Author: Charles Dittmeier

Hygiene? What’s that?

I’ve been trying to get this picture for months. This is a street vendor selling meat on the road to the school where I have mass on Monday mornings. Those are slabs of meat draped over the back of the pickup truck. No need to bother with a table or even something under the meat. Heck, the buyer is going to cook it, isn’t she?

Usually my tuk-tuk driver is going too fast or there is traffic blocking the view but today I finally got my chance to take the photo. This is 6:00 AM in the morning. At 6:00 PM in the evening this will be your hamburger. Life in Phnom Penh….

[The comments are turned on for this, if anyone is so inclined.]

Pope Francis funeral

The Vicariate of Phnom Penh had a memorial service for Pope Francis this morning, a few hours before his funeral in Rome. All three bishops from Cambodia were there and about 50 priests.

Bishop Olivier presided at the memorial service which was attended by government officials, ambassadors, representatives of other churches, and 800 of the Catholic community. (That is the slightest glimpse of my face behind the bishop’s left elbow.)

Pope Francis

The Catholic presence in Cambodia is quite small. There are fewer than 10,000 Cambodian Catholics in a population of 16,000,000 people. Officialdom here has noted the death of Pope Francis, though. Today, on behalf of Bishop Olivier, the bishop of Phnom Penh, I posted to social media and websites three letters of condolence from King Sihomani and from the present and former prime ministers.

Is that first caption true?

The caption above says Cambodia is not leaning toward China and away from the USA.

But look at the captions of these other four pictures which were beside the first picture in one photo spread. Every one of them emphasizes China’s dominant relationship with Cambodia.

They speak of international cooperation, an ironclad shared future with China, vital cooperation with China, a major railway infrastructure project funded by China, and cooperation with China in a digital economy.

China’s Premier Xi Jin Ping was in Cambodia last week speaking of all these things (after first visiting Vietnam and Malaysia). At the same time, the US government was attacking China economically and cutting off trade and imposing tariffs. IMHO China doesn’t need to win the war with the US because the US has decided to lose the war.

[All the photos come from the Khmer Times, a local English newspaper.]

Holy Week: Holy Saturday

In the first part of the Easter Vigil service, we light the Easter candle to symbolize the risen Christ and then process to the sanctuary.
Fr. Charlie preaching the homily.
All the community renew what they professed at baptism–a renunciation of a sinful life and a belief in our God and Jesus the Son.
Fr. Charlie then processed through the community sprinkling them with the holy water as was used when they were baptized.

Holy Week:Good Friday

We began the Triduum liturgies this evening with our Good Friday service.

Fr. Pedro unveils the cross after carrying it in to begin the service.
All the congregation came forward to venerate the cross in the second part of the service. Some knelt, some kissed it, some touched it, some genuflected or made a wai.
After the veneration of the cross, Fr. Pedro introduced the communion service.