Category: Church

The Catholic Church in Cambodia.

KOMISO Bakery Training

KOMISO is a project of the Korean Mission Society in Cambodia, a Catholic mission group from Korea like Maryknoll is from the United States. KOMISO offers vocational training to poor, under educated young people, offering three skills: motorcycle repair, baking, and beauty salon work. We have been discussing with them the acceptance of deaf students for training.

Our students are interested in the beauty work and baking. Last week I visited the KOMISO training center and met the trainees and the Korean couple (rear) who are teaching the baking.

On that day the training was on creating the different types of figures that are placed on top of cakes. It was amazing to see the craftsmanship that goes into the decorative figures. Three of our deaf graduates are interested in the baking.

All the students live at the training center while they go through the six-month courses. In addition to the technical skills they learn, they also have one hour a day in character development, to teach them good values.

I am anxious for our students to start training there.

Beginning the Christmas liturgy

Tonight we began our celebration of the Christmas season with a 6:30 PM mass on Christmas Eve. We had a lot of people we don’t usually see and it was a good group. Here Fr. Charlie and the thurifer (incense bearer) bow as they approach the altar in the entrance procession. A Christmas nativity scene is set up before the altar.

Preparing for Christmas

On Sundays we have our second English mass at St. Joseph Church. Yesterday their workers were setting up a stage and decoration for a large-scale mass on Christmas Eve that will attract many from the neighborhood.

A century and a half ago, this building was the seminary for the French mission group in charge of French Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam).

More decorations ready to hang.

Catholic Social Teaching

Come Jan. 20, on the inaugural day of his second term, President-elect Trump has promised voters that he will begin a massive deportation effort. It is a deeply menacing threat without any indication of how matters of due process, human rights, respect of persons, respect of families and other matters of human dignity, justice and mercy will govern the deportation. And though we see indications that some Republicans will try to tone down Mr. Trump’s threats, many members of the party that will take control of every branch of our government on that day have not taken any evident steps to address the massive deportation itself.

I, for one, am not waiting for Inauguration Day. I think the threat of mass deportation needs to be urgently addressed by bishops, teachers, theologians, politicians and preachers. We cannot wait to see what happens, especially since the President-elect insists that he means business on that day.

James F. Keenan, S.J., in America

Don Bosco Charity Dinner

Last night the Don Bosco Vocational Training Center in the Tuol Kork area of Phnom Penh had a fund-raising dinner. That is the school where I go for mass early Monday mornings with the sisters and some of the students. The school teaches hospitality skills like food preparation, and it was good to see the students dressed up in their uniforms and serving the meal. A number of people from our English parish were in attendance.

Different styles

Not all priests should offer the sacrament of reconciliation (confession). Not all priests should preside at mass. Not all priests should preach. Just because a man is ordained doesn’t mean he has the training or the skill and ability to do those things well.

Most priests (I hope) spend time preparing to preach. But those who do prepare have different styles. I know a couple priests who write out their homilies word for word. Myself, I use bullet points in an outline. The photo above shows how another priest prepared for preaching today, the 1st Sunday of Advent. His notes above would not help me but they helped him give a really good homily. Different strokes for different folks….

Autism School Concert

The Catholic Church is one of the major actors in providing schools for children in Cambodia with autism. Today the Church of the Child Jesus in the Boeung Tum Pun area of Phnom Penh had a benefit concert to raise money for an enlarged school building on their campus. Performing was a professional ensemble of singers and musicians from Japan.