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The Catholic Church in Cambodia.
This year we have an especially large group of young men and women in our English Catholic community who are graduating from secondary school and moving on to universities. At our mass this morning we recognized them and gave them a blessing as they all prepare to depart to other countries for the next phase of their education. From L to R: Charlotte, Bea, Miriam, Mikael, Juliyus, and Manuel. Congratulations to you all!
Today we basically just had mass and breakfast and then everyone took off for points north. Click here for the final retreat pictures.
This was the last full day of the priests retreat and it involved some concluding activities. Click here to view the day.
This third full day of retreat followed the same pattern as the first two except that we had a little less rain. Just as much good food! Click here for pictures of the day.
Today was the second day of retreat for the priests, made different by the rains–sometimes heavy–that fell during the night and day. Click here for pictures from the day.
Today was the first full day of retreat after the travel day yesterday to Kampong Som Province on the Gulf of Thailand. Click here for pictures from the day as the retreat started.
Monday was a day for traveling from all over Cambodia (about the size of Wyoming) to Sihanoukville down on the southern coast of the kingdom. The distances are not actually that great but for some of the priests it is a two-day trip because of the difficulty of travel in Cambodia. This is Archbishop Sebastian Francis, our retreat leader. Click here to see pictures from Monday.
Today was the beginning of the annual retreat for all the priests of Cambodia. It is held at the Catholic center in Sihanoukville and for most of us it was a travel day to this southernmost province in the kingdom. In the picture, Bishop Olivier welcomes everyone to the gathering
The Internet doesn’t reach to my room and I have to go to another building to make these posts so I probably will only get to post things here once a day. On Tuesday I will set up a main page for the retreat which will link to the individual days.
Many of the international schools in Phnom Penh are giving final exams to their students in May, and in the religious education program for the English-speaking Catholic community, we had our final class this past weekend. There weren’t any exams but rather we had a farewell for Ms. Beata Pratiwi (far right) who has been a coordinator for the program but is now returning to Indonesia.
Today we had our Easter morning liturgy at St. Joseph Church with a very large crowd and coffee and doughnuts afterward. Click here to see the pictures, but scroll down to Easter Sunday Morning.