Catholic Disability Ministries?
As a deaf person, I have become keenly aware of the lack of services and accommodations to not only the diverse deaf and hard of hearing, and their varying communication needs, but also many other issues.
Further, accessibility should go beyond the Mass, and into other parts of church life as well
(confession, conferences, bible studies and so forth).
Do you know that only roughly 50 percent of all the Catholic Dioceses in the USA even have a Disability Ministry? You are more likely to see a Multi-cultural Ministry, which is the same coin in human diversity in embracing and celebrating the stranger among us. Is a Disability ministry less important then a Multi-cultural ministry? Certainly everyone is important and no one should be excluded in the church. All should be welcomed and embraced. Welcoming the stranger means giving them an accessible church. It means allowing them the right to fully and
actively participate. So why is it that the 'disabled' are being overlooked in churches and not given full access? One person keenly observes and says:
actively participate. So why is it that the 'disabled' are being overlooked in churches and not given full access? One person keenly observes and says:
"The Disabled Are Catholic Too!
The biggest problem that I see, as the mother of a disabled child, is that the Church's stand on the rights of the disabled has, if anything, been neglected and ignored while we strove to solidify our stance on abortion and homosexuality and euthanasia. The National Catholic Partnership on Disability estimates that there are over 500,000 Catholics who are mentally retarded or cognitively disabled. That's half a million Catholics who are developmentally disabled. That isn't counting the 8.1 million Catholics who are physically impaired, or the 1.3 million Catholics with a sensory impairment, or even the 3.6 million who are disabled by ill health. It doesn't begin to address the concerns of the 700,000 Catholics who suffer from a mental illness, nor the problems that their families face. There are half a million Catholics, alone, who are mentally retarded, autistic, suffer from Down's Syndrome, or who have one of the other cognitive impairments.
How many do you see active in your parish? Are their needs being met?”
Source: http://catholicexchange.com/disabilities-and-the-catholic-church
disability to interact
in a standard setting rather than do it
differently is
critical," (Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/real-time-captions-helping-deaf-kids-realise-potential/story-e6freuzi-1226453656874 -ROSEMARIE LENTINI)
"Accessible meeting space allows
everyone to participate."
"The importance for people with any
disability to interact
in a standard setting rather than do it
differently is
critical," (Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/real-time-captions-helping-deaf-kids-realise-potential/story-e6freuzi-1226453656874 -ROSEMARIE LENTINI)
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