'The Gospel Is for Everyone'

'The Gospel Is for Everyone'

New Outreach to Those Living with Disabilities

By Susan Windley Daoust, Director of Missionary Discipleship

The Diocese of Winona-Rochester, beginning February 2022, is launching an outreach to people living with disabilities to full communion and active discipleship in local parishes.

While there have always been people living with disabilities in our parishes, this outreach has two efforts: to better help people living with disabilities access full participation in the parish according to their interest and ability, and to help parishes better understand how to do evangelical outreach and welcome people living with disabilities and their families.

Nearly one in five people in the United States live with a disability. Yet approximately 85% of those living with disabilities are not affiliated with a Church or house of worship in the USA. That should be a shocking wake up call that despite good will and the frequent statement that all are welcome to meet the Lord in our parishes, there are barriers to welcome and participation that those who are ablebodied often do not see. We need to become better at seeing these barriers, welcoming, encouraging and enabling people to participate fully as brothers and sisters in Christ.

In the late summer of 2021, Bp. Quinn and diocesan administrators asked parish staff across southern Minnesota to fill out a survey to discover the ways parishes are currently helping people living with disabilities participate in the Mass, in parish activities, and in apostolates and ministries. We did this in part to be able to share with other parishes what is working well in other parishes as well as discern needs that must be addressed, and pastors and parish staff will be receiving feedback from that survey in February. We are grateful for the feedback we have received.

One absence that was obvious was that there is currently no parish in the diocese offering ASL translation of the Mass. We are working with a parish in Rochester on offering that service as an outreach to the Deaf community, living or visiting Rochester for medical support. We will announce that opportunity once it is available.

Additionally, with help through our diocesan affiliation with the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (ncpd.org), we created a resource page to help with the many questions that arise when working with parishioners with disabilities–from effective sacramental preparation and access, faith formation, hospitality and welcome, participation in the Mass, participation in parish activities, pastoral care, to the best physical access practices. That page can be found at www.dowr.org under the Office of Missionary Discipleship, under “Disability sensitive ministry.” When you need a person to consult, Susan Windley-Daoust (Director of Missionary Discipleship), Dana Petricka (Director of Youth Ministry and Faith Formation), and Fr. Patrick Arens (Director of Divine Worship) have stepped forward to address specific questions in their areas. While we may not know the best answer immediately, we resolve to help you find a way forward that honors each person’s journey toward a life of fuller faith, together.

However, although we do have ministry directors and administrators in the pastoral center who have family members with disabilities, it is only right to seek deeper insight and advice from those Catholics living with disabilities–or when they cannot speak for themselves, their caregivers. To that end, we are doing two things to move forward and be a better disability-welcoming Church:

1. First, as we are doing with other marginalized voices in southern Minnesota, we are running a focus group Synod gathering for people living with disabilities. If you are a person living with disabilities or a caregiver (parent or spouse) of a person with disabilities, you are welcome to attend. It is a Zoom meeting (including automatic closed captioning in English), February 22, from 7 p.m. - 8:15 p.m. Contact Emily Smithley at esmithley@dowr.org to register. If you are a Spanish speaker living with disabilities and want your voice heard, please contact Susan Windley- Daoust at swindley@dowr.org.

2. Second, the diocese is establishing a diocesan advisory council of Catholics living with disabilities (or caregivers). The purpose of this advisory council is to help the directors of ministry think more effectively about barriers to participation in parish life and create solutions that further the discipleship of the individual as well as the richness of the parish. This council will be established in the coming months. We know we can do better, and resolve to take steps to do so.

In a happy coincidence, the Vatican (specifically the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life) has just launched an initiative to welcome a deeper inclusion of people living with disabilities. This social media campaign has produced some beautiful videos that include education about inclusion and participation, but primarily a great deal of joyful witness: a family of Deaf siblings in Mexico who travel to catechize and evangelize others in Mexico using Spanish Sign Language, young consecrated women with Down Syndrome in the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb order in France, a Jesuit priest in Australia who is legally blind, and others living with disabilities active in their parishes. You can find (and share widely!) these short videos and articles here: http://www. laityfamilylife.va/content/laityfamilylife/en/amoris-laetitia/iniziative-e-risorse/i-am-church.html

As Pope Francis said in November 2021, on the International Day for Persons with Disabilities, “The Church is your home!” and “the Gospel is for everyone.” He closes his address, made directly to Catholics living with disabilities across the world, with an earnest plea:

I know that some of you live in situations that are not easy. I would like to speak personally to each of you, and I ask that, if necessary, your family members or those closest to you read my words to you, or convey my appeal. I ask you to pray. The Lord listens attentively to the prayers of those who trust in him. No one should say: “I don’t know how to pray”, because, as the Apostle says, “the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings” (Rom 8:26). In the Gospels, Jesus always listens to those who turn to him, however haltingly, even with a small sign (cf. Lk 8:44) or a cry for help (cf. Mk 10:47). Prayer is a mission, a mission accessible to everyone, and I would like to entrust that mission in a particular way to you. There is no one so frail that he or she cannot pray, worship the Lord, give glory to his holy Name and intercede for the salvation of the world. In the sight of the Almighty, we come to realize that we are all equal.

May we all find ways to recognize that the Gospel is for everyone, without exception, and discipleship is the call of all the baptized. Let us pray for each other on this journey forward.

Bishop Quinn speaks to adults enrolled in Special Religious Education (SPRED) at Lourdes High School in Rochester in 2016.