Category: Church

The Catholic Church in Cambodia.

Will it work out?

When Covid closed the churches in March, 2020 our English Catholic Community had to leave our “home” at World Vision on the south side of Phnom Penh. Many people–those who didn’t leave the country when so many schools and businesses closed–bemoaned the need to travel across Phnom Penh to St. Joseph Church for mass. Now we have been able to resume mass on the south side again, at the DK Centre. It offers quite a nice auditorium that we used before special occasions like Ash Wednesday.

We are having our Saturday mass there during the month of July to see if people find out about the new venue and if they come. We need a certain number of people to be able to afford this new expense.

Women in the image of God

Following up last Sunday’s first reading from Isaiah which gave a feminine image for God, here is a selection from theologian Elizabeth Johnson:

The women’s movement in civil society and the church has shed a bright light on the pervasive exclusion of women from the realm of public symbol formation and decision making, and women’s consequent strong enforced subordination to the imagination and needs of a world designed chiefly by men. In the church this exclusion has been effective virtually everywhere: in ecclesial creeds, doctrines, prayers, theological systems, liturgical worship, patterns of spirituality, visions of mission, church order, leadership and discipline.

It has been stunningly effective in speech about God. While officially it is rightly and consistently said that God is spirit and so beyond identification with either male or female sex, yet the daily language of preaching, worship, catechesis, and instruction conveys a different message: God is male, or at least more like a man than a woman, or at least more fittingly addressed as male than as female…. Upon examination it becomes clear that this exclusive speech about God serves in manifold ways to support…a world that excludes or subordinates women. Wittingly or not, it undermines women’s human dignity as equally created in the image of God.

She Who Is (p. 4)

Bangkok Chinese Temples

A century ago, in New England and in towns with large immigrant populations, there were many, many Catholic Churches on street corners, sometimes two or three at an intersection, each serving a different language group. Here in Bangkok the ubiquitous parishes are replaced by ubiquitous Chinese temples in the neighborhoods in this mostly Buddhist country. This photo doesn’t give a good idea of what they’re like.

Maryknoll Bangkok House

One of the nice things about being part of Maryknoll is that through the years there was always a place to stay in many countries in Asia where Maryknoll had a presence. This photo is of a third-floor porch at the Maryknoll house in Bangkok. It’s not much for scenery but being able to stay at the house while I am in Bangkok for medical exams is wonderful.

Priests Retreat — Days 4 & 5

On Friday evening, the priests had a barbecue outside at the pastoral center.

Bishop Olivier used it as an opportunity to announce all the clergy changes and to what parishes different priests were going.
The annual retreats have always been a special occasion for the priests, a time to get together with friends who are far separated in the provincial parishes.
The next morning representatives from the parishes and groups and the faithful of the diocese came together with the priests to discuss ideas for Pope Francis’ synod.
All those attending were divided into four groups to give final recommendations for the synod document.