A life of faith, perseverance, and sacrifice

Feb 14, 2025

Fr Tito Banchong Thopanhong the Apostolic Administrator of Luang Prabang from 1999 to 2019, passed away in Vientiane, January 25 at the age of 78. A member of the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Fr Thopanhong succumbed to a long illness caused both by natural causes and the physical toll of his 50 years of hardship and imprisonment.

“The character trait that was to mark him throughout his life was humility: a humility modeled on Jesus Christ,” said Fr Angelo Pelis, an Oblate missionary who was director of the seminary in Luang Prabang when Thopanhong was studying between 1958 and 1969. He was a “simple, reserved, gentle and smiling boy,” the missionary told Fides.

Born in 1947 in the Hmong village of Kiukiatan, northern Laos, Fr Thopanhong was baptised at age eight along with his family. He was deeply influenced by his early interactions with Italian Oblate Fr Mario Borzaga, who was later beatified in 2016 and for whom he was one of the altar boys. “Tito retained a precious memory of this priest who profoundly marked his life,” recalls his confrère, Fr Fabio Ciardi.

After completing his seminary formation in Italy, Thopanhong decided to return to Laos in 1975, a decision shaped by his devotion to serving his homeland. During that year, Laos had shifted to communist rule, with a government set up in the northern provinces of Laos. All religious presence was forbidden, and Oblate Bishop Alessandro Staccioli was expelled with no hope of returning. However, Thopanhong, with permission from his bishop and his seminary superior, discreetly returned to Laos and was secretly ordained a priest in Vientiane. That same year in September, the communists took control of the whole country. “I have chosen the Church of Laos, and I feel that God wants me there,” he wrote before his return. “I am no longer afraid because I belong to the Lord. I am ready for anything. I am very happy. No one can separate me from Him. Every day, I discover more and more that He is with me. I have Him... He asks me for everything, and I give Him everything,” Fr Thopanhong wrote in one of his letters, which were later collected in a book, Even in Prison I can Love.

The regime’s tight control over religion made pastoral ministry a dangerous endeavour. Fr Thopanhong served as a clandestine priest for years, risking imprisonment while ministering to the small Laotian Catholic community. Despite the constant threat of arrest, Fr Thopanhong never condemned those in power. “With love, you can also break the bonds of hatred,” he once remarked. Fr Thopanhong was imprisoned three times between 1976 and 1983, with his whereabouts unknown during his imprisonment, where he said he “learned to find even in the cruellest hardships the tenderness of God's love.” During his last imprisonment, many feared he had been killed, but he was eventually released. He travelled extensively through Laos after his release, visiting scattered Catholic families. “After they released me, I was able to visit all the Christians, and I found them. Many who had been there for over 30 years no longer had priests,” he wrote.

In 1999, Fr Thopanhong was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Luang Prabang, a position he held until his retirement in 2019. During this time, he began rebuilding the Laotian Catholic community and was instrumental in securing permission to build the first new Catholic church in northern Laos since the communist revolution of 1975. He told Fides that he was “very edified by the faith and devotion of the local families.”

In 2016, Fr Thopanhong participated in the beatification of 17 Laotian martyrs killed by communist resistance fighters between 1954 and 1970, including the Italian Missionary Fr Borzaga and local catechist Paul Thoj Xyooj, who were killed in 1960. Fr Thopanhong had cherished their memory, and their beatification was a powerful reminder of the sacrifices made for the faith. --LCI