Rome (AsiaNews) - Cambodia has become a capitalist reality, despite the socialist imprinting of a "minimum and uniform” wage.  A teacher receives a miserly salary and is forced to seek a second job to survive, this has resulted in “commonplace corruption” that undermines society at its very foundations.  Fr. Alberto Caccaro missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in Italy for a period of rest, tells AsiaNews that the country, still scarred by the violence of the Khmer Rouge, is increasingly oriented toward a "materialistic capitalism." The challenge of the Catholic Church, he says, is to establish institutes, colleges, universities "to educate critical thought" because "the contribution of Christianity is a contribution to thought and to the nation" in faith and young people discover "a resource for the entire society and man in his totality. "

The rift in society is clear and the process of “recomposing the fragments" begins with the younger generations. Fr. Albert, in Cambodia since 2000 and the first resident priest in Prey Veng, has recently founded a school that houses students in the third, fourth and fifth grades. The structure is up and running and within the next two years will celebrate its first graduates. "A tiny reality - explains the priest - with just over 100 students compared to the 2 thousand of public institutions. Teachers come to us looking for a second job, but we are free to work thanks to agreements with the Ministry.

Cambodia still bears the wounds of the domination of the bloody Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot, who ruled the country from 1975 to 1979 spreading death and destruction. In a few years the regime eliminated nearly two million people (about one quarter of the population), many of whom were intellectuals, doctors, teachers and representatives of the cultural elite. Precisely for this reason, rebuilding the nation and its people means beginning with schools.

"We need to start - says the PIME missionary – from a more comprehensive reflection on history, culture, religion and we must provide places where this debate can take place." The priest adds that the Pol Pot regime triggered "a series of social tensions" that prevent "unity", so much so that today, 35 years later, teaching method’s are "not conducive to the emergence of a critical spirit" . "We must seek unity among the various components of society – he stresses - and create places where this debate can happen".

Among the many activities undertaken by the Church, Fr. Caccaro points to meetings between students initiated and led by Paola Maiocchi an Italian lay missionary. The proposal was taken up by a medical student is not Catholic, along with other fellow students who wanted to create a "reflection group" among medical students. "The goal - says the priest - is to consider whether it will be possible to consider the role of the doctor as a service, given the prevailing utilitarianism in universities in hospitals." For the missionary it is "only a beginning, a drop in than the desert that surrounds them, but a small and important first step."

Recently Fr. Alberto Caccaro oversaw the Khmer translation of "The Risk of Education" by Don Luigi Giussani, founder of the Communion and Liberation movement. A choice dictated by "a feeling of gratitude" because "the book gave me great support at a particular moment n my missionary journey”. The priest stresses the clock metaphor described by Giussani: "I want my children - he says – to be able to study the individual subjects, and be able to rebuild the clock dismantled previously, by examining each component. A path of consolidation in an attempt to bring everyone to unity".

The translation of "The Risk of Education " is only a first step because, Fr. Caccaro notes, "there is urgent need for translations of texts and books, people who go further and promote discussion and reflection." In this regard, he appealed for support to the West to lend its support to "translation programs, the creation of educational institutions, schools and universities."

There is no end to projects being promoted by the Church there, Projects in the Church there, but they all go hand in hand with bringing to light "the originality of the Christian faith" that becomes a source of conversion. "The first step is to move toward each other," says the priest. As an example, Fr Albert tells the story of Dimitri, a French student, an atheist, who in Cambodia has rediscovered his faith in Christ. The young man spent six months in Prey Veng between 2007 and 2008, teaching English at a public school in the country. Before his arrival in Cambodia, in 25 years Dimitri had never received a Christian education or baptism.

"Dimitri was converted here in a mission territory - explains Fr Caccaro - thanks to his relationship with the local reality in everyday life, attempting to reconstruct himself as a person. This is what is lacking and what we bring as a witnesses of mission".  In France the young man continued his journey of faith and, next year, after completing the period of the catechumenate, will receive baptism. He will return to Cambodia with his wife, to live as a missionary in the country where he met the love of Christ. "