The first Thai missionary, a "little seed", "already a tree capable of spreading its branches"

by Claudio Corti*

Fr. John Phongphan Wongarsa was ordained on July 8, during a ceremony which more than a thousand people attended. The celebrations continued the following day with traditional Thai elements. The diocese of Ubonrachathani has local nuns and priests, but Fr. Phongphan is the first missionary, a sign of a church that "produces fruits" for other churches as well.

Bangkok (AsiaNews) – On Saturday July 8 and Sunday, July 9, were special days for the Catholic community of the Ubonrachathani Diocese, bordering Laos, and especially for the Parish of the "Holy Family" of Ban Nong Khu. The novelty also applies to PIME's missionaries who, for the first time in the long history of the Institute, had the first priestly ordination of a young Thai.

Saturday, July 8, saw the participation of more than a thousand people at the priestly ordination of Fr. John Phongphan Wongarsa. Two bishops, eighty priests and a hundred nuns crowned the celebration, along with faithful from all over the diocese of Ubonrachathani and also from northern Thailand missions where PIME's missionaries have been working for more than forty years.

The following day's ceremony began with an exceptional procession of 80 dancers - typical of northeastern Thailand - who have accompanied the new priest as he was leaving his home. As is tradition in Buddhist orders in honor of a new monk, even Fr. Phongphan was seated on an flower covered carriage, and then accompanied by his family and friends across the country's streets to the church where he celebrated his First Mass.

The diocese of Ubonrachathani, which is now a diocese of Thailand, has a clergy composed only of local priests and sisters. Missionaries are now a reminder of the distant times. The choice of Fr. Phongphan, the thirteenth native priest of his parish, founded 120 years ago, to become a missionary priest in PIME, is therefore a sign of a church that "produces fruits" for other churches as well.

His vocation, however, did not arise by chance. His family, like many of the three Catholic villages that make up parish of the "Sacred Family" of Ban Nong Khu, has a faith rooted in the Catholic tradition that even saw the shedding of martyr's blood (just before World War II) because they were considered friends of foreign enemies (French in this case). About fifty kilometers from the village of Ban Nong Khu there is the Shrine dedicated to the martyrs of Thailand.

Fr. Phongphan’s father is what we could call a "singer-songwriter," who uses singing, poetry and dance to communicate the faith handed down by the early Christians in the area. His long singing and musical poetry tells the story of the parish. The older brother is a priest of the diocese of Ubonrachathani, his elder sister belongs to a local congregation "Lovers of the Cross", and his younger brother is married and lives in the village.

The ordination of Fr. Phongphan will remain imprinted in the mind of this small but fervent and living Christian community, a small seed in a Buddhist society that still does not know Christ. In fact, little seed is already a tree capable of spreading its branches outside: Fr. Phongphan will be a missionary in Hong Kong and possibly in China.

* Priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (Pime)