BANGKOK (UCAN) -- Father Bounliep Sakkhi, 77, is unable to visit rural village churches anymore due to his age, but he still provides pastoral care to Catholics in Pakse, a city in southern Laos.

"I say Mass every day, and on Sunday I say Mass for Lao Catholics in the morning and for Vietnamese in the evening," said the parish priest of Sacred Heart Church in Pakse, 465 kilometers southeast of Vientiane. He was ordained a priest in 1958.

While in Bangkok for a medical checkup, Father Bounliep told UCA News May 24 that aside from celebrating Mass, his pastoral ministry includes giving catechetical guidance to catechists and nuns, visiting and anointing the sick, and presiding at funeral rites. According to him, there are 1,000 Catholics in Pakse town.

Before Easter or Christmas, if he feels strong enough, he tries to go to rural village churches to hear confessions and say Mass. With Pakse vicariate having only a bishop and two priests to minister to 12,000 Catholics and 2,000-3,000 catechumens, "every little bit helps," according to Father Bounliep. Not only age but also the lingering effects of injuries from an automobile accident five years ago have slowed him down.

The Church, however, is gaining some momentum. "The situation for the Church today is much better than in the past," acknowledged the priest, who was arrested in 1980 and imprisoned for almost eight years. That came after the communist Pathet Lao took control of the government in 1975, ending a six-century-old monarchy.

The government "did not want our religion to exist, so it really created difficulties for priests," he recalled. Now, he continued, "we have churches and Masses, and people can go to church, although Catholics who belong to the communist ruling party are still afraid to go to church." He added that Catholics "usually are not promoted to high-ranking positions in the party."

Father Bounliep also clarified that even though the Church can carry out its activities, "Church people can teach catechism only in church, and it is forbidden to evangelize in rural areas or to establish new churches." The country, he said, has "opened up to economic development more than religion."

"Government authorities regularly visit me," admitted Father Bounliep, who says he is leery about such visits due to his past experience, specifically his arrest and imprisonment. He says he still bears scars of that experience.

"Bishop Thomas Khamphan and I were arrested in October 1980, and were released in May 1988. It was seven years, seven months and three days to be precise," he recalled.

"We were accused of inciting business people to flee the country so the country would fall apart. The charge against us was that we opposed the republic," Father Bounliep continued. The late Bishop Khamphan was apostolic vicar of Pakse at the time.

The priest said he did not eat anything for the first three days, as he had a bad reaction to the salty food. As a newcomer, he added, he was made to sleep on the floor, which teemed with lice, in a dirty cell holding 100 other prisoners. "I was humiliated and devastated. I thought of ways I could be released, even to the point of considering whether I should renounce my faith," he said.

"I was asking God why he put me in this horrible situation. I wanted to leave this place," he continued. Then, "it was as if God heard me," he said. He thought he heard a voice saying: "I am Jesus. Although I am God's Son, I became a human being just like you. I went through suffering and pain just like you, and I could bear it. Why can't you bear it?" Father Bounliep recalled the voice urging him, "Be courageous, and be witness to me."

After that "divine experience," he said, he could bear all the physical and mental suffering, such as being forced to attend classes to study "Marx and Lenin" every night and putting up with skin diseases, food and humiliation.

He is sure that were it not for his faith, he would not have survived those years in confinement.

"The officials told me they would free me immediately if I swore to them that I would start a family when I left," he recalled. Their strategy, he said, was to abolish the clergy so the Catholic religion would no longer exist. "At other times, they asked me not to go back to commit the same crime upon being released," he added, also recalling his answer to them: "What crime? All I did was to say Mass."

At first he was detained in Pakse, then the authorities moved him to Attapu, and later, further away to Sanamxai, because his presence might cause trouble in Pakse. After he was released, he asked the government for permission to leave the country. To his surprise, the government granted his request in a mere two weeks, and he departed for France in 1989 to recuperate for a year.

On his return in 1990, he became actively involved in pastoral care in many village churches in the vicariate. Among them are Ban Khampeng, Ban Nongbua, Lak 17, Lak 22, Lak 23, Lak 42, Nikomxai, Pak Xong and Phonesia-ard toward the north, and Ban Gayo, Ban Sabong toward the southeast, he said.

Father Bounliep is optimistic about his vicariate, since "help" is on the way, in the form of a seminarian slated to be ordained within a year. The vicariate has a total of four major seminarians. "Our Church has been persecuted and many 'martyrs' died for their faith," yet it continues to exist, he pointed out.

"It is all right," he said. "Things are going to change."

END