John Baptist Bun Prak Hong is grateful to God for choosing him to join the 10 Cambodian priests serving the faithful
Cambodia’s first Phnong Catholic priest John Baptist Bun Prak Hong was ordained on June 29. (Photo: Catholic Cambodia)
Hundreds of Cambodian Catholics joined a street rally for about a kilometer with traditional music and peacock dance to express their joy over the ordination of the first Catholic priest from the ethnic Phnong community.
French MEP missionary Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler of Phnom Penh ordained John Baptist Bun Prak Hong, 36, at St. John the Baptist Church in Busra Community in Mondulkiri Province in northeast Cambodia on June 29.
The ceremony fell on the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the bishop urged all Catholics to emulate the model of the two great saints to “let the Spirit lead us to preach the gospel.”
Besides hundreds of Catholics, the ceremony brought together 52 priests serving in one apostolic vicariate and two apostolic prefectures that makeup Cambodian Catholic Church.
Mondulkiri province, about 500 kilometers from the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, is covered by the Apostolic Prefecture of Kampong Cham. The province in the central highlands of Cambodia near the border with Vietnam is home to a majority of an estimated 50,000 Phnong (also known as Bunong) people in the country.
“As a priest, you are called to serve people and sacrifice your life for your people,” Bishop Schmitthaeusler said during the ordination ceremony.
Newly ordained priest Hong said he is grateful to God for choosing him to serve the faithful.
“God has called me and blessed me so I can become a priest to serve God and the community,” Father Hong said.
“God has blessed me through the bishop, with the strength to serve the church in the future.”
Phnong people have their own Austroasiatic language and distinct culture. Most of them are animists and some follow Catholicism and Theravada Buddhism. The Majority of Phnong people are farmers and plantation workers.
The parish church dedicated to St. John the Baptist started in 1996 with 15 Phnong families. Most of them were animists but converted to Catholicism thanks to efforts by MEP missionaries and volunteers.
According to Church sources, majority of the Phnong fled to Vietnam in the 1970s as Cambodia plunged into Civil War. After the genocidal ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown, most of them returned home.
In Vietnam, some Phnong received support from MEP missionaries who provided them with food and shelter. It encouraged them to embrace Catholicism.
Today, the parish has 300 Catholics, mostly farmers and plantation workers. Father Hong is the first priest. Earlier, the parish produced a nun who belongs to Lovers of the Cross, a local Catholic religious order.
Catholicism in Cambodia dates to 1555 thanks to Portuguese Catholic missionaries. Until the civil war, there were about 62,000 Catholics in Cambodia. The church nearly died out due to persecution and expulsion of all foreign missionaries during the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979). All local bishops, clergy and most lay Catholics were tortured and killed.
The church was reborn following the return of missionaries in the 1990s. Today, Cambodian Church has 20,000 Catholics served mostly by foreign missionaries. Over the years, the local church has provided 10 native priests and 10 nuns.
Local vocations are rising slowly, but gradually, church officials say.
During the ordination ceremony, Bishop Schmitthaeusler announced that the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh will soon receive three new deacons from St. John Marie Vianney Major Seminary.
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