Bishop Salas |
Yves-Georges-René Ramousse was not yet 35 and had been ordained for just over 9 years when he was made Vicar Apostolic of Phnom Penh. On 6 April 1975, a few days before the Khmer Rouge entered the city, he ordained a 37 year-old Cambodian, Fr Joseph Chhmar Salas as his Coadjutor, someone who had himself been a priest for less than 11 years. On 30 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge expelled Bishop Ramousse from the country. Knowing that Cambodia’s needs were urgent but that he had no possibility of returning to Phnom Penh, Bishop Ramousse resigned one year later, leaving the diocese in the hands of Bishop Salas.
The new bishop was fully aware that he would have no chance to escape the clutches of the Pol Pot regime. He quietly entrusted his Episcopal ring and pectoral cross to his mother for safe-keeping. She buried them under the nests of her few chickens.
On April 18, 1975, a mere 12 days after his Episcopal ordination and 12 days before Bishop Ramousse’s expulsion, Bishop Salas and some of his priests became part of the enslaved workforce in the nearby rice fields. There, he died of starvation, exhaustion and the notorious brutality of his guards on an unrecorded date in September 1977, to be buried in an unmarked mass grave.
One of the countless victims of the Pol Pot regime, Salas had been a bishop for less than 2½ years. He spent, in theory, 17 months as the Bishop of Phnom Penh, a tangible witness to the meaning of the Crucifixion. He fulfilled the words of his brother in faith, fidelity and future martyrdom, Oscar Romero, for he not only died, but was also buried, amongst his people.
In the Land of Hope compound, the church has erected a cross dedicated to Bishop Salas and reconstructed the hut where he and his priests used to live and celebrate Mass. When, on 6 July 1992, Bishop Ramousse was reappointed to Phnom Penh after his years of involuntary exile, Bishop Salas’ mother sought him out. She presented the one who had consecrated her son as his successor with the pectoral cross that Bishop Ramousse had probably bestowed on Salas. Sadly, she had been forced to sell the ring in order to avoid sure starvation, but that, too, was appropriate: even in death Bishop Salas had been able to provide for his mother.
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