Author: Charles Dittmeier

Juneteenth

The challenge continues

Some excerpts from an article by Kelly Brown Douglas, Stephanie Spellers, and Winnie Varghese in Religious News Service (June 18, 2026):

At the time of Juneteenth in 1865, “Neither the Emancipation Proclamation nor General Order No. 3 [announcing slaves were free] was yet true. Both ushered in a new reality of “unfreedom.” Both expressed the enduring tension within the American freedom experiment itself: the gap between our proclaimed ideals and our lived realities.”

In our experience today, “The story of freedom is unfinished in a nation that pledges “liberty and justice for all,” while it systematically advances policies, practices and ideologies that diminish human dignity.” 

“Here is what we know: Freedom is not an achievement to be declared and celebrated once and for all. The work of freedom is perpetually unfinished because the forces that threaten it continually take new forms, as we see today in restrictions on voting rights, challenges to citizenship and the denial of due process to immigrants.”

A change in ministers

Today the Archdiocese of Louisville had a gathering to recognize three people finishing up their terms as leaders in the diocese. Two priests, the vicars of clergy and of vocations, are moving to new positions, and Annette Turner (above) is stepping down as the director of the Office of Multi-Cultural Ministries. I knew Annette 40+ years ago when our Catholic Deaf Office was located in the old school building at St. Augustine Church, her parish, and it was good to see her again after so many years of her service.

Not in the weather forecast….

Right before lunch today, Roy, my bicycling priest friend, told me there was water on the floor of the empty room where we keep our bikes. He was certainly right about that. We contacted the maintenance man and he started investigating what was going on.
I checked back later and the maintenance man and a plumber were running a huge industrial snake through the sewer pipe in the corridor outside this door. They said they got out about 100 wet wipes that had caused the water to back up into the room. Now the water is gone and a fan is drying the carpet.

Clifton Community Council

Today the Clifton Community Council held a quarterly public meeting and it was quite a demonstration of nitty-gritty grassroots neighborhood community organizing. Fr. Roy Stiles and I attended and Nazareth Home Clifton’s new director was there also.

Two council members, one a representative in the Kentucky House and the other in the Kentucky Senate, talked about the current session and some of the quirks and dynamics of being in the legislature.
A large part of the agenda was a tribute to Mike O’Leary who is stepping down as president of the Clifton Council. He has been very energetic and dynamic in that role and will genuinely be missed. Here he is presented with an award of recognition by the City of Louisville Metro Council.

World Day of the Poor

Today Pope Leo revealed the theme for the 10th World Day of the Poor to be observed November 15, 2026. He started with the opening line of Psalm 14: “The Lord is the refuge of the poor,” noting that those words were written in a dramatic period of Israel’s history when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. They “felt deprived of God’s presence and experienced unprecedented material and moral misery.” Pope Leo then suggested the poor in our time experience the same feelings.

St. Augustine Church

Today I biked to St. Augustine Church in downtown Louisville to check out the parking area to find a place where I can lock up my e-bike. Next Sunday I will have mass here, filling in for the pastor who will be away filling in for another priest.
I had mass at St. Augustine before but it was fifty-plus years ago when our Catholic Deaf Office used a classroom in this St. Augustine School for our ministry office after the school had been closed.

Modern Poverty

Fratelli Tutti #21

21. Some economic rules have proved effective for growth, but not for integral human development. Wealth has increased, but together with inequality, with the result that “new forms of poverty are emerging”. The claim that the modern world has reduced poverty is made by measuring poverty with criteria from the past that do not correspond to present-day realities. In other times, for example, lack of access to electric energy was not considered a sign of poverty, nor was it a source of hardship. Poverty must always be understood and gauged in the context of the actual opportunities available in each concrete historical period. ~ Pope Francis

Relief….

For almost a month now my computer has been acting erratically, becoming increasingly unusable. Particularly hard hit was my e-mail and I haven’t been able to respond to messages coming in. I have tried all sorts of troubleshooting, watched repair videos, done re-installs–everything. And still things got worse.

Then an hour ago the PC itself decided it had had enough. I got a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and an announcement that the system was collecting information about the error(s) and would reboot. No asking if that is what I wanted, just telling me it was in the process of shutting down.

And then when it rebooted, the major difficulties had disappeared and things were back to a normal I had previously known. Deo Gratias!

[For those of you waiting for replies, I hope they will now be quickly forthcoming!]