Catholic Church workers in Cambodia have for the first time gathered to share about their work experience and support one another in building the local Church.

The 118 workers, mostly foreigners, met on Saturday at St. Joseph Church in Phnom Penh in what organizers said was the first such meeting of lay missioners and members of missionary societies and Religious congregations. Participants talked and showed pictures about their work and held discussions in groups.

“As we are foreigners who have decided to sever the Church in Cambodia, we need to love and care for everyone not just Cambodian Catholic as our brothers and sisters,” said Bishop Olivier Michel Marie Schmitthaeusler, apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh.

“We are mostly foreigners (but)  our mission is with Christ. We come here to serve people and we must love and respect them,” the bishop added.

“I think it is a very good meeting as we can share our experiences,” said Sister Agnes Nguyen a member of the Soeurs de la Providence de Portieux congregation. She pointed out that though they were from different groups and nationalities, such a meting would “encourage”  them in serving the local Church.

Lucia Wong, a Hong Kong Catholic lay missionary,  pointed out that such a meeting was “ good” as  “it can improve our work”  by making things  “faster, easier, and finding more solutions.” She said the Church in the country has been running various projects  such as in the fields of education and health.

Bishop Schmitthaeusler said the local Church will organize such a meeting three times a year.

Beginning with civil strife in the 1960s, Cambodia suffered years of warfare including U.S. bombardment during the Vietnam War, which destroyed practically all Church structures.

When missioners began returning in 1991, they started rebuilding the Church by working among Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in fishing villages along the Tonle Sap — the largest lake in Cambodia — and the river from it that joins the Mekong at Phnom Penh.

Of around 50 priests presently in Cambodia, only five are local Khmer.