Author: Charles Dittmeier

Trip to Kentucky–St. Meinrad 1

Every year the priests of the Archdiocese of Louisville gather for an assembly, at St. Meinrad Seminary in southern Indiana. This year I was able to join them for the four-day event.

The priests always say the best part of the assemblies is getting together with friends and colleagues.

After a brief opening session, the group walked through an interior courtyard on the way to their first dinner together.

The meals were fantastic, both for the food and for the conversations.

After an evening prayer, the group returned to the dining room for an address by Archbishop Shelton Fabre who spoke of his hopes for this time together.

Trip to Kentucky–Sunday

St. Frances of Rome church is across the street from Nazareth Home Clifton and I went to the 8:30 AM mass. Fr. Jerry Eifler, an old friend, was the presider there. After mass I also met some family of a girl I taught at Angela Merici High School in the 1970s.

This the driveway to Nazareth Home Clifton on Payne Street in Louisville. I will live in the building on the right.

One of the things I like about Kentucky and that I miss in Cambodia are the large hardwood trees and forests. This majestic tree is on the grounds of Nazareth Home.

Trip to Kentucky–Saturday

On Saturday, May 30, Cole McDowell was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Louisville and all the priests gathered for the celebration

I appreciated the timing of the ordination because it gave me an opportunity to reunite with priests I went to the seminary with 60 years ago and to meet the new priests ordained after I started working in Asia.

Trip to Kentucky–Friday

St. Thomas Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky was in operation for eighteen years. I was there for the middle six-year span. Many of us who went through St. Thomas keep in touch via a Google group called “LostBoysofSTS.” Most of our contact is online but occasionally we meet for lunch. We got together last Friday and it was a great gathering.

This photo caught everyone to my right looking rather sombre but it was really a good time!

Trip to Kentucky–Thursday

There is a 10:00 AM mass in the upstairs chapel at Nazareth Home Clifton every day except Saturday and I went today to see how they do things here because I suspect I will be the presider some times in the future. Today Fr. Roy Stiles was presider and had an anointing for the Sacrament of the Sick for Fr. Joe Batcheldor who will have a heart procedure tomorrow.

Trip to Kentucky–Wednesday

I actually left Phnom Penh on Wednesday. We boarded the plane Tuesday night but didn’t take off until after midnight. We flew six hours to the Inchon airport in Seoul.

Modern airports such as Inchon/Seoul are like theme parks and malls with runways. Architects vie with each other to include live trees and plants, playgrounds, food courts, museums, even a waterfall. The photo above is Inchon.

Inchon airport was really foggy when we landed. Even the buildings just across the tarmac were almost invisible.

From Seoul we flew 14 hours to Detroit, Michigan (above) where we had to reclaim our luggage and pass through passport control because it was our port of entry into the United States. More and more of the passport control functions are being handled electronically with scans and face photos. When I landed in Minneapolis the TSA agent never touched my passport.

From Detroit it was a 47-minute flight to Louisville where David and Emily picked me up and took me to Nazareth Home Clifton where I am staying.

Trip to Kentucky–Tuesday

Leaving Phnom Penh

I was going to the airport at 8:00 PM and traffic was heavy. Here a street food stall offers food for those who want to eat before arriving home.

I was surprised how heavy the traffic was at 8:00 PM. I wouldn’t want to be driving home like that every night.

Russian Blvd is the place where people sell durian fruits at night during the season. Here a family has set up their cart. The 15,000 figure is the amount of riel ($3.75) per kilogram of durian.

No Photo!

I’m at the Phnom Penh airport now, waiting for a 23-24 hour flight to Seoul/Detroit/Louisville. I had to go to a doctor twice today for treatment for my eye problem and that really messed up my schedule. I’ll be back tomorrow–from Kentucky–with more, but now it’s on to Gate 8 for boarding.

Trip to Kampong Cham

Today the DDP director, Soknym, and I went to Kampong Cham Province to the DDP office there for a graduation ceremony for a Cambodian Sign Language class. The students were all government civil servants and it was a great pleasure to be part of a ceremony for them.