austraLasia #3089
Archbishop Charles Bo preaches
Cambodian
Clergy Retreat
SIHANOUKVILLE: 20 June 2012
-- The
annual retreat for Cambodian clergy was preached this year by
the
Salesian Archbishop of Yangon, Charles Maung Bo. 47 priests of
the
Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh, and the prefectures of
Kompong Cham
and Battambang, attended the already traditional spiritual
meeting of
one week at the retreat house in Saint Michael's Parish in
Sihanoukville last week (June 11-15).
The host was the Bishop of Phnom
Penh, Mgr.
Oliviere Schmitthaeusler. The bishops of Battambang and
Kompong Cham,
Enrique Figaredo and Antonysamy Susairaj, respectively, were
also
present for an occasion that the Cambodian Catholic Church
considers a
golden time of renewal, reflection and motivation in its
apostolic
mission in the Kingdom.
The retreat was also attended, as
every year,
by our Salesian Brother Roberto Panetto, who was also
responsible for
bringing the Retreat to a close with a fraternal dinner at the
Don
Bosco Hotel restaurant. 19 priests at the retreat also stayed
at the
Don Bosco Hotel School.
'Archbishop Bo preached well, and also used
film
with his meditations,' he said of his retreat experience with
the
Burmese Salesian Archbishop who was making his first visit to
Cambodia.
Saint Michael's church, located on a hill
just in
front of the only deep sea international port in Cambodia, was
built in
the 1950s by French sailors willing to have Mass while staying
in the
new port. It is also one of the few churches preserved from
the
destruction of war and the persecutions of the Khmer Rouge
regime.
Currently, the former Bishop of Phnom Phen, Bishop Yves
Ramousse,
resides in this parish. He was the Bishop when the Khmer Rouge
guerrillas took power in Cambodia in April 1975, expelling all
foreigners from the country and executing or eliminating most
of the
native clergy, including Bishop Joseph Sala, who died of
exhaustion in
a concentration camp in Kompong Thom. Bishop Ramousse has been
asked by
the Catholic Cambodian Church to trace the survival of
Catholic
faithful during that troublesome time and look for cases
worthy of
martyrdom status.