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The communist revolution, which marked in a different way the nations of Laos and Cambodia, constrained the Church to live in silence and persecution. The mystery of the Cross passed through these two nations. But hope enlivened these communities that had become invisible.
In Cambodia, especially, this seemed irreversible. Just as Christ on the cross offered his life to his Father for the salvation of the world, witnesses offered their life in conformity to their faith, at the service of their brothers and sisters.
And today´s reborn Church wishes to be the servant of the «excluded ones» of society and a sign of hope. The ordination of the first four Cambodian priests, on Dec. 9, 2001, after the death of all the bishops and priests of the nation during the Pol Pot regime, is another sign of this hope.
