The Floating Church

St. Joseph’s in Prek Toal faces challenges unlike most other parishes in the world.

The needs of churches—that is, the physical buildings—are vast and generally consistent. You’ve heard the appeals your whole life, and you have a grasp of the needs: a roof or floor repair, upgraded kneelers, a new organ, air-conditioning, tuckpointing.

But no parish you’ve ever belonged to has faced the challenges that St. Joseph’s Church (Prek Toal) on Tonle Sap (translated colloquially as “Great Lake”) in Cambodia faces every year. For one, most of us have never had our religious freedom threatened.

In a literal sense, the mere existence of St. Joseph’s Church requires extensive effort. To keep the church from breaking loose and floating freely, an anchor pole must be secured and maintained. This maintenance is done by a lay couple who manages the church’s operations, Bun Loem and his wife Yeom.

In order to secure the building to the anchor pole, the church goes through two large ropes every year, and when the rain season comes, and again during dry season, a tow boat has to move the church to a safe location.

But these substantial physical needs seem almost frivolous in comparison to the decades of struggle faced by Catholics in Cambodia. Catholicism itself must fight to exist.

“They [the parish’s team] work very hard to serve the Catholic Church in Prek Toal,” says Fr. Phongphand Phokthavi, SJ. Since 2019, Fr. Phokthavi, a native of Thailand, has been assigned to assist the parish, which floats full-time near the city of Siem Reap in northwest Cambodia. “The church has to move [because of the rainy and dry seasons] like the villagers who live on the lake.” While the parish is not Jesuit, Cambodian Jesuits have long been involved in operations.

Officially named St. Joseph in Prek Toal Village, the church was founded in 2006, about a decade and a half after Catholic worship was permitted to resume in Cambodia.

Religion had been outlawed at the onset of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1975, and it wasn’t until 1990 that Catholic communities were formally reestablished and Catholics were allowed to pray publicly on Easter Sunday with the permission of the Cambodian government.

Many of the ethnically Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia have been fighting to practice their faith even longer, as restrictions on Catholicism in Vietnam date back centuries.

The floating church became a respite for the faithful in that area as they fled war and exigent poverty, and the struggles are still felt today.

Many of the parishioners make their living fishing, which is seasonal. When the season ends, they have few options to earn an income.

“Poverty and poor health are issues for our people,” says Fr. Phokthavi, who has been a Jesuit for 20 years. “My role is to care for the well-being of the souls and lives of the people in Prek Toal.”

Across the lake, on the southern end, another floating church serves the people of Kampong Chhnang province. That church faces many of the same challenges.

“Overwhelming challenges,” says Valentin Grasparil, a Chicago-area supporter of the Jesuits who has visited the church near Siem Reap. “Cambodia is a developing country, and many hearts have been hardened by the decades of civil war.

As my tour guide told me, the people are just tired of killing each other. They wanted the war ended, and they succeeded.” Stigma and danger remained after the war, but against all odds, Catholics found a way to practice their faith.

The late Fr. Heri Bratasudarma, SJ, of Indonesia, was the parish priest of Siem Reap when he oversaw the founding of Prek Toal Church in 2006.

The Jesuits have many works in Cambodia, including a land-based church with educational outreach and charity services in Siem Reap. Years ago, Fr. Bratasudarma told Grasparil during his visit to the area that only seven families on the lake were Catholic. “The church went to them,” Grasparil says. About 25 families belong to the church now.

After Fr. Phokthavi celebrates Mass each Sunday at Prek Toal Church, he visits with the people of the village to learn about their needs. “Prek Toal Church is floating on the water because we want to be in solidarity with the Prek Toal people who have no solid ground to build their lives on,” says Fr. Phokthavi, who is affectionately known to villagers as Fr. Jub. “In this same identity we can communicate with all local people that we are among them, and we are with them to proclaim the good news of hope, peace, and truth.”

Despite the countless physical challenges, the people are committed to maintaining their parish. Their commitment mirrors that of all Catholics in Cambodia; even through decades of repression, the flame of faith has not been extinguished.

From the beginning, St. Ignatius of Loyola envisioned the Society of Jesus as an order of disciples “ready to live in any part of the world where there was hope of God’s greater glory and the good of souls.” The first companions saw their main role as cooperating with God’s plan for the salvation of all people, which was seen as early as 1541, when St. Francis Xavier and two other Jesuits were sent to India to live and work among the people. Nearly 500 years later, Jesuits continue to live and work outside of their home countries, furthering a vision of a universal vocation—regardless of where they are in the world—as fundamental to Jesuit identity.

In 2008, more than 2,000 Jesuits from around the world gathered for the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus to elect a new superior general, Father General Adolfo Nicolás, SJ, and examine the issues central to Jesuit life in the 21st century. The decrees from this gathering emphasized Jesuits’ “availability for the Church’s universal mission, that marks our Society in a particular way, makes sense of our special vow of obedience to the Pope, and makes us a single apostolic body dedicated to serving in the Church, men and women everywhere” (GC 35, Decree 2, §16). In the current vision, the Midwest Province strives to have at least ten percent of its Jesuits ministering outside their own culture.

Today, there are 27 Midwest Jesuits working or studying in 12 provinces outside of the United States. The men are missioned for different lengths of time, based on the assignment and the needs of the respective province. Experiencing a culture other than his own is an important part of Jesuit formation. For example, most Midwest Jesuit novices will spend a summer living and working in Peru or Ecuador. Others, such as Ryan Birjoo, SJ—who is working with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Beirut—may spend their regency abroad.

Other Jesuits may spend the majority of their years of active ministry serving abroad. Father Joseph Mulligan, SJ, for example, has been missioned to Nicaragua since the 1980s, where he works with Christian-based communities and people with disabilities in Managua. Likewise, Fr. Charlie Murtaugh, SJ, has spent decades serving at schools and parishes in Peru, meeting the needs as they evolved. “[When first missioned to Peru,] almost none of us were sent here with a predefined mission. It was mostly go and help,” Fr. Murtaugh says. “Each person’s work evolved from there.”

Concurrently, Jesuits from provinces around the world are sent to the Midwest to live and serve. Currently, there are 32 Jesuits from 24 international provinces residing in the Midwest. Many are studying as part of their formation or working toward a specialized degree at an American university. Others may be serving in campus ministry, such as Fr. Thomas Chillikulam, SJ. Others—such as Fr. Leo Cachat, SJ, of the Nepal Region—are missioned as retreat directors.

Provinces often enter a convenio, a collective agreement that offers opportunities to grow and learn together. The relationships emphasize a cross-cultural, two-way partnership that includes apostolic, formation, and educational exchanges across provinces. Currently, the Midwest Province maintains active convenios with the provinces of Eastern Africa and Peru and the Kohima Region in Northeast India. Father Edmund Yainao, SJ, is from the Kohima Region in India, and he has been missioned to Holy Rosary Mission on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota for more than five years. He is particularly grateful for the experience of living and working among the people on the reservation. “Pine Ridge is very unique, and had I not come here, I would never have experienced some of those very special graces,” Fr. Yainao says.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERIENCE IS ROOTED IN IGNATIAN SPIRITUALITY.

“You don’t have to find God because God will find you here right away. Because our people are going through the Passion of Christ right now, and—as the Bible says—God is never far from his suffering people. So every time I move about, celebrating the sacraments, especially with those who are suffering, officiating funerals like that, you really feel God’s ever closeness to you in a very special way. So that is a very special grace to me.”

The importance of this cross-cultural experience is rooted in Ignatian spirituality. Jesuits are sent to work and live in other cultures because there is “a presumption that God is at work in every culture,” says John Sealey, provincial assistant for justice, ecology, and international ministries. “And so, if a culture is lost, that glimpse of the Gospel is lost. That’s why we’re very keen on protecting and building up culture, retaining culture, and finding God present in all cultures. If we go [to other countries and cultures], then we see God in a new way.”