Category: Church

Before the actual anniversary mass started at 5:00 PM, there was an exhibition in another building where everyone gathered.

Kike (with flowers) greeted the families and others who had come to celebrate with him.

A central table had many albums of photos. Kike himself is quite a photographer.

The exhibition displays showed many events and people from the last 25 years.

The exhibition was a good opportunity for me to meet with people and tell them goodbye. I will be leaving Cambodia August 11th and most of the people at the anniversary I will not see again. Here I am with Korean Jesuit Fr. Oh Chang, the superior of the Jesuit Cambodia mission.

Today was the 25th anniversary of the installation of Bishop Kike as apostolic prefect of Battambang. I had attended the installation years ago and went to the anniversary.

We left the pastoral center in Phnom Penh at 6:15 AM and stopped an hour later for breakfast in this typical highway restaurant.

Four hours later, a little after noon, we arrived at our hotel which had the mandatory Buddhist shrine and a typical huge wooden sculpture.

At 2:30 we went to the church compound where the anniversary was celebrated. Bishop Olivier arrived shortly after we did.

There was a heavy rain shower after we arrived. We were concerned because the anniversary mass was held outside. There were two rainy periods before the celebration but luckily it held off when the 2,000 people were gathered.

While waiting for the exhibition to begin, we circulated among several displays of events of the last 25 years.

I said I would post more photos today after running out of time yesterday, but it’s 10:14 PM and I just got home. I thought we were supposed to be home at noon but I hadn’t received the full schedule.

Here is one photo–Bishop Kike Figaredo arriving for an exhibition about his 25 years as bishop of Battambang in northern Cambodia. On his right is a retired bishop from Puerto Rico. More to come….

The distinctive twin spires of St. Meinrad Archabbey dominate the countryside and can be seen across the fields and forests of Spencer County, Indiana.

At the liturgy this morning, I proclaimed the first scripture reading.

A special part of this liturgy was the offering of the sacrament of the sick to any of the priests who felt the need for it. Archbishop Shelton Fabre anointed them with the holy oil blessed in Holy Week.

St. Meinrad Archabbey is an old and traditional Benedictine abbey but it is also home to new technology, with a solar power field on the abbey grounds.

For two of the four days we were at St. Meinrad, Sr. Jane Becker presented about the dynamics of a reorganization of a diocese. She had two lectures on each of the two days.

Each day we had a liturgy in the St. Thomas Aquinas chapel.

St. Meinrad Seminary is an old institution in rural southern Indiana, an establishment of Benedictine monks who came from Germany. This is a view from my third-floor window.

This is my room at the seminary, in Anselm Hall. The wide angle makes it look much bigger than it is!

Every year the priests of the Archdiocese of Louisville gather for an assembly, at St. Meinrad Seminary in southern Indiana. This year I was able to join them for the four-day event.

The priests always say the best part of the assemblies is getting together with friends and colleagues.

After a brief opening session, the group walked through an interior courtyard on the way to their first dinner together.

The meals were fantastic, both for the food and for the conversations.

After an evening prayer, the group returned to the dining room for an address by Archbishop Shelton Fabre who spoke of his hopes for this time together.