Joseph Chhmar Salas (Khmer: យ៉ូសែប ឆ្មារសាឡាស់) 21 October 1937 – September 1977) was a prelate of the Catholic Church who served as bishop Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh in Cambodia from 1975 to 1977, when he died of exhaustion in a forced work camp of the Khmer Rouge. He was among the first native Cambodians to become a Catholic priest and the first to become bishop.
Life Early life and education
Salas was born in Phnom Penh on 21 October 1937 in Moutkrasal village along the Mekong river. He was born into a Traditional Catholic family. Salas was the 3rd eldest of his siblings. He had a younger sister, Yu Chhmar Prakod (also spelt You Prakort), and a younger brother, Joseph Chhmar Salem, who was also a Catholic priest. He studied in a minor seminary in Phnom Penh; afterwards, he continued his studies at a major seminary named "Issy-les-Moulineaux" in France in October 1959 for his formation as a priest.
Priesthood
Salas was ordained a deacon at the Saint-Sulpice Chapel in Issy-les-Moulineaux on 2 February 1964. He was ordained a priest on 24 June 1964 by Bishop Yves Ramousse at the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Phnom Penh, becoming one of the first native Cambodians, alongside Simon Chhem Yen and Paul Tep Im Sotha, to become a Catholic priest. Following his ordination, Salas was assigned to the Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang, where he established a training center for catechists. In 1974, he returned to Paris, France, to pursue advanced theological and biblical studies.
Episcopal ministry and Khmer Rouge era
In March 1975, amid the escalation of the Cambodian Civil War, Bishop Yves Ramousse was at the head of the Cambodian Church when the Khmer Rouge took power. Sensing that he would have to leave his beloved community, he summoned Salas back to Cambodia urgently. Anticipating that all foreign clergy would be expelled if the Khmer Rouge seized power, Ramousse sought to establish native leadership for the local Church.
Salas readily obeyed and hurried back to his country. Salas knew that his return at this time meant accepting all the most difficult consequences that would befall him. Upon his departure from Paris, Salas reportedly expressed to a friend his expectation that he was returning to his country to die.
On 14 April 1975, the Holy See appointed Salas as Coadjutor Bishop for the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh. He was ordained 3 days before the Khmer rouge seized Phnom Penh.
During this turbulent period, Bishop Ramousse secretly consecrated Salas on April 6, before the official decision of the Holy See, only for him to be expelled on April 30, 1975, along with many other foreign priests and religious.
On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia. They founded a Communist state with the name of Democratic Kampuchea, where any religion was forbidden, and the destruction of religious sites was frequent. Catholics and non-Catholics were forced out of the town and cities.
In May 1975, foreigners were expelled, including Catholic priests and religious, while natives were forced to work in rice fields, and many of them were executed. Bishop Ramousse was expelled from the country with many other foreign priests and other religious figures. Most Cambodian priests and religious figures remained in the country; very few would survive. In 1976, Bishop Ramousse resigned as head of the Cambodian Church. Salas became the head in Kompong Thom. He died of exhaustion and hunger from forced labor and severe mental persecution, in September 1977 in the Taing Kork Pagoda.
On 1 May 2015, the Cambodian Catholic Church officially opened an inquiry into the presumed martyrdom of Joseph Chhmar Salas and another 33 persons who died during the time of the Khmer Rouge regime.
References
External links Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom-Penh, Cambodia The Catholic Church in Cambodia