Church – Page 42 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Farewell at World Vision

In two weeks, Fr. Bob Wynne will take up a new assignment at the Maryknoll house in Seattle, Washington. Tonight was the last time he would celebrate the liturgy with the Saturday night congregation which meets at World Vision auditorium. He spoke about his mission in Cambodia and at the end of mass the community thanked him and gave him a gift.

Francis Chronicles

Pat Marrin is an artist who applies his skills to church themes connected with Pope Francis. He does a really good job of giving new insights into current issues such as the sexual abuse scandal or caring for the environment. His comic strips on Pope Francis are published twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Here is his latest strip, again taking a stance on clergy sexual abuse and the cover-up:

You can have an e-mail sent to you about each new Pope Francis cartoon by going to this address:

https://www.ncronline.org/news/environment/francis-chronicles/francis-comic-strip

Going to church….

Heavy rains–it’s the rainy season–plus extra water from a collapsed dam in Laos have raised the river levels quite high in Phnom Penh. Bishop Olivier experienced a bit more difficulty than usual in making visits to the parishes along the river. Click here for more.

A New Year

We had the opening ceremony for our religious education program today. We have a great bunch of students and really dedicated staff helping us.

Hosanna Church Visit

DDP has become quite well known in the deaf world since 1997 and many deaf people–individuals and groups–come to see us. This past week, Hosanna Church in Busan, Korea visited. They are a deaf congregation and we had a good visit.

After listening to a presentation of the work of DDP and asking questions, the church group sang us a hymn in Korean Sign Language.

Then the Koreans gave gift bags to the staff and the trainees in our DDP barber shop. One Korean wanted to get a haircut but there wasn’t time!

Notable Quotes

““A church without charity and mercy is no longer the church of God.”

~ Pope Francis

Happy Sisters

This past Sunday I had a special mass for the Salesian Sisters who were just finishing up their week-long retreat and also celebrating the 146th anniversary of their community. The retreat must have had a good effect because they were in a joyous mood at breakfast after mass!

LaValla Graduation

One of the more joyful and life-giving schools in Cambodia is the Marist Brothers’ LaValla School for children with physical disabilities. They have done such an excellent job in welcoming these young people, giving them a positive identity, and equipping them with a basic education that allows them to go on to a government secondary school. Last Wednesday was graduation day for this year’s top class and it was definitely a day to celebrate the accomplishments of the students and the school.

Graduation 2018

Today the three Salesian Sisters technical schools for girls had their graduation, for a little over 100 young women. Two of the schools are in Phnom Penh where one focuses on office skills and the other provides training in cooking, sewing, etc. The third school is Battambang and it provides more of the technical skills like cooking.

Before the ceremony, these young women–like graduates everywhere–got pictures of their friends whom they never see again.

Then it was time to march into the auditorium for the 24th graduation ceremony for the Salesian Sisters’ training programs for young women from poor areas.

After an opening report on the school year, the first year students sang a song of farewell to their old sister students graduating from the second year.

Asia Lay Mission Forum–Sunday

Today began with sharing of mission experience which was followed by a closing liturgy, some traditional Khmer dancing, and lunch. Click here to see pictures from the last day of the forum.