Cambodia Sends Cause of Its First Martyrs to Rome After Closing Decade-Long Investigation

Cambodia ends a 10-year inquiry into 12 Christians killed by the Khmer Rouge, sending their beatification cause to Rome.

Newsroom (19/03/2026 Gaudium Press) In a landmark moment for one of Asia’s smallest Catholic communities, the Church in Cambodia has concluded a ten-year diocesan investigation into the martyrdom of twelve Christians killed during the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Their cause for beatification, the first ever initiated by the Cambodian Church, now proceeds to Rome, marking a step of profound significance in a country still healing from the wounds of genocide.

A Decade in Search of Testimony

The tribunal’s closing ceremony took place at the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh, led by Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and attended by clergy, religious, and laypeople from across the nation’s three ecclesiastical jurisdictions. The investigation, which began in May 2015, sought to document the courage and faith of those who perished between 1970 and 1977 — a time when religion itself was outlawed under Pol Pot’s extremist rule.

“Over these ten years, dozens of witnesses who lived through the Pol Pot era and knew these individuals personally have been interviewed,” Bishop Schmitthaeusler told those gathered. Initially, forty names were considered, later refined to twelve whose deaths showed clear signs of “odium fidei” — hatred of the faith. While public devotion awaits official recognition from the Vatican, many Cambodian Catholics already hold their memories close in private prayer.

Twelve Witnesses of Faith

At the head of the group stands Bishop Joseph Chhmar Salas, Cambodia’s first native bishop, who led the Church at a time when its foreign missionaries were expelled and local Christians persecuted. Alongside him are priests Joseph Chhmar Salem, Marcel Truong Sang Samronh, Pierre Rapin, Charles Badré, and Damien Dang Ngoc An; Sisters Jacquelin Kim Song and Lydie Nou Savan; and four laymen — Joseph Som Kinsan, Pierre Chhum Somchay, Joseph Thong, and Joseph Ros En.

These men and women, from different ethnic and social backgrounds, embody the resilience of a faith that endured one of the twentieth century’s darkest chapters. To Cambodia’s Catholics, estimated today at just over 20,000, their witness is both a heritage and a living promise.

A Bishop in Hiding

The story of Bishop Chhmar Salas captures both the gravity and grace of those years. Born in 1937 and educated in France, he returned home in 1975 after a letter from Bishop Yves Ramousse warned that the Khmer Rouge would soon expel all foreigners. Only three days before the fall of Phnom Penh, Salas was ordained Apostolic Vicar — a title heavy with both hope and foreboding.

In Kompong Cham province, he continued his ministry in secret, celebrating Mass in a thatched hut, his bed doubling as an altar. Villagers kept watch from the rice paddies, warning him through coded signals when Khmer Rouge troops drew near. Later, he volunteered for forced labor, hoping to reach scattered believers. Starved and ill, he died in 1977 in a makeshift hospital inside a pagan pagoda — a priest until his final breath.

Years later, his hidden pectoral cross, preserved by his mother in a chicken coop, was rediscovered and is now venerated as a relic. It stands, Catholics say, as a silent testament to a shepherd who never abandoned his flock.

“Forgive Them, Do Them No Harm”

Equally moving is the account of Fr. Pierre Rapin, a French missionary who refused to flee after the Khmer Rouge seized control of his parish in Kdol Leu. “The Christians have asked me to stay; God’s will be done,” he wrote shortly before his death. When an explosive device injured him in 1972, he implored his followers: “If you capture those who tried to kill me, forgive them. Do them no harm.” Within hours, he was dead — but his words outlived him, a pastoral echo of Christian mercy amid terror.

The Silent Strength of the Laity

The cause also recognizes four lay believers whose faith cost them their lives. Historian Fr. Vincent Chrétienne, president of the Historical Commission, said their stories were harder to reconstruct, yet firmly connected by conviction.

Joseph Ros En, a university professor, was executed after being denounced for his religion. During interrogation, he confirmed his identity simply: “Yes, I am a Christian.” Catechist Joseph Thong, soldier Joseph Som Kinsan, and father of twelve Pierre Chhum Somchay each faced arrest and execution with quiet fidelity. Before his death, Somchay kept a small notebook of personal prayers — one for each of his lost children.

Toward Recognition

The case file, bound in red seals and thousands of pages of testimony, will soon be delivered to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome. Should the Vatican confirm their martyrdom, the twelve will become the first beatified figures in Cambodia’s history — a recognition not only of their deaths but of the rebirth of a Church that once stood on the brink of extinction.

For Cambodia’s Catholics, the cause is more than a process; it is a reminder of endurance through suffering. In the words of Bishop Schmitthaeusler, “These witnesses did not die for an idea, but for love of Christ and of their people.”

• Raju Hasmukh with files from Infocatholica

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