import xmltodict as xtd
import os

xml_file_content = ""

catalog_dir = os.chdir('directory')
catalog_dir_array = os.listdir(catalog_dir)

if("nameOfFile.xml" in catalog_dir_array):
    catalog_file_content = open("nameOfFile.xml", "r").read()

catalog_file_content_dict = xtd.parse(catalog_file_content)