Category: Church

The Catholic Church in Cambodia.

On the Road Again….

The best part of a return trip to Cambodia is meeting up with friends. L to R are Wyn, Maria, Charlie, Julie, Pedro, Robert, Kylene, and Kila who have continued the Maryknoll tradition of meeting every Wednesday (now Thursday) for a home liturgy and meal.

Another good part of a return trip to Phnom Penh is being in a city where there are people on the streets, interacting, passing each other, and not just contained in air-conditioned homes and offices and cars.
The new Phnom Penh airport terminal.

The name ot the new Phnom Penh airport which opened a year ago is Techo International Airport. ” Techo” is an honorific, an adjective title given to the Prime Minister and to a few others. it basically means one who is great. So it’s something of an oddity to name an airport Great International. More irritating and confusing is that the way Cambodia has presented the name, the name of the destination appears on flight schedules and gate boards as Techno, not as Phnom Penh. It’s bizarre. Some Cambodian ministry didn’t think this one through. Travelers looking for their flight to Phnom Penh need to know they are looking for Techo.

The True Self

Thomas Merton, the Trappist Monk, is noted for his conception of the true self, the real person who is often obscured by fears or insecurities or sinfulness or other factors.

Yesterday’s 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time gospel was the story of the father who asked his two sons to work in the vineyard. One said he wouldn’t but then did the work. The other said he would work but then refused to do it.

Here is a commentary from Daily Prayer 2026 that places that gospel story in the context of an understanding of the true self:

Here and There, Then and Now

After 42 years in Asia, I returned home to Kentucky. But it isn’t the home I left. Things I saw THEN are different NOW. Life HERE is different from life THERE. Here is another example of the differences.

then

Funeral homes have a long tradition of providing “Comfort & Service to Families” upon the death of a loved one, as the Rattermans ad below indicates.

now

The loved ones of the family apparently now include the family pets. I wouldn’t have seen THAT forty years ago!

A compassionate, constructive approach

I often think, myself, that we need to do a lot better job in the church to explain what the “common good” entails, and I would argue it’s not good for society if you are separating families. Regardless of whether or not they’re documented. If they’re peaceable families, and people are working, you need to find another way to kind of address the fact that they’re in an irregular [document] situation, like an expired tourist visa which could be addressed rather than just simply deporting the father, because that causes a rupture in what is a basic good of society, which is: You keep families together, you allow them to work to feed their families, and you address whatever legal issues are there within the context of the least disruption possible.

Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas (quoted in the NCR)

Prayer for the Elections

Lord God, as the election approaches,
we seek to better understand the issues and concerns that confront our city/state/country,
and how the Gospel compels us to respond as faithful citizens in our community.
We ask for eyes that are free from blindness
so that we might see each other as brothers and sisters,
one and equal in dignity,
especially those who are victims of abuse and violence, deceit and poverty.
We ask for ears that will hear the cries of children unborn and those abandoned,
Men and women oppressed because of race or creed, religion or gender.
We ask for minds and hearts that are open to hearing the voice of leaders who will bring us closer to your Kingdom.

We pray for discernment
so that we may choose leaders who hear your Word,
live your love,
and keep in the ways of your truth
as they follow in the steps of Jesus and his Apostles
and guide us to your Kingdom of justice and peace.

We ask this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Coming September 3….

In 2024, Pope Francis proclaimed the Final Document of the Synod on Synodality to be magisterial teaching [official doctrine], including the historic Paragraph 60 on women’s leadership in the Church. Under Pope Leo, our Church has entered the 2025-2028 Synod Implementation Phase, where all of the baptized are called to implement the proposals of the Synod’s Final Document and to report back on their experiences of living into synodality. Below is a quote from Paragraph 60 of the final document of the synod.

[From Paragraph 60] There are women who hold positions of authority and are leaders of their communities. This Assembly asks for full implementation of all the opportunities already provided for in Canon Law with regard to the role of women, particularly in those places where they remain underutilised. There is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the Church: what comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped. Additionally, the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open. This discernment needs to continue.

Notable Quote

In the coming Sunday gospel, Jesus says we must take up our cross and follow him.

What would the life Jesus is offering, with its cross, look like now, in this world? It would mean becoming compassionate people, having integrity and strength in our relationships, and being courageous as we speak and act on behalf of the least among us.

What a paradox! We find our true life not by clinging desperately to ourselves, but by giving ourselves away in love.

Fr. Jude Siciliano, OP — Preacher Exchange

Fratelli Tutti

We forget that “there is no worse form of alienation than to feel uprooted, belonging to no one. A land will be fruitful, and its people bear fruit and give birth to the future, only to the extent that it can foster a sense of belonging among its members, create bonds of integration between generations and different communities, and avoid all that makes us insensitive to others and leads to further alienation”.

Pope Francis in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, #53