Category: Church

The Catholic Church in Cambodia.

MKLM Anniversary/Thursday

August 14-17, the Maryknoll Lay Missioners are celebrating their 50th anniversary at Maryknoll, New York. I flew up from Louisville to celebrate and reflect on the 38 years I spent with the lay mission group.

It’s always so pleasant to come back to the beautiful Maryknoll seminary building.

Registration was in the Walsh Building and as soon as I walked in, I encountered our former Cambodian colleagues, Dave and Judy Saumweber and Sami Scott.

After the mass we had dinner at the Sisters Center.

The first official function was a mass for all the guests at the chapel of the Sisters Center. I interpreted the first scripture reading into sign language.

The first day program ended with reflections on Maryknoll by Sr. Ellen McDonald and Fr. John Sivalon (pictured here).

St. Joseph Farewell for Charlie

Today at the 10:30 AM mass we had a farewell for Charlie. This was his last mass with the English Catholic Community in Phnom Penh before returning to the United States tomorrow.

At the homily Charlie spoke of faith, not as assent to a series theological statements but rather a force that leads us to do as Jesus asks us.
A special part of this liturgy was the presence of deaf people and staff (front row, all Buddhist) from the Deaf Development Programme with Maryknoll Lay Missioner Julie Lawler interpreting in Cambodian Sign Language for them.
After some reflections there was time to take photos of various groups within our English Catholic Community. Here are the various liturgical ministers who serve our community.

St. Jude Farewell for Charlie

Tonight I had my last mass at St. Jude school, our Saturday night venue, and we had a full house. Afterwards we had a simple farewell program. Fr. Kevin, who has been with me for 20 of my 25 years, introduced the program after the final prayer of the mass.

Before mass Benilda Fernando, a pillar of the English Catholic Community, Hang Tran, a Maryknoll Lay Missioner, and Fr. Kevin Conroy and I got together for a photo.

Before leading the blessing of the community for me, Fr. Kevin spoke of our living and working together in the parish community. It was a really well developed reflection and I immensely appreciated it.

And another goodbye

For 37 years I worked with the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, especially in Hong Kong and Cambodia. In Cambodia we work with lay missioners from other countries and some of the international group got together for an Italian dinner opportunity to say goodbye to me.

St. Vincent de Paul Meeting

Today the St. Vincent de Paul Society of our English Catholic Community met with the national leadership of the SVDP group in Cambodia to talk about our experiences and to get our English group more closely aligned to the SVDP worldwide model. It was a good meeting!

SVDP is a lay organization, i.e., it is not run by priests but by lay people. Priests are not supposed to be regular members. I’m still involved because I started SVDP with our English community and am helping with formation.

Two things are really important in the Catholic Church:
• the eucharist: at the Last Supper, Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me.”
• serving the poor: again at the Last Supper, washing the feet of the disciples, Jesus said “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

Those were Jesus’ explicit commands. He never said build hospitals, run Catholic universities, protect the environment. Those are all good things and we must do them. But when it came down to the essentials, he wanted us to gather and support each other in the eucharist and then go out and serve the poor.

[More tomorrow…]

Kike’s Anniversary 6

The morning after the anniversary we headed out on a circuitous route to Phnom Penh, for some sight-seeing. First, though,we had breakfast.

The first stop was a durian plantation. Our group really enjoyed that and bought probably a couple hundred pounds of the fruit with the spikey hull and pungent smell.

The second stop was at a park along really high and really fast river. People enjoyed nature for an hour and then we ate lunch in the little shelters around the area and then headed home. Good trip….

Kike’s Anniversary 5

After the mass, many people crowded around Bishop Kike to congratulate him and take photos with him.

Then there was a dinner for everyone, and after the food, there was an hour of dances and performance of various kinds.

The next morning there was a mass at 6:15 AM for those who wanted to pray before starting their return journey home.

Lots of goodbyes and photos followed.

And then it was time for the clean-up to begin.

Kike’s Anniversary 4

Prior to the anniversary mass, there was a welcome to all the guests near the church compound entrance and then an introduction to the evening’s celebration.

There were four classical Khmer dances throughout the evening. This one included young women in wheelchairs, recognizing Kike’s work with people with disabilities.

Young boys with peacock feather headgear waiting to participate in the procession.

Then the whole gathering, followed by the clergy, processed to the stage where the mass was held.

Arriving at the open-air mass site. About 2,000 people were expected for the event. Luckily the rain stopped during the mass.

One of the Jesuits explained what was happening to a Buddhist monk invited to represent the Buddhists Kike works with. The poor monk was probably rather bored sitting through the 2:15 hour ceremony.

Kike’s Anniversary 3

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.