Fr Kim Taejin (KOR) moved to the parish in Kampong Thom on August 4 for a three-month pastoral experience from August to October 2008. He is working with Fr Franco Legnani, PIME at the parish church.
Fr Vincent Dierckx, missioned to Cambodia after his initial work in the refugees camps at the Thai-Cambodia borders in the 1980s, died in Belgium on August 4. He had returned to Belgium in 2005 after becoming bed-ridden from a fall. The sad news of his demise was received on August 5, when the community of Phnom Penh and Banteay Prieb was to gather for the weekly sharing. Appropriately, the mass was celebrated in the chapel, which was the former room of Fr Vincent.
On August 19, Jesuit Service Cambodia staff of Phnom Penh and Banteay Prieb, Team members and friends gathered for a memorial service for Fr Vincent at the Jesuit Service Cambodia Office in Phnom Penh. Msgr Kike Figerado (CAS) presided at the mass, with the readings in both English and Khmer.
In his homily, Msgr Kike shared how he had met Fr Vincent as a young scholastic in 1988 in the refugee camps at the Thai-Cambodia border, and how despite his age, Fr Vincent followed the refugees back to serve them in Cambodia. While a highly qualified university professor, Fr Vincent served everyone with gentleness and made all felt welcomed and loved. Fr Totet Banaynal (PHI) remembered how as a regent in Banteay Prieb in 1994-95, he would find in Fr Vincent a warm welcome each time he visited the Phnom Penh house. Fr Vincent would give himself to listening to the young Jesuits out in the field, even as his own work was more confined to Phnom Penh. Sr Luise Ahrens, a Maryknoll Sister and an English Professor at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, recalled Fr Vincent’s passion for Science. He had inspired the faculties of the Royal University of Phnom Penh by being free and joyful when doing Science. How right it is for Fr Totet to encapsulate that warmth and love for people as the "Fr Vincent effect", which he himself seeks to emulate in his own ministry in Cambodia now. (Here’s a blog created in memory of Fr Vincent.)
Fr Yom Yong-sop Lorenzo (KOR) visited the Cambodia Mission on his way back to Korea after finishing his assignment as Director of Campion Institute in Yangon, and Treasurer of the Myanmar Mission. He had spent the last months of his mission helping the victims of Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar in May 2008. Fr Lorenzo proceeded for his Tertainship in Ireland in September 2008, after a well-deserved rest back in Korea.
Jesuit Service Cambodia organized a seminar for primary school teachers, including principals, at the Jesuit Service Cambodia Reflection Centre at Siem Reap, from August 13 – 15. Ms Kaureen Keer, who works for the Catholic Education Office of the Diocese of Christchurch, New Zealand, and Sr Anne Sklenars, RSM gave sessions on pedagogy, teaching methodology and the philosophy of teaching.
Fr Frank Brennan (ASL), Professor of Human Rights, Australian Catholic University gave "A Discussion: Ethics/Religion/Morality in Law Politics and Public Policy" at the Jesuit House in Phnom Penh on August 19. Fr Frank, who spent three months at the Site 2 Refugee Camp at the Thai-Cambodia border in 1988, has been visiting Cambodia over the years since then. The session was most enlightening to the more than 30 Jesuit Service Cambodia Team members and staff, missionaries, NGO staff working in Cambodia, and Cambodian Civil leaders present, given the laxity of laws and law enforcement in the country.
Fr Gabriel Je (KOR) directed a retreat for members of the Korean Missionary Society from China and Cambodia at the Kampong Saom Catholic Church Retreat House from August 18 – 23.
The Higher Education Committee met at the Jesuit House, Phnom Penh on August 25 to continue the discussion on the role it could play in the mission of the Church in Cambodia. The Higher Education Committee is now working to contribute to capacity building in higher education in Cambodia. In collaboration with Sogang University, a Jesuit University in Seoul, South Korea, it is offering two to three scholarships for Master degrees to graduates or young faculty members of Cambodian universities. The scholars will be selected by October 2008 to begin a three-month course in Korean Language in December 2008 in preparation for academic year 2009 in Seoul.