachers able to teach our children Vietnamese, so they can only speak Cambodian."
Christianity came to Cambodia in 1660. In 1972, there were around 20,000 Christians, mostly Catholics. Before the repatriation of the Vietnamese in 1970 and 1971, possibly as many as 62,000 Christians lived in Cambodia.
According to statistics, in 1953, members of the Roman Catholic Church in Cambodia numbered 120,000. In April 1970, just before repatriation, estimates indicate that about 50,000 Catholics were Vietnamese.
Many of the Catholics remaining in Cambodia in 1972 were Europeans - chiefly French. In 1953, an American Unitarian mission maintained a teacher-training school in Phnom Penh, and Baptist missions functioned in Battambang and Siemreab provinces. A Christian and Missionary Alliance mission was founded in Cambodia in 1923; by 1962 the mission had converted about 2,000 people.
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19/08/2021 15:08
16/06/2008
