When each person carries gifts within, a gathering of people united around a single theme—the catechesis of disabled children—cannot help but yield countless insights and challenges for every local church.
To recount everything that happened during this conference is therefore not simple: there were formal presentations and round tables, yes, but also spontaneous interventions, liturgical moments and prayer, audiovisual screenings, the exchange and review of catechetical materials, and finally, the faces of those beside us during moments of "rest"—in the hallways between sessions, at meals, on a walk.
The atmosphere was shaped by a shared sense of importance and care about the conference theme. And though everyone recognized that the road ahead is long and demanding, there shone through a desire that every local church become a place of welcome and Christian formation for disabled people.
The formative contributions of the conference can be drawn from the following presentations:
On the Disabled Person and Moral Truth, a presentation by Father Luigi Lorenzetti, professor of Moral Theology at the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences in Trento.
"To the condition of disability is joined that of marginalization, whether it occurs in fact or as a consequence of culture or ideology."
"The disabled person, like every other person, aspires to full self-realization."
"The Church is a teacher of moral truth when she knows how to show forth the compelling splendor of that truth which is Christ...both through teaching and through testimony."
On the Dignity and Diversity of the Person in a Horizon of Solidarity Ethics, a presentation by Professor Giuseppe Vico.
"The education of disabled people is still too much shaped by a culture of re-education and rehabilitation. We must offer them a richer educational experience: the experience of what is 'beautiful,' 'true,' 'good,' affective relationships, life projects."
"Education must be gradual and continuous."
"Education—precisely in situations where the entire community must be involved in the promotion of all and each—is and must be a joyful art."
On Special Catechesis for the Disabled in Argentina, presented by Father Osvaldo Cesar Napoli.
"Special catechesis must have a communal dimension. The Church exists to evangelize, and to evangelize all."
"Families participate actively in catechesis, in gatherings...as evangelizers to other families."
Report from Study Group V on Psycho-Mental Disability.
The group focused on disabled people with behavioral and relational difficulties, both mild and severe.
According to a survey by the National Catechetical Office, twelve percent of catechists work with the disabled.
Their work most often follows a path and choices of their own making.
The priests responsible for catechetical formation are often distant from the families of disabled people.
The parish community, which should be a place of welcome and response to need, does not always show sensitivity to this matter.
The struggling young person touches and transforms the hearts and souls of those who accompany his or her faith journey, spurring them to use special methods of catechesis: catechesis of image, of song, and so forth.
The relationship with the local church was underscored in these ways:
- the Christian community must cultivate a culture centered on the person
- parish support groups for disabled people must work so that society provides effective services
- the church must tap into the potential of volunteers through welcome groups that go beyond catechism classes
- the responsibility for evangelizing the disabled belongs not to the priest alone but to the entire parish community: lay people must engage in pre-evangelization by encountering the varied needs of families in the parish.
Final Report from the Conference by Monsignor Giuseppe Bertori, Director of the National Catechetical Office
prepared by the NATIONAL CATECHETICAL OFFICE: CATECHESIS AND DISABILITY SECTOR