The Jesuit Bishop in Cambodia, Fr Enrique Figaredo (CAS), or “Kike” as he is familiarly called, told the Fathers of the District about recent Jesuit work in Cambodia when he addressed them at their February meeting.  After the meeting, Fr Figaredo visited Hiroshima accompanied by Frs Cangas and Lee.

Jesuits have been working in Cambodia since 1980, above all in the refugee camps in Thailand following the Pol Pot reign of terror and during the ongoing civil conflict.   Fr Figaredo himself volunteered to go there from Spain for three years of regency in 1985.

After being ordained a priest, Fr Figaredo returned to Cambodia and after tertianship was appointed Apostolic Vicar for Battambang in northwest Cambodia. In his diocese, he encourages faith education of new Christians, introducing traditional Cambodian music and dance into the liturgy, formation of lay leaders by providing them with opportunities to study up to university level, formation towards gospel values in a secular society lacking in honesty and other human virtues, interreligious dialogue, collaboration with Buddhists, help and technical training for handicapped children, mainly victims of landmines. The Jesuit mission devised a wheelchair made from local materials for landmine victims that became a model for the whole country.

In 2006, Fr General Kolvenbach entrusted the Cambodia Mission to the Province of Korea while remaining a project supported by the whole Jesuit Conference .  The Jesuits in Cambodia are also supported by the Jesuits in Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Australia, and Japan, and collaborate closely with other religious, such as the Salesians.

Fr Jose Catret, SJ News Japan March 2011