Church – Page 6 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

DC Sisters Anniversary 1

25 years ago the sisters of the Daughters of Charity from the Thailand Province came to Cambodia and started ministering in Battambang in the northern part of the kingdom. Tomorrow they have an anniversary celebration at the Catholic center in Battambang and today sisters from different provinces and their friends from Cambodia started coming together.

This is the residence building on the church compound where I am staying. We arrived about 2:00 PM after a six-hour drive from Phnom Penh.

At the end of the welcoming mass, Bishop Kike invited all the Daughters of Charity to come to the front to be recognized.

After the welcoming mass, the sisters and guests gathered for a great meal.

Tangkok Pilgrimage

During the Pol Pot era, many Catholics were killed by the Khmer Rouge. Some of them have been proposed to the church as actual modern martyrs. Every year the Church of Cambodia has a celebration at Tangkok where there is a shrine to the martyrs. It has been reported that next year, Pope Francis will officially canonize martyrs from Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.

These photos are from yesterday’s ceremony in Tangkok.

Another Farewell

Today Benjamin Jerome, Sheila, and their son Isaiah left Phnom Penh for a new job and a new home in Laos. They have been a very active part of our English Catholic Community for the past nine years helping with coffee and doughnuts, serving as lector, communion minister, and altar server, and just contributing to the life of our group in so many ways. We will miss them. May God truly bless them in this new stage of their lives.

Priests Retreat–4

An extended dinner conversation among friends.

Priests Retreat–Day 3

Fr. Miguel, the retreat master, and Bishop Kike working on a computer glitch.

The priests of Cambodia gathered for a liturgy in the parish church. (I don’t know why so many of the guys feel the need to dress up in albs and stoles–an indication of clericalism to me.)

Me with a group of Jesuits after one of the talks. The Jesuits have a REALLY good presence here in Cambodia with some REALLY good men.

Priests Retreat–Day 2

The two retreat talks each day are presented in this large hall at the edge of the property. This year the hall has new doors that enclose the room and air conditioning has been added.

Fr. Miguel, a Jesuit priest who has spent the last 50+ years in Thailand, is leading our retreat.

The liturgy on the first full day was organized by the Kampong Cham priests.

Priests Retreat — Day 1

Today about 60 priests from Cambodia gathered at the Catholic center in Sihanoukville on the coast for a week of retreat.

Four of us drove down together but before we left Phnom Penh we had lunch at an NGO restaurant where we ran into some lay missioners.

Arriving at the center at St. Michael Church, our group checked the room list to see which building they would sleep in.

At 5:30 PM we had a short opening ceremony which featured a musical group composed of quite young children who played traditional instruments and danced.

The three bishops and retreat leader and our host priests sat at a head table for the music and dancing and introductions.

The young women in black and white are students from the food and beverage training program at the Salesian school where I have mass on Monday mornings. They are getting practical experience working this retreat.

Welcome, Sami…

Sami Scott is a Maryknoll Lay Missioner who formerly worked in Venezuela and Cambodia and is now assigned to Haiti. Because of the unrest and violence there, she has had to leave Haiti and is now on a visit to Cambodia.

Sami (pink top) joined us for our regular Wednesday afternoon gathering for mass.

Then our group, coming from eight different countries, had a pizza dinner.

Pentecost

More engaging and certainly more colorful than my making macaroni and cheese on Sunday was our celebration of Pentecost with the combined Khmer, Vietnam, French, Korean, and English communities.

38 mostly young people received the sacrament of confirmation at the Pentecost mass. It is the tradition here for those being confirmed to wear red and white traditional dress.

Several adults from the Korean community received confirmation, and afterwards all the Koreans present gathered for a photo with Bishop Olivier.

Sr. Carmel, MC / Funeral

Sr. Carmel, a Missionary of Charity assigned to Siem Reap, died April 12, the day before the Khmer New Year. We just had her funeral today because there was no one in town to certify her death two weeks ago because they all left to spend the new year in their home provinces.