Category: Church

The Catholic Church in Cambodia.

Marist Brothers Chapter

Every three years the Brothers of the Marist District of Asia have a chapter meeting to reconnect and to discuss issues of governance for their community. In 2016 and in 2019 they met at the pastoral center in Phnom Penh Thmey in Cambodia and both times I was invited to work with them for their liturgical celebrations.

There were 45 brothers attending this chapter. They come from many different countries around the world and they work in 10 or 12 countries in Asia.
The pastoral center has a large chapel that we used for the daily liturgies.
The liturgies were at 6:00 PM and I was invited to eat dinner with the brothers and to stay overnight. On this evening Brother Francis who works in Cambodia was acknowledging some of the brothers who were moving to new missions.

Catholic Church and Disabilities

Today Bishop Olivier asked all the Catholic NGOs that work with people with disabilities to come together for a sharing session. About 12 or 13 groups were represented. The main speaker for the morning was a spokesman from the government’s Disability Action Council
Mr. Te Serey Bon, the director of the Caritas Takeo Eye Hospital (where I had my cataract surgery) made a plea for government funding for programs that the church has set up with government cooperation but without government funding.
A lot of good networking and information sharing takes place
among the participants at the break times.
Bishop Olivier encouraged and thanked all the groups for the work they are doing, especially among some of Cambodia’s poorest people.