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| Bishop Emile Destombes among his Cambodian faithful. - RV |
A
French missionary bishop who spent decades helping revive a decimated
Catholic community in Cambodia after the devastation of the Khmer Rouge,
died on Jan. 28. Bishop Emile Destombes died at the age of 80 in his
home in Phnom Penh, after receiving Holy Communion from his successor,
Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler of Phnom Penh. Born in 1931 in Roncq,
France, Emile Destombes was ordained to the priesthood in 1961. He was
appointed coadjutor vicar apostolic of Phnom Penh in 1997, succeeded in
2001 and retired in 2010.
A
member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, Fr. Destombes was sent to
Cambodia in 1964, at the age of 29. As civil war worsened in the
1970s, Father Destombes risked his life smuggling food to thousands of
ethnic Vietnamese imprisoned as part of the Lon Nol government’s
anti-Vietnamese campaign. With hundreds of thousands of war refugees
flooding into Phnom Penh in the first half of the decade, Father
Destombes worked to provide them with housing and assistance, allowing
them to ultimately become self-sufficient. He also stood with the
people of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, welcoming the approach of the
Khmer Rouge - whom they believed would bring long-awaited peace. One of
the last foreigners to leave the country, Father Destombes stayed in
the French embassy for 15 days, before finally being expelled from the
country.
After
spending the next 14 years teaching in France and carrying out
missionary work in Brazil, Father Destombes returned to the region in
1989, where he worked with Cambodian refugees along the Thai-Cambodian
border. In 1990, the government returned Catholic churches and allowed
the community to freely worship once again. Fr. Destombes went to Phnom
Penh, celebrating Mass at his house while readying the church for the
first services in 15 years. As he grew sick, he remained committed to
Cambodia, wishing to die and be buried in his adopted homeland.
(Source: UCAN)
4 comments:
May you rest in peace, mon évêque Destombes!!! Thanks a million for having helped the helpless Khmer people!!!
Kal/ខាល
If people actually look at the reality of the church, they had been stealing other people's land, resources, raping the women, molesting little boys, and leaving the new region in poverty and with a book about a middle eastern fable. The christian crusader and explorers Ferdinand Magellan attempted to conquered south east asian islands but fail. Their other attempts finally subdued the islands and the islands was rename after the Spanish King Phillip the second, and the people one islands were to become his slaves that were later brought to the U.S., these slaves/servants were the Phillipnoes.
he may have good intention , bless his soul... but his bosses in Rome are getting super wealthy at the expenses of their slaves/catholic worshipers.. they are living in mansions , having chauffeurs for their limo, private jets, and vacation homes...all these while maintaining absolute control on their slaves ability to think for themselves. and why is that a religion has a need to own an observatory in arizona -- watching the heaven/sky every night and why are they refusing to release the last fatima prophecy ? rumor has it , the prophecy predicted ''end of world /Armageddon '' [ something from the sky this way comes to destroy earth type of prediction ]
Shouldn't anything that has been happening in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas [as the cliché goes]?
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