Profile - Charlie Dittmeier - Maryknoll Lay Missioners
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Father Charlie Dittmeier

 

Year Joined MKLM: 1987

Country: Cambodia

City: Phnom Penh

Ministries: Deaf Development Programme and Pastor of the English speaking Catholic parish

Ministry Area: Justice and Peace

Goals of Ministry: Research, develop and teach Cambodian Sign Language and literacy and empower deaf people

Current Ministry:

Father Charlie lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and serves as the director of the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme. The program offers sign language, education, vocational training, and basic life skills to deaf individuals. Besides efforts to promote a national sign language, the program fosters leadership skills and the establishment of deaf organizations in various areas. It has three community centers for students and members of the deaf community to participate in social activities, sports, and adult education.

Father Charlie is also the pastor of the English speaking Catholic community in Phnom Penh.

Until recently, he served as secretary of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners Board of Directors.

 

Personal Data:

Father Charles (Charlie) Dittmeier, is a diocesan priest from Louisville, Kentucky. He began working with deaf people in the seminary in Baltimore and has continued that ministry in assignments in Louisville and in deaf schools and deaf communities in India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, and now in Cambodia, where he has lived since 2000. He was also a parish priest in Louisville and a teacher, chaplain, and counselor in a high school there for 13 years.