Documents on Cambodian martyrs presented to Vatican
May 29, 2026
The vicar apostolic of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, delivered to the Vatican almost 2,500 pages of documentation on the sainthood cause of his predecessor, Bishop Joseph Chhmar Salas, and 11 other Catholics martyred in the 1970s.
“The initial impetus to research the stories of the Cambodian martyrs came from Pope John Paul II, who, in the Jubilee Year 2000, called upon the Asian churches in all countries to recognize and commemorate their martyrs,” Father Paul Chatserey, the postulator of the cause since its opening in 2015, told the Fides News Agency. “In this spirit, the Cambodian Church erected a memorial to the martyrs; we built a cross and a small shrine. Since then, an annual commemoration of the martyrs has been held, bringing together believers from all over the country.”
Father Chatserey added:
Gradually, awareness grew, and we began to collect materials, documents, and testimonies. This was very difficult because, during the dark years of the war and the Khmer Rouge, the churches, along with all their documents, were destroyed. We armed ourselves with patience and began to collect oral testimonies.
Founded in 1967, the Khmer Rouge, a Communist movement, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and was responsible for killing one-fourth of the nation’s people. The Cambodian–Vietnamese War, which lasted from 1978 to 1989, claimed an additional 200,000 lives.
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