Rome hosted the first national conference for diocesan directors of religious education in the area of disability from January 27–29. The gathering, titled "Faith Formation of People with Disabilities in the Christian Community," was convened by the Bishops' Commission for Doctrine and Catechesis of the Italian Bishops' Conference. Nearly 200 participants represented more than 50 dioceses and various organizations working in this field. Monsignor Sergio Pintor, vice director of the National Catechetical Office, summarized the key messages that emerged.
«This conference left no room for rhetoric. Pastoral experience consistently brought us back to what matters most in faith formation. That is why the outcomes speak not only to catechesis for people with disabilities, but equally and inseparably to ministry and faith formation across every Christian community. Among other things, several messages emerged with particular force:
- The call and commitment to develop ecclesial relationship and service in light of a profound spiritual vision: an evangelical and mysterious spirituality that reveals the face of God who is "Abba," the Father who loves each of his children.
- Promote faith formation and catechesis within a broader, more organic pastoral action—fundamentally understood as the "mystery of faith" in service of God's liberating "reign," his design for our salvation.
- Build the community ever more as the active subject and vital space of faith formation—excluding no one, including people with disabilities. A community understood in its diverse wholeness, yet also in its genuine limits; a welcoming, hospitable community marked by shared responsibility, where the complementarity and reciprocity of gifts are lived out.
- Know and acknowledge the person and presence of people with disabilities within the community, with their own right to the spiritual life, to faith formation, to being active subjects.
- Promote faith formation and catechesis for people with disabilities within the single, shared "Italian catechetical project"—a catechesis for Christian life that is all at once: knowledge, formation, and initiation into the Christian mystery. The discussion made clear that there is no separate faith for people with disabilities and another for those without. Rather, each person has the right to be formed in the one "Creed" of Christian faith, centered on Christ's paschal mystery. What matters is not to isolate catechesis from a broader, comprehensive pedagogy of faith, and to develop differentiated approaches and language suited to each person's particular situation.
- Activate a pedagogy of faith in the spirit of the Incarnation—through gesture and word, dialogical and always inspired by love.
- Build formation at every level in communicating faith with people with disabilities; formation rooted in lived experience and involving pastoral leaders, catechists, workers in the disability field, families of people with disabilities, and others.
- A firm commitment that each diocese establish or strengthen a "diocesan coordinating group" within the Catechetical Office, tasked with promoting and coordinating faith formation for people with disabilities within the diocese's pastoral plan, offering guidance and resources, and fostering meetings for reflection and study. It is to this "coordinating group," its work and service within the concrete life of the dioceses, that the Conference entrusts in a particular way the realization of these messages and directions».
(SIR 9), 1994