Yves Ramousse
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Yves Ramousse | |
|---|---|
| Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh | |
 Yves Ramousse coming back to Cambodia in 1992 | |
| Archdiocese | Phnom Penh |
| See | Cambodia |
| Appointed | 12 November 1962 |
| Predecessor | Joseph Chhmar Salas |
| Other post(s) | Apostolic Prefect of Battambang (1992-2000) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 4 April 1953 |
| Consecration | 24 April 1963 by Gustave Raballand, apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh Henri Pinault, bishop of Chengdu Jean-Pierre Dozolme, bishop of Puy-en-Velay |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Yves-Georges-René Ramousse 23 February 1928 |
| Died | 25 February 2021 (aged 93) Montauban, France |
| Denomination | Roman Catholicism |
| Education | Pontifical French Seminary |
| Alma mater | Pontifical Gregorian University |
| Coat of arms |  |
Yves Ramousse (23 February 1928 – 25 February 2021, in Montauban) was a French Catholic bishop, member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP) and Vicar Apostolic Emeritus of Phnom Penh in Cambodia since 2001.
Khmer genocide
Yves Ramousse was ordained a priest on 4 April 1953 for the Foreign Missions of Paris and in 1957 he was sent for the mission to Cambodia.[1]
Appointed vicar apostolic of Phnom Penh in Cambodia on 12 November 1962 with the title of bishop in partibus of Pisita, he was consecrated on 24 February 1963 by his predecessor, at the age of 35 making him the youngest bishop in the world at that time.
He participated in Sessions 2, 3 and 4 of Vatican Council II,[1] of which he was one of the youngest participants.
As the political situation decayed in Cambodia, Ramousse tried his best to promote initiatives of peace and reconciliation in line with the encyclical Pacem in Terris of Pope John XXIII and initiatives of Pope Paul VI in the wake of the Cold War.[2] However, he was accused of being incapable of making any decisions, though the aftermath shows how complicated the situation actually was.[3] Following the Cambodian civil war, he resigned from his duties on 30 April 1976 in favor of a Khmer priest Joseph Chhmar Salas whom he secretly[4] ordained bishop in Phnom Penh shortly before the expulsion of Western nationals by the Khmer Rouge. Salas, who was the first native Khmer bishop, would shortly after die a martyr in the killing fields of Pol Pot. With many others after the Khmer Rouge had entered Phnom Penh, Ramousse was locked up at the French Embassy for 12 days before being expelled from Cambodia along with all foreign nationals.[5] He took refuge in Indonesia and obtained on 6 January 1983 from the Congregation for the evangelization of peoples the creation of an Office for the promotion of the apostolate among the Khmer people of which he became the first director.[6]
