Cambodia's Phnom Penh Church on 3-year focus on family

Following the pastoral guidelines of Pope Francis in his 2016 Apostolic Exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of  Love), an apostolic vicariate in Cambodia has dedicated a 3-year period to the family.

Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh has declared that during the period 2017-2019, the faithful will live a time of study, prayer and catechesis on the theme of the family.

"Family is the cell of society and in the family God invites us to become a small holy community, so that the light illuminates the darkness of the human heart and is a source of inexhaustible grace that quenches our society that is interested in having and in personal success," Bishop Schmitthaeusler told the Vatican’s news agency.

Dedicated to young people and marriage

The apostolic vicariate dedicated 2017 to young people and adolescents who face emotional life; 2018 is focusing on engaged couples who are preparing for marriage; and the final year will be dedicated to the Christian family as a way of holiness, with special attention to mixed marriages, where one spouse is Christian and the other is Buddhist.

While launching the 3 years to the family on the feast of the Epiphany on the 8th of January 2017 at the parish of Sts. Peter and Paul in Phnom Penh Thmei, the vicar explained that Pope Francis wants to make the faithful understand that it is through the family in a small society that life is renewed.

 “We are the people of hope, chosen by God to radiate to the world of a love that will never extinguish", the vicar apostolic told Fides, urging families to always be a source of hope.  The Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh recently hosted a seminar on the family.

"Let us build new families for a new world", Bishop Schmitthaeusler urged.  He hoped that in the local Church a solid family pastoral care can be built "so that everyone can find, in the grace of Christ, new strength.”  (Source: Fides)