A recent discussion of which I was a part on a closed social media forum centered around the difficulty that one young person had when attempting to attend one of Franciscan University of Steubenville's "Steubenville Conferences" aimed at Catholic youth. Until this discussion, I had never heard anything but good about these Steubenville Conferences. The reports that I have seen and heard are those of young people who come away with a reinvigorated faith, one about which they are very excited.
The social media discussion centered around a blog entry about a recent Steubenville Conference in St. Louis. At that event, a person with a disability who was confined to a wheelchair was apparently segregated from her peers, overnight accommodations were simply not accessible to her, and the local staff were unprepared for dealing with the basic needs of a person with a disability who might wish to attend the conference.
I am always inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt in a situation where it is the first time they might have had a person with a disability attend a given event. It is not a scenario that many are familiar with if they don't have to deal with it every day. I understand that because I live with a disability every day, it's very easy for me to grow impatient, and sometimes intolerant, of a world that doesn't know what that is like. I often find that I need to become more patient and a lot more understanding, as this is what Christ himself would do.
My understanding tends to run out, however, when people have had repeated experiences and chances dealing with those who have disabilities, yet they continue to fail in taking the needs of the person with disability into account. Such was the case with the young lady described in the blog entry, which had been written by her mother. She had been to a Steubenville Conference the year before, and had a serious problem with accessibility and inclusion at the conference. The conference organizers apparently failed to make the necessary changes, not only to include this young lady in an appropriate way, but to accommodate any others with disabilities who might wish to attend. The situation left the girl so demoralized that she told her mother that when she grew up she did not think that she would be Catholic anymore. "I believe what the Church teaches," she said "but I don't think they want me."
It needs to be made clear here that the problem described above was not the fault of Franciscan University of Steubenville but of the local organizers of the conference described. Even so, it points to the great difficulty in the life of the Church of including those who have disabilities as fully as possible within the ecclesiastical community. Here was a young lady who is interested in the things of God, believes in what the Church teaches, and she wants to be a part of it, but she has felt that nothing but obstacles have been put in her way. Her mother, who wrote the blog entry, expressed frustration that their family had spent years attempting to make accessibility and inclusion a priority in their parish and their local diocesan Church, and they apparently didn't meet with much success.
When one soul is threatening to leave the Church not because they have lost faith, or because they no longer trust our leaders, or because they no longer believe what the Church teaches, but because the Church that they are ready to embrace does not, they believe, wish to have them be a part of the body of Christ, that is a failure of epic proportions. During the social media discussion I was disheartened that some were attempting to defend what was described to have happened. There is no defending causing a young person to be so disheartened in their faith that they feel that their Church, whose teachings they firmly believe in, does not welcome them.
I have been extremely blessed in my brief time in formation and now in ordained ministry that I have never felt as though I was an afterthought. If anything, I can honestly say that many of my brothers have gone out of their way to encourage me and include me in ways that I never would have expected them-or anyone else-to do. I learned from the bishop shortly before I was ordained that he "never hesitated" in his decision to allow me to enter into diaconate formation.
I never presumed that I had the right to be ordained, as Sacred Ordination, although it is a Sacrament, is a privilege and not a right. Throughout the entire time of my formation, I remember taking the attitude that at any time I must be fully prepared to walk away and fully prepared to understand that this may not be what God was calling me to. However, I was given the complete freedom to discern the Lord's call on my life, and when I came to see that the Lord was calling me to the diaconate, I was assigned to a parish where I was wanted and a pastor who was determined that I should carry out all the parts of the Ministry of the Church which a deacon may validly and licitly carry out. I am eternally grateful to all of the people who have been determined that should be as able as anyone else to follow God's call. I am grateful to the Lord for a bishop who wanted me, and a pastor who encourages my Ministry.
This doesn't seem to be the case with everyone who has a disability in other places throughout the Church in our country, but it ought to be. Whatever the Lord's call on a person's life might be, whether that is to priesthood, diaconate, consecrated religious life, or the life of a vigorous and active member of the People of God in their local Church, I think that other people with disabilities should be afforded the same opportunities for faith enrichment, faith formation, and the discernment and living out of their vocations that has been afforded to me.
I am well aware that when I assist in the sanctuary during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that, in all reality, I violate principle number one of how the clergy should conduct ourselves at the Mass. We should never draw attention to ourselves, but it is inevitable that I will draw attention to myself, as I stick out far worse than a sore thumb. Yet I always pray that in this capacity the Lord might use me as a blessing to other people. Perhaps one way a blessing might be for that young person with a disability who visits one day while I'm assisting at Mass might see me and think "maybe God is calling me to do that, or something like it, and if that bozo can do it, I can too."
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