ASIA/CAMBODIA – Bishop Schmitthaeusler: “Cambodia wants its voice heard, demanding justice and reparation”

Phnom Penh – “Thai bulldozers are razing the homes of Cambodian civilians for miles, and barbed wire and shipping containers block access to the villages. And the international institutions are silent. temples, sacred places par excellence for the veneration of the gods and the memory of humanity, have been reduced to dust. And the world is silent. Despite a ceasefire, hundreds of thousands of civilians and children remain in squalid camps. Today, Cambodia also wants its voice heard, demanding justice and reparation on the world stage, where the power of force seems to have become the new rule,” reads an appeal published today, January 7, by the Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh, Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, and aptly titled “Silence”. “What we are experiencing today,” the bishop said, “certainly calls us to prayer, but not to silence.” The bishop expressed the pain and concern of the entire Cambodian people in light of the local situation and broadened his vision to the international context, recalling the war scenarios in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, Cambodia, and the recent American airstrike in Venezuela. And he asked: “Is power only in the hands of the strongest? From Greek philosophers to Christian thinkers, can 2,500 years of long labor to build the values of democracy, freedom, and the sovereignty of peoples be swept away in a few months in the name of geopolitical interests and in contempt of international law, and even more so of ordinary people who are the new martyrs of this 21st century?” “Christmas is the overturning of humanity’s certainties according to which power should go to the strongest, wealth to the most cruel, life to the most bloodthirsty,” the appeal continues, “while the Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth, becomes man in a newborn who is fragile and defenseless. And this Jesus, innocent victim of human jealousy and hatred, of religious and temporal power, of the world’s cruelty and greed, will die on a shameful cross. From this cross, a symbol of the violence and inhumanity of the human heart, life will be born again, eternal life and salvation for all who love in deeds and in truth.”
According to Bishop Schmitthaeusler, silence is indeed useful “to ask God to enlighten us, to grant us wisdom and discernment, to all of us, but especially to the world’s leaders, so that we may walk the paths of truth, law and justice.” “But certainly,” he notes, “we must not remain silent and allow the innocent to be mocked and scorned, as if there were any hierarchy of values in human lives.”
In conclusion, the appeal echoes the words of Pope Leo XIV in his message of January 1, 2026: “Peace on earth, sing the angels, proclaiming the presence of a defenseless God, whose love humanity can only discover by caring for him. Throughout the world, it is to be hoped that every community will become a ‘house of peace,’ where hostility is defused through dialogue, where justice is practiced, and forgiveness is cultivated.”

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