Cambodian priest named leader of Church jurisdiction for 1st time since Pol Pot

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Pope Francis appointed Fr Pierre Suon Hangly, the first local priest to lead a Cambodian ecclesiastic jurisdiction since the ouster of Pol Pot. He follows Bishop Joseph Chhmar Salas, who starved to death during the Khmer Rouges’ reign of terror. Phnom Penh (AsiaNews) – Fr Pierre Suon Hangly, a 50-year-old priest from Phnom Penh, is the new apostolic prefect of Kompong Cham, one of the three territorial jurisdictions that make up the Catholic Church in Cambodia.

Pope Francis appointed him today in replacement of Antonysamy Susairaj, an Indian-born member of the Missions étrangères de Paris, who resigned in 2019.
Fr Suon Hangly’s appointment is an important step for Cambodia’s Catholic community, which began its rebirth 20 years and now can count on 20,00 members in a country of 16 million.

Ordained priest for the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh in 2001, Fr Pierre is in fact the first local clergyman to assume the leadership of an apostolic prefecture after the journey through hell the Cambodian Church underwent at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot.

 

read more https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Cambodian-priest-becomes-new-apostolic-prefect-of-Kompong-Cham-56273.html