Phnom Penh (AsiaNews / Agencies) - "I see that people need education in Cambodia, so this is our priority”, says Mgr. Enrique Figaredo Alvargonzales (pictured), the Spanish Jesuit bishop, who for 10 years has headed of the Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang, in an interview published on the web site of the Catholic Church in Cambodia (http://catholiccambodia.org).
The Cambodian Church has about 19 thousand faithful and three districts: the Vicariate of Phnom Penh, the Prefecture of Kompong Cham and Battambang. The communist regime of Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979 has wiped out the Church's presence, destroying all the sacred buildings and preventing all religious practice. With the fall of the Khmer Rouge, religious freedom has returned to the country. The institutional presence of the church dates to 1992 when Mgr. Yves Ramousse became apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh.
"In these ten years - said Mgr. Alvargonzales - we focused on the education of poor children from kindergarten to primary school. At least they can learn to read and count. But we also finance some young people to enable them to attend secondary school and university. Promoting traditional culture and like the Khmer dances”.
One hundred adults are baptised per year in the Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang, but more catechists are needed: "In 2010 we have already baptized 200 – he continues - but we need catechists. I want to build a school to educate them, the problem is that we do not have funds to pay for them. Our people are mostly poor farmers who earn very little".
Besides education, the Church in Battambang is committed to supporting the most marginalized classes of society: "We have opened schools for disabled children, to teach women to sew and hospitals to assist patients. Some Catholics, including former prisoners, work in rice fields owned by the Church. This helps to stop them from going across the border to look for work".
For Mgr. Alvargonzales, the record of the past 10 years is satisfactory: "We must do more, I would say we are so far 50% successful. I want married Catholics to become more involved in Church life, just like the young are".