Wednesday, 21 October 2009

Archbishop Louis Chamnien Santisukniran blesses the new missioners.


Published : October 20 2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

BANGKOK : The Thai Missionary Society (TMS) commissioned three priests and five nuns to work in Cambodia and remote parts of Thailand during a Mission Sunday Mass.

One of the new missioners, Father Trairong Mullatri from Ratchaburi diocese, is heading to work in an orphanage in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

"I have been very interested in doing missionary work since I was a seminarian," he told UCA News after the Mass, which held on Oct. 18 at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Nonthaburi, a province bordering Bangkok.

"There are still many poor and marginalized people in whom no one has much interest, especially in a spiritual sense. I'm ready to be sent anywhere where I can do some good for others," Father Trairong said.

Sister Kanchani Thongin, from the Daughters of the Queenship of Mary Immaculate, will work in the Mae Chan district of Chiang Rai province, in Thailand's north, among the tribal Akha people.

"I will help give catechism to the children and adults," she told UCA News. "This work will be very challenging for me. Traveling is very difficult, and the language and culture are very different from what I am used to. But I'm pleased to be doing Jesus' work."

Leading the Oct. 18 Mass were Archbishop Louis Chamnien Santisukniran of Tharae-Nongsaeng, who formerly headed the Thai bishops' mission commission, and its present head, Bishop John Bosco Panya Kritcharoen of Ratchaburi. TMS superior general Father Adriano Pelosin, a Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions priest, also concelebrated.

Archbishop Chamnien told the clergy, Religious and laypeople present at the Mass that Mission Sunday reminds all Catholics that there is more to their faith than merely going to church.

"Many of us think that being a Christian means attending Mass, going for confession and receiving the Eucharist, but actually Jesus asks us to do other important work, which is being the bridge for others to meet God," he said.

TMS was established in 1986 to send Thai missioners to remote areas of Thailand as well as to neighboring countries. Currently 12 priests and 14 nuns carry on its mission work.

Seasoned members spoke of the challenges that await new missioners.

"The main problem of missionary work is inadequate human resources," Father Rangsan Phanurak, who has worked as a missioner in Chiang Rai province for the past 20 years, told UCA News.

"One missioner has to handle many things at the same time," the priest from Udon Thani diocese shared.

Father Komtuan Suksuthip, from Bangkok archdiocese, who works in Yala province, near Thailand's southern border with Malaysia, faces particular challenges due to the separatist violence in the area.

"We are in a zone of high conflict, but I'm not so afraid, because Catholicism is not an issue there. Local people are very nice and kind, but many laypeople are afraid, and some of them haved move to other provinces," he said.

Courtesy : UCAN

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