ASIA/CAMBODIA - Young Cambodians attracted to Jesus were baptised during Easter Vigil

Phnom Penh (Fides Agency) - “There are many non-Christians who, driven by curiosity or desire, attend our churches every Sunday. And among them, there are those who ask to begin the journey of preparation for baptism,” Jesuit Father Enrique Figaredo Alvargonzález, a Spanish missionary who has been in Cambodia for 40 years and is Apostolic Prefect of Battambang, told Fides Agency. In 2025, the small Catholic community in Cambodia—a predominantly Buddhist country where Catholics number only about 30,000 out of a population of 17 million—rejoiced at the gift of new baptisms.
In Phnom Penh, 127 people, including young people and adults, were baptized after taking part in the “Rite of Election,” led by Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh. The bishop urged them to “be ready to live and die with Jesus.” Baptism, he recalled, “makes us new people,” and the priest anoints us with oil “to receive strength directly from Jesus.” We receive the white garment, “clothing ourselves with Jesus himself.” “He will not abandon us, even if we forget him. Once baptised and officially entered into the Christian community, of which Christ is the head, our mission as Christians is to pray, serve, and love,” he observed.
Among the young people baptised during the Easter Vigil, Yem Samnang, 20, learned about the parish through the youth center of the Sisters of Charity, saying she “wants to become a daughter of God.” Samnang was impressed by the “vibrant and energetic” life of Christians and said, “I want to become a Christian like them.”
For many, it was the Christian witness of the faithful that attracted them. Prum Mey, a 24-year-old from Takeo province, is a student at St. Francis Catholic School. Intrigued by the way Christians prayed in the church near her school, she joined them. She attended catechesis meetings and the Lord touched her heart. Today she says, “I want to follow what the Word of God tells me. The Word helps me to have a pure heart, to love others as He loves, to share love and to give hope to others.”
Father Charles Lichipan, a Cambodian priest in charge of the Takeo Activity Center, which welcomes baptismal candidates every year, said with emotion that he will continue to follow the journey of faith of these young people. “We priests will be there for them, we will invite them to participate in other community meetings, we will help them attend Mass, we will accompany them on their spiritual journey of closeness to Christ. We will continue to pray that God, who has called them, will take care of them.”
(PA) (Agence Fides 24/4/2025)

Share:

baptism

---

---

evangelization

---

---