The Catholic Church in Cambodia has closed a decade-long diocesan inquiry into the martyrdom of Bishop Joseph Chhmar Salas and 11 companions, forwarding the case to Rome after years of testimony on killings under the Khmer Rouge.
The March 18 ceremony at the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh marked a first for the country’s Catholic community, which was nearly wiped out during the Khmer Rouge era and later rebuilt, making the case a rare effort by a post-conflict Church to document faith-based persecution.
The group, composed of a bishop, priests, religious, and laypeople, were killed between 1970 and 1977 during a period of violence that targeted religious communities alongside wider political repression.
Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, who presided over the closing session, said the inquiry drew on testimonies from people who lived through the Khmer Rouge period and knew the victims personally, AsiaNews reported.
“These 2,500 pages,” he said, “are a testimony for the new generations of baptized people today. These figures are the people of God; they particularly represent all those who suffered and died praying to the Lord to welcome them into his Kingdom.”
“These documents will be sent to Rome,” he added, “we continue to pray that these presumed martyrs of ours may be offered to the universal Church as a gift and an invaluable testimony of the faith of the Church of Cambodia to the world.”
The inquiry, opened in May 2015, initially examined 35 individuals before focusing on 12 whose deaths were closely linked to persecution of the faith.
At the center of the group is Bishop Salas, appointed apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh in 1975 just before the Khmer Rouge seized the capital. Ordained only days earlier, he returned to Cambodia at a time when foreign missionaries were being expelled and local leadership became urgent.
He later volunteered for forced labor in an effort to remain close to scattered Christian communities and died in 1977 from illness and exhaustion in a pagoda converted into a hospital.
According to testimonies gathered during the inquiry, Masses were celebrated in secret, with believers using coded signals to warn of approaching Khmer Rouge forces.
The case also includes Father Pierre Rapin, a French missionary killed in 1972 after choosing to remain with his community despite growing risks.
In a letter, he wrote, “The Christians have asked me to stay; God’s will be done.” After he was wounded, he told a follower, “If those who wanted to kill me are caught, forgive them, don’t harm them. There’s no point in seeking revenge. Have faith in God.”
Accounts presented to the tribunal also detail the deaths of four laypeople. Joseph Ros En, a university professor, was executed after confirming his Christian identity under interrogation. “It’s true, I am,” he said.
Pierre Chhum Somchay, a father of 12 whose children were killed during the massacres, continued to write prayers for each of them while living under the regime. He was later killed after authorities discovered he was a Christian.
Church officials said the case reflects both the scale of violence under the Khmer Rouge, which killed an estimated 1.5 million to 2 million people, and the endurance of a small Catholic community that survived attempts to eradicate religious life.
The case now moves to Rome for further evaluation, as the Cambodian Church seeks to present their witness as part of the universal Church’s memory of faith under persecution.
Before his death, Bishop Salas had urged that their story be told beyond Cambodia. “Speak of us to the world,” he said.
