BANTEAY MEAN CHEY, Cambodia (UCAN) -- Catholics for the first time have gathered at a village in Cambodia to mark the death anniversary of Monsignor Paul Tep-im Sotha, apostolic prefect of Battambang, whom the Khmer Rouge killed 33 years ago.

The group of approximately 300 Catholics also prayed for thousands of others killed by the radical communist group from 1975, when it took control of the country, until 1979, when Vietnam invaded.

Coming from all over Battambang prefecture, the Catholics gathered May 7 at Kbal Spean, a village in Banteay Mean Chey province , near the border with Thailand. It was here where Monsignor Sotha, a native of Phnom Penh, died in 1975. Battambang prefecture is based 250 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh.

Jesuit Father Sushil Lakra, parish priest in Banteay Mean Chey town, told the gathering that this was the first time people had come together in a meaningful way to remember the slain prelate whose death bore witness to the love of Jesus Christ in Cambodia.

Dam Pracnha, 56, a parish council member from Battambang who was closely associated with Monsignor Sotha, called bishop by the local people, recalled how the prelate was aware of his impending death. "He seemed to know everything, and on the last Sunday Mass our bishop told us, 'From now on, enemies will arrive,'" she recalled.

"He is a good example for us," Pracnha added, telling how Khmer Rouge troops killed the Church leader in Kbal Spean, near the border town of Poipet, from where the Khmer Rouge expelled many foreigners.

Hnem Yard, 56, now a Chom Noum parish council member in the province, recalled trying to help Monsignor Sotha escape.

"Our bishop was very worried about all the foreign missioners and because he had seen how many people were killed," Yard told UCA News. "I offered to take him across the Thai border another way, but he refused because it was illegal. He decided to go on National Road No. 5 to Poipet, where he was killed by a soldier for no reason," Yard narrated with tears in his eyes. He said the Church leader lived a "simple" life of poverty.

Jesuit Father Totet Banaynal, Battambang vicar general, told UCA News the blood of martyrs would help sow the seeds for God's kingdom and the growth of the Catholic Church. He said the prefecture built a school at the place where Monsignor Sotha was killed and erected a pillar that tells about his death. The pillar, he pointed out, was the villagers' idea.

Srey Laoy, who was baptized in the 1990s, told UCA News she learned much at the memorial service that helped her understand the Catholic Church better.

"It strengthens my belief, because of the witness of our dear bishop, brothers and sisters, who were killed in that difficult period," she said. "They knew they would be killed but they trusted in Christ."

Estimates of the number of people who died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge -- killed, worked to death in rural labor camps that came to be known as the "killing fields," from lack of food and medical care -- range from around 500,000 to 2 million. Church records say Cambodia had 65,000 Catholics in 1970, but only 1,000 or so Cambodian Catholics were alive when Vietnamese troops forced the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979. Foreign missioners were deported, and no Cambodian priests or nuns in the country survived.

Monsignor Sotha did seminary studies in France and Italy, and was ordained a priest in 1959, serving at St. Mary's Parish in Phnom Penh. He was appointed apostolic prefect of Battambang when the Vatican established the prefecture on Sept. 26, 1968. He was killed at the age of 41.

Battambang prefecture covers eight provinces -- Banteay Mean Chey, Battambang, Kompong Chhnang, Kompong Thorn, Oddar Mean Chey, Preah Vihear, Pursat, Siem Reap -- and Pailin city. It has about 7,000 Catholics. Phnom Penh vicariate and Kompong Cham prefecture cover the rest of the country.

Since 1989, religions have revived in Cambodia, with Buddhism, to which more than 90 percent of the country's 12 million people adhere, now the state religion. The Cambodian Catholic Church counts 19,000 members.

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