Sr Denise Coghlan (RSM), Director of Jesuit Service Cambodia, was made a Member of the Order of Australia on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2008, for her service to international humanitarian aid. Click here to read more.
Fr Gabriel Je (KOR), Delegate of the Korea Provincial, attended the Major Superiors meeting in Tokyo from June 26 – 29, at the invitation of Fr Mark Raper, the President of JCEAO, to give a report on the Cambodia Mission and its future plans.
Msgr Enrique Figaredo (CAS), Fr Jose Hildy Banaynal (PHI) and Br. John-Lester Tajon (PHI) spent an afternoon with the Buddhist monks of Wat Pohville in Battambang on June 28 to share with them about the Catholic faith. Many theological questions, including the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, came up in the discussion.
A group of students from Fu Jen University in Taiwan, led by Ms Sophie Lee Minghuei from the Center for the Promotion of Partner-based Learning, stayed at the Catholic Church in Sisophon from July 6 – 26. They ran a community-based learning program, teaching English to school children.
Five Korean scholastics, Han Min Thomas, Kang Ondohk Benedict, Kim Ki-hyun Benedict, Ko Dong-kyun Stephanus and Park Su-yun Igwan, accompanied by Fr Chung Man-young Kolbe, were in Cambodia from July 11 – 29 for an exposure to the mission prior to their regency next year. After an orientation in Phnom Penh, they traveled to the Jesuit stations at Banteay Prieb, Siem Reap, Sisophon, and Battambang.
Spanish Scholastics, Ignacio Ramos and Jaime Tatay, arrived on July 16, after their China exposure program, to experience first hand the Jesuits and their work in Cambodia. They spent most of their time in Battambang, as guests of Msgr Figaredo Enrique (CAS), They departed on August 13.
A team of 5 doctors, 5 nurses, a pharmacist and an assistant pharmacist, with 4 staff, together with 3 priests, from the Catholic Education Foundation of the Seoul Diocese, Korea, were at the Welcome Center for the Sick at Battambang Church, from July 16 – 22. One medical team (including the dentist) was based at the clinic in the church grounds, while another mobile team visited the villages, as well as the provincial jail, to provide medical care and medicine.
Fr Gabriel Je was in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from July 21 – 24 July to attend the Indonesia Province Gathering and the priestly ordination on July 23 of seven scholastics, including Parwoto Fortunatus and Dwi Kristanto, who did their regency in Cambodia. Parwoto Fortunatus would be assigned to Myanmar for a year before going to Cambodia. Fr Gabriel also stopped-over in Bangkok to meet with the Nuncio, Msgr. Salvatore before returning to Phnom Penh on July 27.
All the 18 Jesuits missioned to Cambodia, joined by Ignacio Ramos and Jaime Tatay from Spanish Provinces, gathered at the Church in Battambang to celebrate the Feast of St Ignatius on July 31. The Jesuits spent the morning in sharing and reflection on their apostolic life in Cambodia and on what the GC35 documents are to each Jesuit’s individual mission.
