Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
The Catholic Church in Cambodia.
Today is the first day of the week of prayer for Christian Unity. Jesus emphasized our unity as God’s children and as brothers and sisters, and especially now, when there are so many divisive forces at work in our world and our politics, it is even more imperative that we Christians work together to create a new environment of peace and collaboration.
Room In The Inn (RITI) is an organization that utilizes church personnel, church volunteers, and church facilities to provide housing at night for homeless people during the coldest months. I was supposed to be an all-night volunteer tomorrow at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral, but today we got notice that the city of Louisville has refused to give the permissions necessary to use the church facilities for this housing even though they allowed it in January, 2025. Fire safety regulations are the issue. It is especially sad to receive this message on the morning after the coldest night this winter in Louisville.
191. At a time when various forms of fundamentalist intolerance are damaging relationships between individuals, groups and peoples, let us be committed to living and teaching the value of respect for others, a love capable of welcoming differences, and the priority of the dignity of every human being over his or her ideas, opinions, practices and even sins. Even as forms of fanaticism, closedmindedness and social and cultural fragmentation proliferate in present-day society, a good politician will take the first step and insist that different voices be heard. Disagreements may well give rise to conflicts, but uniformity proves stifling and leads to cultural decay. May we not be content with being enclosed in one fragment of reality.
192. …When a specific policy sows hatred and fear towards other nations in the name of its own country’s welfare, there is need to be concerned, to react in time and immediately to correct the course.
Approaching, speaking, listening, looking at, coming to know and understand one another, and to find common ground: all these things are summed up in the one word “dialogue”. If we want to encounter and help one another, we have to dialogue. There is no need for me to stress the benefits of dialogue. I have only to think of what our world would be like without the patient dialogue of the many generous persons who keep families and communities together. Unlike disagreement and conflict, persistent and courageous dialogue does not make headlines, but quietly helps the world to live much better than we imagine.
In Nazareth Home, there is an independent living wing where I live and the general wing which provides nursing and living care that might be needed. The general wing has a variety of activities, and when they had an ice cream tasting event, I went over to join in. It was enjoyable–eight flavors of good ice cream–and I got to meet some new people.
Every two months I write a column for The Record, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Louisville. Today’s column is about the shift from mission in Cambodia to mission in Kentucky. Click here if you’d like to read about my experience.
Last Sunday, the celebration of the baptism of Jesus, was the end of the church’s Christmas season. What these men are doing at St. Boniface Church in Louisville is what happened in your parish after the last mass this past Sunday.
Jan, a reader of my website, commented:
The more I watched the video that day (of Dick Van Dyke dancing at 100 years of age) the sadder I became. I even cried. I cried serious tears. I felt a very heavy dark cloud lingering around me. I finally realized that I was crying for the innocence I once had. I was also crying for the innocence I once saw in my fellow human beings. I am sad for our country, humanity in general and for what I once thought we were as a country.
Pope Leo, the day Jan wrote, commented on the need for the church:
to open up to the world and to embrace the changes and challenges of the modern age in dialogue and co-responsibility, as a church that wishes to open her arms to humanity, to echo the hopes and anxieties of peoples, and to collaborate in building a more just and fraternal society.
Anne Lamott, spiritual writer, wished:
I wish us praying people could pray a fast turnaround—Remember Flip Wilson saying, “I’m about to pray. Anybody need anything?” This isn’t how it works. How it works is each of us doing one small good thing, every day.
Saturday saw a pop-up ICE Out demonstration in Louisville, one of the many that took place across the United States.
Twice a month a group of Catholic people gather to discuss a book by theologian Dairmud O’Murchu about the union of ecology and theology.
We met today to discuss chapter 6 which is especially challenging to some of the ways of thinking we have grown up with.