At 9:30 in the morning of May 24, the first ordination of a Jesuit in Cambodia took place. Fr. Joseph Phongphand Phokthavi (KAM), more fondly known as “Jub”, was ordained by Msgr Emile Descombe, MEP, Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh, at the Church of the Assumption in Battambang, Cambodia.
It was a marvellous community event with both Fr Gabriel Je (KOR), Delegate for the Korean Provincial, and Msgr Kike Figaredo (CAS), Prefect Apostolic of Battambang, as joyful and generous hosts. It was a celebration of the 25 years Jub has spent in Jesuit apostolates since joining JRS in 1985. Refugee friends, co-workers and Jesuit companions from all those years were present, along with Jub’s mother and many brothers and sisters.
Prior to entering the Society, Fr Jub worked as a JRS volunteer for the Cambodian refugees in one of the camps at the Thai border from 1985-1991. He went to Cambodia in 1990 to help returnees in advance of the UN repatriation process for the refugees which started in the early 1990’s. His service for the differently-abled continued as he became the first director of Banteay Prieb, the technical school for the handicapped from 1991 to 1997. After Banteay Prieb, he went back to Thailand to continue working with JRS as a Pastoral worker, this time serving Burmese Refugees mainly in Karen , Kayah (Karenni) and Shan in the Chiang Mai province. He was a member of the JRS team during East Timor’s emergency in 1999.
In 2002, he decided to enter the Society of Jesus. After doing novitiate at the St. Ignatius Novitiate in Singapore, he studied Philosophy at the Ateneo De Manila University in the Philippines for two years, then did his Theology at the Jesuit Theological College, Melbourne, Australia.
It is a great joy for all of us to see Fr. Jub give himself more totally to the service of the Church in Cambodia after his long years of accompaniment of refugees and Cambodians. (Contributor: Fr Kim Tae-jin)
More photos can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/jesuitseao