In a recent interview, Fr Enrique (Kike) Figaredo Alvargonzález SJ, Apostolic Prefect of Battambang, spoke of the suffering of the Church in Cambodia under the persecution of the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.
“It is a martyr Church,” said Fr Figaredo. “The Church in Cambodia was completely levelled. All our leaders… bishops, priests, nuns, many catechists, were killed. Those who weren’t killed died of hunger or disease, and the community remained in a very bad state.”
The suffering did not end after the end of the regime.
“After Pol Pot, a pro-Vietnamese Communist regime came that made the people suffer a lot. It did not give liberty of religion and the people continued to endure and suffer in poverty. However, the memory of all our martyrs gives us much strength because we have seen them giving themselves in suffering and our Catholics have also gone through very much suffering and today they witness with their lives,” said Fr Figaredo.
Fr Figaredo is a Spanish Jesuit who has been in Cambodia since 1985, when he was missioned there to work with refugees. His diocese of Battambang consists of 14 provinces with a population of more than four million.
Fr Figaredo was speaking to the weekly radio and television programme “Where God Weeps”. To read the interview, click here.
