Author: Charles Dittmeier

Church Women of El Salvador

Today is the 40th anniversary of the rape and murder of four U.S. church women working with refugees in El Salvador in Central America: Sr. Maura Clark, Lay Missioner Jean Donovan, Sr. Ita Ford, and Sr. Dorothy Kazel. Sr. Maura and Sr. Ita were Maryknoll Sisters. The four women were killed by the El Salvador military in a terrible period in that country’s history when more than 75,000 people were killed.
This is an El Salvador street mural memorializing the four martyred church women. Their memory lives on in some of the Cambodian Maryknollers, too. Sr. Helene, one of our Cambodian group, was president of the Maryknoll Sisters when the women were killed and went to El Salvador to handle the situation after their deaths and was also a participant in the trials of the military that followed. Fr. Kevin also had connections with lay missioner Jean Donovan who was also from Cleveland, Ohio. Fr. Kevin was at her funeral.

First Communion Day

Today three of the children of our community received their first communion at our 11:00 AM liturgy. For Catholics, Jesus is really present in communion under the appearances of bread and wine. It was a happy day for the children, their families, and our community.

The seating looks rather irregular but that’s because of COVID-19. We can put the families together but then they must be separated from the other families and the individuals who were arriving for this mass.
Fr. Charlie lighting the first candle on the Advent wreath.
The children came forward with their families to receive communion.
At the end of the liturgy each of the children received a certificate from Sr. Mary and Marylyn and Fr. Charlie gave them a small gift.
Also recognized this morning were the teachers and staff of our religious education program. (L-R:) Kylene, Marylyn, Sr. Mary, Fr. Charlie, and Borj.

Charlie’s Places

In my old website I had a section called “Charlie’s Own,” a take-off on Steve McQueen’s “Steve’s Own” salad dressing long ago, in which I showed the various places I frequent for different services. I used to have a young man by the Boeung Keng Kang Market who fixed my watch, replacing bands, changing batteries, etc., but he moved on. Now I’ve found this man by the Russian Market. What you see is his whole shop: basically the left part which looks something the shape of a phone booth (although not that big) with a chair for him to sit on. Here he is working on my watch band today. Charged me 75¢.

Not for me…

Maybe I’d learn to like it, maybe I’d even do well at it, but working with heavy steel cables seems like one of the worst jobs imaginable. Trying to splice them, adding hooks and clamps—maybe there is even some artistry to it but something in my mind really doesn’t like the idea.