PHNOM PENH: 19
February 2014 -- Cambodia's
first Salesian Delegate has been appointed by the Rector
Major with the
consent of his Council. He is Fr Roel Soto, until now
the Rector
at Phnom Penh.
Fr
Roel Soto, 48 years of age and who hails from the Philippines,
has been
in Cambodia since 2009. Prior to coming to Cambodia and
transferring
definitively to the THA Province, he had been the Rector and
also
Bursar at Canlubang, the postnovitiate centre located in the
Philippines North Province. He was ordained priest in 1993.
Cambodia
became a Delegation under Thailand Province in June 2013. A
draft of
the Statutes, first proposed a year before that again, reads:
"The
purpose of establishing the delegation of Cambodia is to
foster the
overall growth of the Salesian presences in Cambodia and to
better
coordinate and animate the works of the communities and
centers. It is
the hope of the THA Province that the experience of working as
a
Delegation will foster a better animation and good government.
It also
seeks to take into account the present needs of the Delegation
and the
many challenges faced by it. Seeing that within the confines
of the
province, there are reasons that prevent the provincial from
the proper
care of the communities in Cambodia, the Provincial and his
council
propose the establishment of the Delegation of Cambodia within
the
Province (cf. Regulations 159) with these statutes."
This follows the guidelines of the Constitutions (C. 159)
which say: A
delegation is usually set up when distance or other reasons
prevent the
Provincial from taking proper care of some local communities with
a certain unity amongst them but without the prerequisites
necessary
for erection as a vice-province may be set up as a delegation
with the
approval of the Rector Major, after a request has come from
the
provincial, with the consent of his council.
The
Delegation has 6 presences spread over five territorial
provinces in
Cambodia - Phnom Penh where there is a technical school,
parish, youth
centre and boarding houses, Tuol Kork with the Don Bosco
Children
Fund's National Secretariat and Don Bosco Kiosk Restaurant
Training
Centre, Sihanoukville where there is a technical school, youth
centre,
pre-aspirantate and hotel school, Kep where there is the
Social
communication centre and youth camp, Poipet where there is the
children’s home , elementary school and technical school and
Battambang
where there is the academic school and agro-vocational school.
EAO
now has four Delegations (Cambodia, Mongolia, PNG-SI,
Indonesia) with a
fifth one under consideration - Pakistan. Other Delegations in
the
Congregation are: Eritrea, Congo Brazzaville, DRC Congo
west, Sudan, AFO west (Senegal, Mali, Guinea Conakry),
Belarus, Malta, Puerto Rico, Cuba.
