Switzerland, a "wealthy nation," has the resources and services for people with handicaps. For this reason, Faith and Light operates primarily as a ministry of the Church.
Prosperity in rich countries builds walls and barriers between people, breeding anonymity, loneliness, and sorrow.
Faith and Light communities, through their openness, understanding, shared life, and trust, allow people to find one another, to meet, to break through the isolation of individualism.
Competition and perfectionism are the driving values of the world around us.
Faith and Light communities overturn these values. When we welcome a person with intellectual handicap for who they are, they reveal to us other values entirely. When such a person finds their place at the heart of the community, they show us that every human being is made to be welcomed in their difference, and to be loved.
Faith and Light is a path toward the full integration of people with handicaps into the Church, the body of Christ. This is one of our primary aims in Switzerland. In certain traditionally Catholic regions, attachment to rigid forms of parish life can close doors to those who are different, those who disturb the routine. Other regions, animated by ecumenical spirit, prove more open, more accepting. Faith and Light communities make it possible for a person with handicap to find their rightful place in the Church—a place they could never find alone. This is already a great victory, but the road ahead is long. We must still work toward the day when parish communities fully recognize people with handicaps as belonging.
In our wealthy countries, catechesis and pastoral care for people with handicaps is organized by the state through specialists in special education. This has led most priests to believe they bear no responsibility for evangelizing people with handicaps.
— Yvette Bonvin, 1990