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The apostolic prefect of Battambang, a city located in northwestern Cambodia, discussed the terrible persecution of the Church there under the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-79).
“It is a martyr Church,” says Spanish Jesuit Father Enrique Figaredo Alvargonzález. “The Church in Cambodia was completely leveled. All our leaders... bishops, priests, nuns, many catechists, were killed. Those who weren’t killed died of hunger or disease, and the community remained in a very bad state.”
“After Pol Pot, a pro-Vietnamese Communist regime came that made the people suffer a lot,” he continued. “It did not give liberty of religion, and the people continued to endure and suffer in poverty.”
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