The Koh Roka village looks like so many others in Cambodia. It is located near the Mekong River, eight kilometers south of Kompong Cham, in the apostolic prefecture of the same name. It has 130 families with more than 700 inhabitants. Their income comes mainly from gardening for the market (cabbage, tobacco, sweet potatoes, manioc, beans, bitter cucumber, sesame, etc.) and rice farming. Their rice fields are situated on a hill far from any irrigation and are completely dependent on the rains.
The economic situation would not be really bad except for two conditions which limit the yield. The first problem is the erosion of the ditches and the sandy deposits left on the arable land during the annual flooding period. This of course damages considerably the quality of the soil, and peasants have no choice but to look for other lower-paying work. The second problem is the irregularity of the rains. 2009 was the only year of the last five that had adequate rainfall.
Some wealthy families have a motorbike, a television, and a higher standard of living. The majority of the families, however, find life difficult despite hard work. More than 20 of the families are really poor, with the mother or father earning about 6000 riel a day, or US$1.50, as a mechanic or day worker. An average family with four or five children will be living on $3.00 a day, if both parents work. In reality, most of these very poor families are single-parent families, and usally the parent is the woman who is widowed, divorced, or separated.
The Church in Koh Roka
The history of the Catholic community started in 1995 with an ill woman, Grandmother Him. She was sick and didn’t have any money for treatment, so a Mrs. Thuok offered to take her to Phnom Penh to a Christian friend, Mrs. Suon. Mrs. Suon was a member of the mutual aid committee of the Catholic parish of the city and offered help. Subsequently Grandmothr Him got well and returned to her home, surprised that no one in her family had helped her. She investigated and discovered that there was a Catholic church in the city of Kompong Cham. She met the Catholics there and expressed her desire to learn “the religion of the Christ.” Soon others joined her and that was the beginning of the Catholic community.
Two years later that community had to tackle its first crisis. Mrs. Thuok had understood that the Christians had means to give help and she set up a process for organizing the young people of the village who wanted to study. But then we priests and nuns in charge of the parish decided to stop any pastoral activity there, fearing that the church would became an NGO. Young people who still wanted to be connected with the church were invited to come and see the priests and sisters in Kompong Cham. Four or five of did that for about one year. Then it was learned that each Sunday, they went back to the village and taught what they had heard during the liturgy to a small group of people who couldn’t travel because they didn’t have bicycles. That was a clear sign for the priests and sisters of the faith and perseverance of the villagers so we decided to restart catechism in the village. Since that time, 25 persons have received baptism and 10 more will be baptized this year. Today there are Christians, either catechumens or baptized people, in 49 of 130 families. 35 adults and 37 young people are being taught about the Catholic faith. The success of Koh Roka is a small miracle! Can we fully understand God’s ways ?
Years Adults Teenagers Children Number of Total
Catechized catechized catechized baptized people members
1997 16 0 0 1 17
1999 33 26 20 4 87
2005 35 37 20 26 118
2009 10 57 20 61 113
The development of the community
There are several factors which have influenced the “planting” of that church community:
- happiness in the community
- a respected catechist
- the desire to remain Khmer
- an adapted answer to people’s needs
- a good integration
- the rural exodus
a. Happiness being together
The first and most remarkable thing a visitor to that community will notice is the happiness that the people feel because of their experience of community. Through the years that joy has become the main reason why the people have made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ. One day, two grandmothers asked me if they could participate in the life of the community but remain Buddhists. I was surprised when they told me that the church was a place they enjoyed because of the happiness they found there. That is certainly a most important dynamic: the Catholic community as a place for dialogue and listening. It is also a group which supports its members: most of catechumens are lonely women, widows, or divorced women. Their situation is not a happy one, but in the Catholic community they find support and dignity. And sometimes, when they receive material help from the community, they find there a psychological and spiritual balance to their discrimination and poverty.
In 2003, I conducted a survey about the effect of the Catholic Church community on the local population. I found that of 221 people questioned, 65% had talked about their difficulties with one of the priests, 30% had talked with their parents, 28% with their husband or wife, 28% with a friend, and only 13% with a monk, a teacher, a doctor, or a social worker, the local official resource people. The Church offers an occasion for dialogue that is highly appreciated by the population there.
b. A respected catechist
Another important factor in the development of the faith community is the personality of Shokun, the person responsible for catechism in the village. He is 39 years old and married with 5 children and another on the way. He belngs to one of the leading families of the village. His father is the mayor of a village nearby. He himself is a farmer who was baptized at Easter 2000. Since then, his intelligence, his kindness, his skills, and his faith have made him the natural leader of the community. That is very important because in many places there is no respected person in charge. The age, the gender, the marital situation, and the witness given by the catechist in charge strongly influence the way people in the village perceive the Christian community. Experience has shown that mature men who are married seem to be the best catechists. The catechists must know how to pass on the faith but also how to fulfill their responsibilities with humility. Too often they feel that they are powerful and superior to others. In situations like that, the ordinary people become their clients, knowing that the catechist has power to give favors because of his relationiship with outsiders.
c. The desire to remain Khmer
For most Cambodians, being Khmer is very important. Nationalism is deeply rooted, often excessive, and this is a point the church cannot ignore. The church’s relationship with the local population is influenced by that and the Church must be aware of this part of the Cambodian psyche and pay attention to inculturation. Sometimes, the relationships between foreign priests and the local community are not easy, as the experience of some priests in Phnom Penh can attest.
In Koh Roka it is clear that Catholics suffer because of their Christian identity. They are perceived as somewhat outside or not fully part of the Cambodian community. And they are made aware of that. It is a challenge for them to find a way to be both Khmer and Christian. It is interesting that the Church itself, like its individual members, does not yet have its own identity. What is a Khmer Church? Maybe it does not really exist yet!
This identity is developing, however. For example, in liturgy (for instance at Pchum Ben and New Year’s Eve when ancestors are honored); in the responsibilities that are shared among the church committees (in Cambodia, lay people like to involve themselves in the religious sphere) ; in sacred art (using stupas, crosses, and decorations) ; in the “preference for the poor” (as indicated below about the church’s outreach) ; in the dialogue between religions; and in the general way the Christians come together as a community. Concerning religious dialogue, the people from Koh Roka and the catechist have a lot of ideas. They would like, just as the Buddhists do with Buddhist beliefs (“kan sil”), to devote themselves to some aspects of the law of Christ. This is a very flexible formula which means each person chooses a commitment one wants to keep and can keep. Young people especially would like to commit themselves in this way.
d. Adapted answer to people’s need
The attentive visitor to Koh Roka will notice the dynamism of that community and its investment in many different aspects of the life of the people and of the village. Of course, that is the mission of the universal church. I think this is a major part of Christianity and one of its differences from other religions. Christianity is a religion which is close to everyday life and which offers concrete solutions to modern life issues such as education, sexuality, the roles of men and women, the place of children in society, human rights, the economy, the sciences, relationships with nature, inter-religious dialogue, etc.
The Koh Roda community just inaugurated the Koh Roka School and the district governor was present. He congratulated us and made us remember that we don’t only talk about religion but we also build it. In 10 years we have spent about US$23,000 to support all aspects of the villagers’ existence. Traditional Cambodian Buddhism has a different viewpoint where religion belongs to a world of spirits and occult forces focused on the individual. It sees a world where the law and the rules of society support the development and the becoming of the individual.
e. Good integration
The Christian community’s happiness, catechesis, and response to people’s needs are reasons why it is well accepted and seen positively by a majority of the people. The director of the school envies our success with young people. He realizes that our way of education is very effective whereas many educators and parents feel lost in front of youth. Many times we have been invited to pray during funerals. We have been given the microphone and time to recite psalms, sing, read a part of God’s Word, and comment on it. On those occasions, I wear an alb and a stole because I want the people to understand this is a religious experience. I would like to have more relationships with the monks of the pagoda so they would know that our presence is not against them but that it can be for all an occasion of conversion. The Buddhists become better Buddhists and the Christians better Christians. There is here a chance for mutual support and encouragement.
f. The rural exodus
The main issue that has to be tackled in Koh Roka is the rural exodus. 40 of 100 members of the communty have gone to find a job in Phnom Penh. About 20 of them were baptized persons and another 20 have received catechism instruction. How can we keep this population in the village? Actually, this question is not the real question because we know we can’t reverse this national trend. A better question perhaps is how to allow people from the village to go to the city in the most positive way? And even as we say that, we know that if we are helpiing people to leave, we are diminishing our community!
We are investigating now how we can lessen the emigration from the villages by encouraging people to stay in the village. We have just launched different projects to do this. One is an agricultural program for five families with widowed mothers. Another has two young people, Vandy and Phaline, integrated as teachers in a small school ; and soon, if possible, we will have some animal-rearing programs. With all that we should have young adults specialized in rural development to help the population.
The dialogue of the same and of the different!
What is extraordinary in Koh Roka’s experience is the permanent activity of the community which often leads us in new ways. That community inculturates just like Monsieur Jourdain did prose without knowing it. Of course, because of the rural exodus, the future of this church is at stake. But now and for the near future, the parish is a laboratory where we are trying to give shape to an inculturated church.
We hope it will be a church :
- where the religious feelings of the Khmers are taken into account (in importance of the moral dimension ; in the desire for silence and meditation ; in liturgy with many signs ; in a monastic dimension in parish life)
- where there is a natural integration of the community of villagers (with ecumenism, inter-religious dialogue, popular feasts, creative ways of governing the Church, and an understanding of Khmer attitudes)
- where coming from Buddhism to Christian faith is not a denying of one’s past but an accomplishment, an assumption of a new dimension in spirituality
- where poverty is important not only as an exercise of moral purification (like Bonzes and monks do) but also as a sharing with one’s brothers and sisters.
This effort to speak to Cambodian culture must be realized in a dialogue between God’s Word and the Church’s expression of its faith. Without that dialogue, the risk is high of losing one’s soul, the soul of the Church. Buddhism disappeared from India in the XIIth century because it was too close to Hinduism. Christianity has disappeared from northern Africa because of the Arian heresy which didn’t make enough of a distinction between it and Islam. This is a warning not to keep our differences quiet, but to express them in a way that can be heard by our Cambodian brothers and sisters, as a call to conversion of heart and even a call to be part of the Body of Christ.
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