Author: Charles Dittmeier

Returning to Kentucky and the USA

My plan for re-establishing myself in the United States is to participate in different church and civic activities, find out what is and isn’t being done in Louisville and how I might help, and basically just trying get around so I can see what my future role(s) might be. One group I encountered is a theology discussion group that gathers to talk about a book on eco-spirituality by a theologian named O’Murchu. I met with them for the first time today and it was great group of people and a wise investment of interest and time.

Boxes galore…

I came back from Cambodia with just two suitcases so I’ve been replacing many things I couldn’t bring back with me–everything from a printer to LED clocks to a toilet brush. I try to buy local but because I was making so many short trips on my bicycle day after day, I finally got Walmart+ which provides free delivery even if the order is under $35. That has helped a LOT! One drawback is the large number of boxes I’ve accumulated. I can recycle them but have been saving some just because they’re really good boxes(!) and also too with limited storage space, I want to see if I need some boxes before I discard them. Right now they’re piling up in a corner. The big box on the wooden filing cabinet is a new (actually refurbished) desktop computer that arrived today. I hope to get it set up in the next day or two.

Liturgy Books to Cambodia

Every year I have asked the liturgy office of the Archdiocese of Louisville to get various liturgical books for the English Catholic Community in Cambodia. We had books for lectors and other ministers that were quite useful. Now that I am back in the U.S., I picked up the books in Louisville and yesterday shipped them to Phnom Penh via DHL. They have already arrived there, an amazing time since last year another service took 3+ weeks. But shipping the books cost 3 1/2 times their purchase price!

Fratelli Tutti

Pope Francis’ Encyclical: Political Charity

180. Recognizing that all people are our brothers and sisters, and seeking forms of social friendship that include everyone, is not merely utopian. It demands a decisive commitment to devising effective means to this end. Any effort along these lines becomes a noble exercise of charity. For whereas individuals can help others in need, when they join together in initiating social processes of fraternity and justice for all, they enter the “field of charity at its most vast, namely political charity”. [165] This entails working for a social and political order whose soul is social charity. [166] Once more, I appeal for a renewed appreciation of politics as “a lofty vocation and one of the highest forms of charity, inasmuch as it seeks the common good”.

Candlelight Vigil

Tonight a group called Leviticus 19, mobilizing for immigrant justice, held a candlelight vigil at Our Mother of Sorrows Church in Louisville.
Fr. Pat Delahanty organized the vigil. He has been working on social justice issues for many years.
Representative Morgan McGarvey from the U.S. of Representatives spoke of the value and the rights of immigrants. He also honored his predecessor, Rep. Romano Mazzoli, who authored the last major immigration bill in Congress. Rep. Mazzoli’s son Michael also spoke.
The ever-faithful contingent from the larger Dittmeier family also made their appearance in support of immigrants and their rights.