From Tali to Thai Hills: Betharram mission marks 75 years walking with Indigenous Peoples

Bishop Peter Suphot Roeksujarit presided over a Mass at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Chiang Mai on Oct. 24 to mark 75 years of the Betharram mission in Thailand. The celebration included Archbishop Peter Bryan Wells, the Apostolic Nuncio to Thailand, and Bishop Joseph Vuthilert Haelom of Chiang Rai. Approximately 2,000 people attended, including many Indigenous Catholics from the Karen, Akha, Hmong, Kachin, and Lahu communities.

The mission began in the early 1950s after political upheaval in China forced the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram to leave Yunnan Province. Following their expulsion from China, missionaries arrived in Bangkok in November 1951 and reached Chiang Mai in December 1951. Bishop Louis Chorin of Bangkok assigned them to work among ethnic minorities in the northern highlands.

Bishop Roeksujarit noted that the presence of the Betharram priests shaped the current state of the Diocese of Chiang Mai. He recalled how early missionaries traveled on foot to reach mountain stations that later became parishes and mission centers. The congregation's work has primarily served the Lanna region and provinces such as Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son.