A Discussion with Denise Coghlan
Sister Denise reflects on her 20+ years working in Cambodia and how she is motivated by her faith and a sense of justice. She highlights the challenges facing people with disabilities, of post-conflict reconciliation, and rebuilding trust. She also discusses the legacy of the Khmer Rouge in relation to families and society in Cambodia today. Faith-inspired organizations are an important link between the policy and community levels. Sister Denise stresses that faith-inspired organizations must be experts in their field; faith alone is not always sufficient to make lasting contributions. Finally, she describes her international work on landmines and cluster bombs, which won her team a Nobel Peace prize.
Sad, shocked eyes looked at us from the hospital bed. Earlier in the week Sam Ren had driven the “iron buffalo”, a type of village tractor which carries goods and people across the field to tend the chilli plants. The villagers had been planting this field for some years and used the path across the fields regularly. At night they set out to return home on the same route.
The first big eruption of Mount Merapi was on the 26 October. A lot of people living as close as 10 km to the volcano were evacuated to safer areas. Like many other students in Yogyakarta, the Jesuit scholastics were still going to school on the following days, viewing the volcano spewing ashes which made a 2 km column of cloud, as they were riding their scooters to the campus.
Monsignor Enrique Figaredo Alvargonzales recently celebrated his 10th anniversary as head of the Battambang apostolic prefecture.