Author: Charles Dittmeier

Remnant of Another Age

Probably most people passing by at street level don’t even know this tree exists. Its lower trunk is gnashed and scarred, its lower branches cut away, and it stands silently as a witness to humanity’s indifference to nature and beauty. Only its leafy crown proclaims its former glory and the long-gone stateliness of the colonial avenue that predated this now commercial strip.

More Goodbyes

Today at DDP we said goodbye to two of our staff, our social worker (left) and one of our houseparents. It is difficult to see good staff move on. And it is difficult to replace them!

Wired for Sight

Partly because we want to be able to use visuals in our liturgy and partly because we cannot use paper missals and song books during the pandemic, we installed a video system in the chapel that we are now using for our English community masses.

There are now three 55″ monitors on each wall with another monitor facing the sanctuary so the presider can see what is being shown.
Here three technicians set up a control point where we will have a laptop computer for feeding the visuals into the video system. Fr. Chatsirey at the lectern helped to make sure the arrangements would work for our liturgies.
Here is what it looks like from the rear of the church after all the ladders and other equipment have been removed.

For Sale

In this COVID-19 economy and business downturn, it’s not unexpected to see Phnom Penh houses for sale and for rent–but a whole high-rise building?

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.