Celebrating with people with disabilities in our communities

Friday, Jul. 24, 2015

During summer we celebrate many events and people. We open summer by celebrating those who have served our country. As July begins we celebrate the beginning of our country, our independence. Summer ends with celebrating the work of our daily labors. In the midst of these celebrations there’s another we should celebrate as well. July 26 is the 25th anniversary of another date marking independence: the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA).  July 26 is often proclaimed as the day of civil rights for people with disabilities.  

In the past 25 years everyone has come to benefit from the passage of the ADA, which has led to curb cuts for wheelchairs, video relay service for communicating with the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, captions on television programming, kneeling buses, lifts for swimming pools, ramps that accommodate both wheelchairs and strollers, and other such accommodations. It’s hard to imagine our lives without these.  

The ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. With specific provisions for employment, communication, transportation, public accommodations and more, the ADA is meant to level the playing field for people with disabilities. Just as Americans of African heritage, Japanese descent and others have fought discrimination at times throughout American history, so too have people with disabilities struggled to be treated fairly and included in the mainstream of American society.  

While churches and religious organizations are not obligated to abide by the ADA, the choice to welcome everyone into our buildings and programs is what we, as Catholics, do. The Catholic faith is first and foremost a life of faith  and the belief in the dignity of each and every person. We honor the life God has created within each of us. Even now we have a new papal encyclical, “Laudate Si’,” proclaiming our faith in our care of God’s creation.

Let us consider our parishes and communities: How are we caring for and including our brothers and sisters who live with disabilities? Do we welcome the elderly who struggle slowly into Mass? Are children who learn differently included in religious education classes? Do lectors use braille to proclaim the word of God? Can the hard of hearing listen clearly as Mass is celebrated?  

Pope Francis has an answer for us: “At the basis of discrimination and exclusion there lies an anthropological question: what is man’s worth and what is the basis of his worth? ... Therefore, poor health and disability are never a good reason for excluding or, worse, for eliminating a person.”

As we celebrate summer and all its events, let us also include the passage of the ADA in our celebrations. Let’s not only celebrate people with disabilities in our communities and workplaces, let’s celebrate them in our parishes. Extend a welcome to the quiet strangers in our midst who may be living with mental illness. Offer a helping hand to a teenager who may be fidgeting during Mass, and his family. Implement creative strategies for teaching children of all abilities in religious education. Invite someone who uses a wheelchair to join a ministry. Start a conversation and ask how to be more inclusive. Listen and then move forward together.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in their Pastoral Statement state, “We must recognize and appreciate the contribution persons with disabilities can make to the Church’s spiritual life, and encourage them to do the Lord’s work in the world according to their God-given talents and capacity.”

Let’s put this into action.

This summer, let’s celebrate the talents of each of us, especially the one in five of us who live with a disability. Pope Francis stated, “The Son of God became incarnate in the souls of men to instill the feeling of brotherhood. All are brothers and all children of God.” 

What will you do to “recognize, appreciate and encourage” all the faithful?