When I first met Marco at the Roman parish of Santa Teresa, the first thing he wanted to tell me was his desire to be confirmed. At first I found it difficult to understand his way of expressing himself, but with help from his parents, we eventually agreed: he would prepare well, and I would call down the Holy Spirit upon him.
The following summer, during a Fede e Luce camp, Marco's dream came true — and the joy was shared by everyone there.
I have always urged my brother priests to welcome people with handicaps into confirmation groups. I am convinced that first and foremost, it is their right to receive the Holy Spirit like everyone else. But I have also seen the great good that comes from it — both to the community of confirmands and to the parish itself.
When Jesus says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free..." (Luke 4:18), it seems to me that he is making a clear preferential choice for those who bear in their flesh the marks of suffering, limitation, and exclusion.
When the Christian community welcomes these brothers and sisters who have suffered so much, it grows in its understanding of the mystery of the Mystical Body. We learn, as St. Paul teaches, that "if one member suffers, all suffer together"; and that "you cannot say to the eye, 'I have no need of you,' on the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable!" (1 Cor. 12:22ff).
I have always urged my brother priests to welcome young people with handicaps into confirmation groups — because I have seen firsthand the great good that comes to the community.
How much we learn from those who suffer! How our everyday problems shrink in importance beside the real struggles these brothers and sisters face! What courage they kindle in our hearts. How they free us from our false gods and give us a true vision of life.This service to the community — what I would call the ministry of proclamation, courage, liberation, and consolation — is ultimately the fruit of the anointing received in the sacrament, as St. Paul teaches: "It is one and the same Spirit who produces all of these things" (1 Cor. 12:11).
When the Holy Spirit is invoked, each confirmand is "made to conform to Jesus, the Son of God" (cf. the Rite, invitation to prayer) and is sent on a mission. Each one can repeat Christ's own words: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and has sent me..." Now our brothers and sisters with handicaps, autism, disabilities — perhaps they will not understand this extraordinary event that Confirmation brings into their lives. (And I wonder: who among us so-called healthy people truly understands it?) Yet in the faith of the Church, they exercise their specific ministry, which flows from their conformity to the suffering Son of God, lived out in their own suffering.
In the Italian bishops' document "Evangelization and Ministries" (CEI, 1977), it is stated that from the sacraments there flow non-ordained, "lay" or "ecclesial" ministries, directed toward evangelization. Among these, suffering itself is identified as a specific object of ecclesial ministry (cf. nn. 72, 73). Clearly this insight requires education for the whole Christian community of the parish. It requires the formation of specialized catechists able to "communicate" with these people who carry the burden of handicap. It requires families to be formed to see disability not as punishment, a cross, or misfortune — as it is so often experienced — but as a vocation for the entire family and the entire community.
Read also: "A Window Has Opened in Our Life"
In this light, it would be valuable to promote a thorough study of nn. 68 and 69 of that same document, where the criteria for recognizing non-ordained ministry are set out. It states that such a ministry is determined by a gift from God, is in service to ordained ministry, should not be temporary but rather — if possible — lifelong, and must arise from within the community, accepted by it, and recognized by the authority that leads it.
If the pastor and community could grasp these dimensions, they would no longer resist confirming their "hidden treasures." They would no longer exchange those wounding glances when people with handicaps move in ways that may look uncoordinated but are simply the body's own expression; when they make those uncontrolled sounds that are their way of sharing in the community's joy. They would no longer say that terrible thing: "But how can you give confirmation if they don't understand?"
But they do understand! You should have seen Marco participate in his own way, with what tenderness he followed the liturgy! Months later, looking through the album of photos with him, we relived the whole feast. And he made sure I understood that the promises he had made — to renounce Satan — he had kept!
Truly, "the Spirit of the Lord is upon Marco and has sent him to announce by his very life the good news that every handicap has been overcome; every barrier has been broken down; and that the brokenhearted have been comforted through the discovery that they can understand their existence as a vocation."
His family and the Fede e Luce community welcome Marco as a gift. The parish recognizes that Marco's suffering and his family's suffering are a true support to its pastoral mission. Since Marco's condition is not temporary but lifelong, he is forever a "minister" in the community where he lives — an expression of it, and a means through which the community grows.
I believe there is great consolation in knowing that the Italian Church has given serious attention to this question of catechesis and sacraments for people with handicaps. I point to the recent National Catechetical Office conference, "Pastoral Care and Catechesis in Italian Churches and People with Handicaps," held October 19-21, 1990. The proceedings, edited by the Apostolic Movement of the Blind, constitute an excellent treatment of this matter. (Copies can be requested from: Ufficio Catechistico Nazionale - Circonvallazione Aurelio 50 - 00165 Roma, or from Movimento Apostolico Ciechi).
- + Salvatore Boccaccio - Auxiliary Bishop of Rome, 1992
