By Michael Bistis, SCJ
THAILAND – Nearly 2,000 lay faithful, most of them Indigenous Karen, Akha, Hmong, Kachin and Lahu Catholics from northern Thailand, gathered at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Chiang Mai on Oct. 24 for a thanksgiving Eucharist marking 75 years of the Betharram mission in the country.
Hundreds of priests and religious also joined the celebration.
Bishop Peter Suphot Roeksujarit of Chiang Mai presided over the Mass. He was joined by Bishop Joseph Vuthilert Haelom of Chiang Rai, another diocese born of the Betharram mission, and Apostolic Nuncio to Thailand Archbishop Peter Bryan Wells.
Bishop Peter praised the missionary zeal of the Betharram priests and acknowledged that without their arrival, the Diocese of Chiang Mai would not be what it is today.
He named the pioneers and recalled the mountain stations they reached on foot, many of which later became diocesan mission centers and parishes.
Roots in France and China
The Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram were founded in 1835 at the shrine of Our Lady of Betharram in southwestern France by St Michael Garicoits.
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