PHNOM PENH (UCAN) -- About 150 Catholics from around the country recently bade farewell two elderly retired French missioners who had served the war-scarred country for decades.
Fathers Robert Venet, 92, and Rogatien Rondineau, 82, from the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP), will return to France on May 20.
A special farewell Mass was held for them at St. Joseph Church in Phnom Penh on May 7.
“I have known them since 1970 and … now they have to go back to their country. I don’t want them go,” said Keo Chantha tearfully. “I feel great sorrow and will miss them when they leave our country and the Catholic Church here,” added the 60-year-old woman.
Father Venet, who has been a missioner in Cambodia for a total of 64 years, arrived in the country during the final decade of French colonial rule. He was forced to leave for several years during the Pol Pot regime that lasted from 1975 to 1979.
The French priest studied the Khmer language from 1945 to 1948, at the same time dedicating himself to the study of Khmer culture and civilization. He also developed agricultural projects to generate better income for villagers and enhance their living standards.
According to local Church sources, Father Venet constructed reservoirs as part of two leading agricultural projects, improved people’s housing and gave food to the country’s poorest. He also founded several churches and Catholic communities in Kompong Kor, Preik Sbao and Kompong Thom.
After retiring in 2002, Father Venet went to live at the MEP house in Phnom Penh.
An emotional Father Rondieneau, after receiving flowers and gifts from well wishers, told them, “Even though I will be far from you, I will still feel that I am close to you.”
“Cambodia is my country and I will tell others that this is my homeland,” he said. “I am very happy to know you all because you have always taken care of me as though I were part of your families. I will keep your kindness in my heart forever.”
Father Rondieneau was ordained a priest in 1954 and arrived in Cambodia the following year. He too was forced to leave Cambodia in 1975, returning in 2003. During the years of civil war and conflict, both priests served the Cambodian people at refugee camps across the border in Thailand.
Bishop Emile Destombes, apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, told the people at the gathering that they must continue the mission of Fathers Venet and Rondineau and learn to be just as courageous.
One participant, Ouch Maly, 65, said, “Even though I have only known them since 2000, I feel a close bond and I love them. I do not want them to leave Cambodia.”
She worries that “there will be no one to take care of them when they return home.”
Ham Hy, 80, from Kompong Thom, about 165 kilometers north of the capital, traveled all the way to attend the farewell Mass despite his poor health. “I have to come to meet Father Robert and Father Rogatien to say goodbye,” he said.
He explained that he has known Father Venet since the 1960s. “He celebrated my wedding Mass,” Hy recalled. “Saying goodbye pains me.”
“As for Father Rogatien, I have known him since the civil war in the 1970s. He has been close to me and cared for me.”
Father Gerald Vogin, vicar delegate of Kompong Cham apostolic prefecture and MEP head in Cambodia, said his congregation decided it was better to send the priests back to France as they could be better cared for there.
“It is not easy to send them back and we are sad. At the same it is because we care for them,” he shared.
2 comments:
they don't care about khmer. they just want to convert you and then go back home.
I think they did very good job. Even if they want to convert, at the end it's up to the people. It's religious freedom. But they did help a lot of the local people.
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