DOLENTIUM HOMINUM No. 73 – Year XXV – No. 1, 2010

JOURNAL OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS (FOR HEALTH PASTORAL CARE)

Proceedings of the XXIV International Conference

Organised by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers

Ephphatha! The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church

November 19-20-21, 2009 New Synod Hall Vatican City BISHOP ZYGMUNT ZIMOWSKI, Editor-in-Chief CORRESPONDENTS BISHOP JOSÉ L. REDRADO, O.H., Executive Editor REV.MATEO BAUTISTA, Bolivia MONSIGNOR JAMES CASSIDY, U.S.A. REV.RUDE DELGADO, Spain REV.RAMON FERRERO, Mozambique REV.BENOIT GOUDOTE, Ivory Coast PROFESSOR SALVINO LEONE, Italy REV.JORGE PALENCIA, Mexico EDITORIAL BOARD REV.GEORGE PEREIRA, India MRS.AN VERLINDE, Belgium REV.CIRO BENEDETTINI PROFESSOR ROBERT WALLEY, Canada DR.LILIANA BOLIS SR.AURELIA CUADRON REV.GIOVANNI D’ERCOLE, F.D.P. DR.MAYA EL-HACHEM REV.GIANFRANCO GRIECO REV.BONIFACIO HONINGS MONSIGNOR JESÚS IRIGOYEN EDITORIAL STAFF REV.JOSEPH JOBLIN REV.VITO MAGNO, R.C.I. DR.COLETTE CHALON DR.DINA NEROZZI-FRAJESE MRS.STEFANIA CASABIANCA DR.FRANCO PLACIDI DR.ANTONELLA FARINA REV.LUCIANO SANDRIN DR.MATTHEW FFORDE MONSIGNOR ITALO TADDEI DR.GUILLERMO QWISTGAARD

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Poste Italiane s.p.a. Spedizione in Abbonamento Postale - D.L. 353/2003 (conv. In L. 27/02/2004 nº 46) art. 1, comma 2, DCB Roma Contents

6 Address of Greeting 30 3. Round Table to His Holiness Benedict XVI Experiences from the World of Silence H.E. Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski 30 3.1 Congenital Deaf Prof. Marco Radici 7 Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI 32 3.2 Medical and Technological Interventions Offer New Possibilities EPHPHATHA!THE DEAF PERSON to Improve the Quality of Life of Persons IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH with a Hearing Impairment Prof. Frans Coninx 10 Speech of Greeting by H.E. 34 3.3 My Experiences as a Religious Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski Education Teacher of the Deaf in Wonosobo, Indonesia 12 Greetings of Cardinal Sr. Antonie Ardatin Javier Lozano Barragán 36 3.4 My Personal Experience and my Pastoral Experience 12 Greetings of H.E. Rev. Jaime Gutiérrez Villanueva Msgr. Patrick A. Kelly 39 3.5 An Artist Mr. Sander Blondeel FIRST SESSION 40 3.6 The Challenges of Deaf Catholics DEAF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD in the Life of the Church BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE PRESENT Miss Jennifer NG Paik Yeng 13 1. Deaf People in the World Rev. Savino G. Castiglione THIRD SESSION THE FAMILY AND DEAF PEOPLE 16 2. A Deaf American Person in the Life of the Church 1. The Family and Deaf People Rev. Patrick Graybill 41 Mrs Maura Buckley 18 3. The Psychological World 2. Round Table of Deaf People 47 The Family and Deaf People: Mrs. Maryann Barth the Experiences of Couples Mrs. Consuelo Manero Soto 47 2.1 The Experience of the Albiero Family Mr. Franco Albiero SECOND SESSION Mrs. Rita Stesi MEDICAL ASPECTS OF DEAFNESS 49 2.2 The Experience of the Lamano Family Mr. Luca Lamano 23 1. Medical Aspects of Deafness Mrs. Chiara Sironi Dr. María Antonia Clavería Puig 50 2.3 The Experience 26 2. Medical Aspects of Deafness: of the Comazzetto Family Psychology Mr. Alessandro Comazzetto Prof. Marcel Broesterhuizen Mrs. Manola Scimionato 53 3. The Family and Deaf People: 67 2.3 My Priestly Life and Experience Reflections and Proposals in Pastoral Care with Deaf People Rev. José Guillermo Gutiérrez Fernández Rev. Cyril Axelrod 68 2.4 Go and Make Disciples of all Nations... FOURTH SESSION Mrs. Nicole Clark PASTORAL CARE FOR DEAF PEOPLE 70 2.5 “Duc in altum”: 56 1. Care by Priests in Poland A Model for Education in Ministry for People with Damage Dr. Ian Robertson to their Hearing Faculties: 72 2.6 A Deaf Sister Involved in Catechesis the New Areas of Special Needs Sr. Vittorina Carli Prof. Kazimiera Krakowiak 74 3. The Deaf Person 2. Round Table in the Life of the Church Experiences of Pastoral Care Mr. Terry O’Meara 64 2.1 A Bishop H.E. Msgr. Patrick A. Kelly 75 Ending of the Conference 65 2.2 Go and Preach the Gospel H.E. Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski to all Humanity, Including Deaf People Mr. Porferio Galon

The illustrations in this edition are taken from the book: Uno di noi è Dio Il Vangelo per la famiglia by Valentino Salvoldi Edizioni Messaggero Padova Editrice Velar, 2010

6 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

ADDRESS OF GREETING TO HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Most Blessed Father, There are over 278 million people in the world It is with filial devotion and gratitude that we with this invisible handicap which creates an im- thank you for receiving us during the proceedings of penetrable wall in communication and the sharing our international conference which this year has ad- of all daily gestures. The difficulties increase as dressed a subject of great interest and contemporary well and above all else in religious observance be- relevance: pastoral care with and for non-hearing cause of a lack of suitably trained priests and pas- people. toral workers who are able to constitute a bridge so During the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, on 3 that non-hearing people (there are over a million December, the Jubilee of the Disabled also took and three hundred thousand Catholic non-hearing place and amongst the disabled there were also people in the world) can be integrated into all as- many non-hearing people. The Holy Mass that was pects of Church life. celebrated for that occasion was translated using Distinguished international experts and others sign language in order to allow a more complete have taken part in this international conference, participation. The Holy Father John Paul II, of ven- amongst whom there are deaf speakers. They come erable memory, addressed the disabled with the fol- from 67 countries in the world and came to Rome to lowing words: ‘In the name of Christ, the Church is make a contribution at the level of science and committed to becoming for you increasingly a wel- knowledge to the problem of deafness to secure the coming home’. success of the process of the ecclesial and social in- One may say that the XXIV international confer- tegration of deaf people. ence of the Pontifical Council for Health Care The families present during the international con- Workers – ‘‘Ephphatha!: Deaf People in the Life of ference, who have one or more deaf members, offer the Church’ – was organised to point out that the in this sense important witness to true lived and suf- Church wants to become even more involved with fered faith, as speakers as well. They have illustrat- deaf people so that they feel that in it there is for ed to the large number of people taking part in the them a ‘welcoming home’. international conference, about 500 people in all, the Our non-hearing brothers and sisters carry in their difficulties that are encountered every day in living bodies, in their lives, an acutely-felt hope for ‘liber- their Christian faith. ation’. Without faith, this hope can take on tones of Holiness: it is with authentic joy that we wish to disappointment and dismay: sustained by the word express to you our gratitude for receiving us this of Jesus – ‘Ephphatha!’ – it is transformed into liv- morning, and with filial respect we prepare to listen ing and working hope. The most sought-after goal, to your words and receive your Apostolic Blessing as Your Holiness emphasised during your recent vis- which will accompany all those present and their it to Jordan, is the full integration of people with dis- families and will sustain them in their lives. abilities ‘into society and assuring that an adequate H.E. Msgr. ZYGMUNT ZIMOWSKI role and suitable provisions are offered in order to President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, facilitate such integration’. the Holy See DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 7

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Dear Brothers and Sisters, only exclaim: “He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak!” I am pleased to meet you on the occasion of the (Mk 7: 37). 24th International Conference organized by the By his way of behaving which reveals the heav- Pontifical Council for Health-Care Workers on a enly Father’s love, Jesus does not only heal physi- theme of great social and ecclesial importance: cal deafness but points out that there is another “Ephphatha! The hearing-impaired person in the form of deafness of which humanity must be life of the Church”. I greet Archbishop Zygmunt cured, indeed, from which it must be saved: it is Zimowski, President of the Dicastery, and thank deafness of the spirit, which raises ever higher bar- him for his cordial words. I extend my greeting to riers against the voice of God and that of one’s the Secretary and to the new Undersecretary, to the neighbour, especially the cry for help of the lowli- Priests, Religious and Lay People, to the Experts est and the suffering, and closes the human being and to everyone present. I would like to express in profound and ruinous selfishness. As I had the my appreciation and my encouragement for your opportunity to say in the Homily during my Pas- generous commitment to this important sector of toral Visit to the Diocese of Viterbo last 6 Septem- pastoral care. ber: “we can see in this ‘sign’ Jesus’ ardent desire Indeed, the problems that beset deaf people, who to overcome man’s loneliness and incommunica- have been made the object of attentive reflection in bility created by selfishness, in order to bring these days, are numerous and delicate. It is a situa- about a ‘new humanity’, the humanity of listening tion on different levels, which ranges from the so- and speech, of dialogue, of communication, of ciological horizon to the pedagogical, from the communion with God. A ‘good’ humanity, just as medical and psychological to the ethical and spiri- all of God’s Creation is good; a humanity without tual and the pastoral. The reports of specialists, the discrimination, without exclusion... so that the exchange of experiences among those who work world is truly and for all a ‘scene of true brother- in this field, the testimonies of the deaf themselves hood’” (Homily, Mass in Faul Valley, Viterbo, 6 have offered the possibility for an in-depth analy- September 2009). sis of the situation and for the formulation of pro- Unfortunately experience does not always testi- posals and guidelines for an ever more specialized fy to acts of prompt acceptance, convinced solidar- attention to these brothers and sisters of ours. ity and warm communion for people who are un- The word “Ephphatha” as the beginning of the able to hear. The numerous associations that have title of the Conference’s theme, calls to mind the come into being to protect and promote their well-known episode in Mark’s Gospel (cf. 7: 31- rights, highlight the existence of a discontent soci- 37) which is paradigmatic of how the Lord works ety that is marked by prejudice and discrimination. for deaf people. Jesus took aside a deaf mute and, These are deplorable and unjustifiable attitudes be- after making some symbolic gestures, raised his cause they are contrary to respect for the dignity of eyes to Heaven and said to him: “Ephphatha”, that the deaf and their full social integration. Far more is,“Be opened”. At that moment, the Evangelist says, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue re- leased, and he spoke plainly. Jesus’ gestures are full of loving attention and express deep compas- sion for the man who stood before him. The Lord showed the deaf man his concrete concern, drew him aside from the confusion of the crowd, made him feel his closeness and understanding by sever- al gestures full of meaning. He placed his fingers in his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. He then invited him to turn his interior gaze, that of his heart, together with him to the heavenly Father. Fi- nally, he healed him and restored him to his fami- ly, to his people, and the crowd, marvelling, could 8 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH widespread, however, are the initiatives promoted the teaching and example of her divine Founder, by institutions and associations, in both the eccle- the Church is continuing to accompany the various sial and civil contexts, that are inspired by authen- pastoral and social initiatives for their benefit with tic and generous solidarity and which have con- love and solidarity, reserving special attention for tributed to improving the living conditions of those who are suffering, in the awareness that it is many hearing-impaired people. In this regard, it is precisely in suffering that a special strength is con- important to remember that in the 18th. century the cealed, a special grace which brings the human be- first schools for the religious instruction and for- ing inwardly closer to Christ. mation of these brothers and sisters of ours were Dear hearing-impaired brothers and sisters, you being founded in Europe. From that time on chari- are not only recipients of the Gospel message but table institutions in the Church increased, impelled also legitimately heralds of it, by virtue of your by priests, men and women religious and lay peo- Baptism. Thus you live every day as witnesses of ple, whose purpose was to offer the hearing-im- the Lord in your living contexts, making Christ paired not only an education but also an integral and his Gospel known. In this Year for Priests, you assistance for their complete fulfilment. However, are also praying for vocations, so that the Lord will it is not possible to forget the serious situation in inspire numerous good ministries for the growth of which they still live today in the developing coun- the ecclesial community. tries, both because of the lack of appropriate poli- Dear friends, I thank you for this encounter and cies and legislation and because of the difficulty in entrust all of you who are present here to the moth- obtaining access to primary health care treatment. erly protection of Mary, Mother of Love, Star of Deafness, in fact, is often the consequence of ill- Hope, Our Lady of Silence. With these wishes, I nesses that can easily be treated. I therefore appeal cordially impart to you the Apostolic Blessing, to the political and civil authorities, as well as to which I extend to your families and to all the asso- the international organizations, to offer the neces- ciations which actively work at the service of the sary support in order to promote, also in those hearing-impaired. countries, a proper respect for the dignity and Clementine Hall rights of deaf people, encouraging their full social Friday, 20 November 2009 integration with adequate assistance. Following BENEDICT XVI Ephphata! The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church 10 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

SPEECH OF GREETING BY H.E. MSGR. ZYGMUNT ZIMOWSKI

Welcome! National Director of the Chaplaincy tives of numerous congregations It is with real pleasure that we for the Deaf in Ireland, Reverend and institutes of consecrated life give the welcome of the Pontifical Padre Gerard Tyrrell. A greeting, who dedicate so much care and Council for Health Care Workers to even though he is not present with commitment to this sector which is all those taking part in our twenty- us here this morning for reasons of as important as it is complex. fourth international conference health, also goes to my predecessor And then there are you, over 520 which this year is on the subject: at the head of the Pontifical Coun- participants, above all deaf people ‘Ephphatha!: The Deaf Person in cil, Cardinal Javier Lozano Bar- and workers who serve them with the Life of the Church’. ragán. With us to end our delibera- love and skill, who have come here Saluto cordialmente ciascuno di tions will be His Eminence Cardi- to the Vatican, representing over voi e vi auguro una proficua con- nal Fiorenzo Angelini, the first sixty countries from all the five ferenza e una buona permanenza in President of the Pontifical Council continents of the world. It is really questa bella città di Roma. for Health Care Workers, a dicast- worthwhile to refer to all these I cordially greet each one of you ery which on 11 February 2010 will countries given the difficulties that and I wish you a profitable confer- celebrate the twenty-fifth anniver- were overcome to arrive here. They ence and a good stay in this won- sary of its foundation. are: derful city of Rome. Angola Je salue cordialement chacun Argentina d’entre vous et je vous souhaite Australia d’une part de profiter de la con- Austria férence et de l’autre, d’avoir une Belgium bonne permanence dans cette belle Benin ville de Rome. Brazil Serdecznie pozdrawiam każdego Burkina Faso z was i życzę udanej konferencji i Burundi pobytu w pięknym mieście Rzymie. Cambodia Herzlich grüße ich euch alle und Cameroon ich wünche euch eine erfolgreiche Canada Konferenz und einen angenehmen Chile Aufenthalt in dieser wünderscho- China, Republic of (Taiwan) nen Stadt Rom. Colombia Saludo cordialmente cada uno de Congo Usted y les deseo una muy prove- Congo, Democratic Republic of chosa conferencia y una buena per- I would in addition like to refer, Croatia manencia en esta hermosa ciudad amongst others, to Reverend Savi- Ecuador de Roma. no Castiglione of the Little Mission El Salvador for the Deaf and Dumb; the Auxil- France I wish, therefore, to thank all iary Archbishop of Washington Germany those taking part, beginning with D.C., Monsignor Martin D. Holley; Ghana the heads of the dicasteries or their Professor Marco Radici, Consultant Great Britain delegates, important figures, and in Otorhinolaryngology of the Fa- Guinea experts who have come here to the tabenefratelli Hospital on the Tiber- Holland Vatican to enrich this international ine Island in Rome; Mrs Frankie Holy See conference. Here with us is the Berry, a pastoral agent for deaf peo- Hungary Italian Vice-Minister of Health, ple in Dublin; Padre José Guillermo India Professor Ferruccio Fazio; the am- Gutiérrez Fernàndez of the Pontifi- Indonesia bassador of Taiwan, His Excellen- cal Council for the Family; and Mr. Ireland cy Larry Yu-Yuan; the ambassador Terry O’Meara, the Director of the Italy of the Lebanon, His Excellency International Foundation for Ser- Ivory Coast Georges El Khoury; the Archbishop vice to Deaf People. Japan of Liverpool and the President of And last but not least, Dr. Silvio Kenya the International Foundation for Mariotti, an expert on blindness and Lebanon Service to Deaf People, Monsignor deafness at the World Health Or- Lesotho Patrick Kelly; the representative of ganisation who has come specially Madagascar the Ministry of Health of Poland, to this international conference Malaysia Mrs. Monika Przygucka; and the from Geneva, and the representa- Mali DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 11

Malta the major challenges, for example This is an international confer- Mexico the training of a sufficient number ence which has required great ef- Mozambique of seminarians, priests and men and forts at the level of organisation and New Zealand women religious in sign languages, the hope is that it can be a seed that Nigeria and we will look for the best solu- is ready to sprout and to be trans- Philippines tions to achieve this. formed into a tree laden with fruit. Palestine A culminating moment of the Possa la Madonna del Silenzio Peru proceedings will certainly be the aiutarci e sostenere il nostro lavoro Poland audience that the Holy Father, Pope per migliorare la vita della persona Portugal Benedict XVI, will grant us on Fri- sorda specialmente nella Chiesa! Romania day morning. May Our Lady of Silence help Rwanda A truly rich and full agenda for and support our work to improve Slovenia this twenty-fourth edition of our in- the deaf person’s life especially Spain ternational conference, therefore, within the Church! South Korea which constitutes and will consti- Que Notre-Dame du Silence nous Switzerland tute a privileged opportunity to ex- aide et nous soutienne dans notre Togo amine experiences in various con- travail en faveur de la promotion Trinidad and Tobago texts, outline elements of success, des personnes sourdes et partic- Ukraine and explore useful pathways to the ulièrement dans la vie de l’Église! Uganda full integration of all those who are Möge die Gottes Mutter Maria, USA affected by hearing problems. Madonna der Stille helfen uns und Venezuela To illuminate our journey there begleiten unsere arbeit zu Gunsten Zambia will without doubt be the healing of der taubstummen in der Kirche! Zimbabwe the deaf man that is narrated in the Niech Matka Boża Cicha wspo- Gospel According to Mark and może nasze wysiłki w celu polep- We thank the translators, espe- which the conference takes as a szenia warunków życiowych osób cially those involved in communi- point of departure. Jesus said “Eph- niesłyszących przede wszystkim w cation between the four official sign phatha! Open!” This gospel ac- Kościele! languages (Spanish, Italian, English count may be taken as an icon for Que Santa María del Silencio nos and North American English). It is all the questions and issues in- ayude y sostenga nuestro trabajo thanks to their work as well that we volved: God who became man was para mejorar la vida de la persona can all fully take part in these three so near to suffering that He touched sorda specialmente en la Iglesia!. days of analysis and study of the ec- it with his hand and overcame it. It is with the help of Our Lady of clesial, health-care and social reali- Salvifici Doloris, the apostolic Silence that I declare open the pro- ty of deaf people, whom we esti- letter whose jubilee falls this year, ceedings of this twenty-fourth inter- mate to number in the Catholic in addition to emphasising the national conference. Church a million and three hundred salvific value of suffering also calls I now give the floor to the gen- thousand, and in the world over 278 on all of us to be like the Good eral chairman who is H.E. Msgr. million, of whom about a fifth have Samaritan, who comes to the help José L. Redrado, Secretary of the profound deafness. This is a partic- of the wounded person, the person Pontifical Council for Health Care ularly grave reality in the less eco- in difficulty; that is to say it calls us Workers. nomically advanced countries to goodness and, with special refer- where it is estimated that 80% of ence to the world of those who can- H.E.Msgr. ZYGMUNT ZIMOWSKI deaf people live and where two in not hear, to nearness, thereby break- President of the Pontifical Council for every thousand children born have ing the isolation to which many of Health Care Workers, hearing problems. them still seem to be condemned. the Holy See. We will therefore address the question of the prevention and treatment of deafness, outlining its principal causes, beginning with ill- nesses such as measles, scarlet fever, meningitis, and the questions connected with possible forms of help such as external and internal acoustic aids. We will then analyse the psycho- logical and sociological aspects of the question, including those con- nected with education and the fami- ly, and those connected with the Church, in terms of lay and conse- crated life, which this year is paying special attention to the Year for Priests. We already know many of 12 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

Greetings of Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán

I greet H.E. Msgr. Zygmunt Zi- the work of evangelisation of the ciety to ‘open its ears’ and to listen mowski, the President of the Pon- world of non-hearing people I also to the Word of Jesus, and receive tifical Council for Health Care had the pleasure of experiencing. I from him a language that can pro- Workers congratulate you on the fact that claimthatheistheonlyauthentic I extend a very affectionate the Holy Father granted that this and fundamental value in each greeting to all of you now taking conference would address such an sphere of culture that claims to be part in this international confer- important sector of pastoral care in such. ence of this Pontifical Council. A health. H.Em. Card. JAVIER special greeting goes to His Excel- I hope that this international LOZANO BARRAGÁN lency Msgr. Patrick A. Kelly, the conference, in addition to its im- President Emeritus Archbishop of Liverpool, whose mediate pastoral significance, will of the Pontifical Council guest I had the pleasure of being acquire a universal value so that for Health Care Workers, and whose great pastoral zeal in the need is understood for our so- the Holy See

Greetings of H.E. Msgr. Kelly

I will always remember one day And this Word, this sign, this went forward. And year after year when I was a student here in love, this pilgrim became flesh and Jesus gave me this blessing: to Rome. Our professor was helping dwelt among us. walk with deaf sisters and brothers us to receive the Gospel according And our professor explained: from all over the world: I went to to Saint John. For two weeks we that is why St John’s Gospel is told Guadeloupe; to Florida; to Wash- had studied these signs: as seven journeys. And the last ington; to Holland; to Ireland. And – In the beginning was the one: I ascend to my God and your now to Rome; to be strengthened Word. God. I ascend to my Father and by coming close to the Holy Fa- – The Word was with God. your Father. ther. It is good to be here. – And the Word was God. I come here today after a won- In the name of very many good Then he came to us and signed: derful journey. More than thirty people, some here with us, and cross out your notes from the past years ago an Archbishop in Eng- some who have made their last two weeks. I have read again all land chose me to help people journey to Our Lord in heaven, I the teaching of Saint John. It preparing a prayer for the Mass, a thank Your Eminence, Your Excel- should sign: the Word was towards prayer in BSL. I had to make sure: lencies, for offering the gift of his God. When Saint John uses the this gives to our sisters and broth- conference. word: P R O S; he always wants to ers who are deaf the wonder of the In the words of Cardinal New- sign towards. So those three lines Mass, not just a part of it. I finished man who will soon be declared teach this: that work. And this prayer was ac- blessed: so long thy power hath In the beginning was the Word. cepted here in Rome as good and blest us, sure it still will lead us on. And the Word was towards God. true and to be used by people And the Word was God. whose signs are BSL. H.E. Msgr. PATRICK A. KELLY The Word is love towards God. Then I was chosen to be a bish- Archbishop of Liverpool, The Word is not dead, cold, bor- op: and the bishop before me there Great Britain ing. in Manchester had walked with The Word is longing and we can people who are deaf. So my jour- dare to say: a pilgrim. ney among and with deaf people DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 13 First Session Deaf People in the World Between the Past and the Present

SAVINO G. CASTIGLIONE 1. Deaf People in the World Between the Past and the Present

For someone like myself who is of deafness, I think it is advisable to individual the great window onto honoured by being a member of a throw light on the individual who is the world. Differently from the eye the religious Congregation ‘The the bearer of this disability as such. which has a direction and percep- Little Mission for the Deaf and Thus I will attempt to ask: who is a tion, that is to say its own visual Dumb’, which was founded in deaf person? What does it mean for field, hearing is stimulated by vi- Bologna in the now distant 1872 by an individual to be or not to be able brations and sounds that come from Don Giuseppe Gualandi and his to hear? And what is the role of the all directions; and deafness as a bar- brother Don Cesare with the sole faculty of hearing in human life? rier – the barrier of silence – more aim of educating deaf people, to be In summarising form, we can an- than sight halts the conversation be- with you here is a moment of a very swer these questions by stating that: tween the person who has been great joy principally because, for a deaf person is a normally en- wounded in his or her hearing with the first time under the lights of an dowed individual in intellectual the environment, it deprives him or international conference organised terms, leaving aside the hearing dis- her of messages of information and by the Pontifical Council for Health ability that has struck his or her leaves him or her in a state of isola- Care workers, we see deaf people as hearing organ which is biologically tion. The writer Hellen Keller, who a living limb of the Church of peripheral; one should bear in mind became deaf and blind at the age of Christ. that through the faculty of hearing nineteen months, said one day: The attention that in this very im- an individual can move out of the “What makes me suffer the most is portant context is given to the deaf, narrow world of his or her own be- my deafness because my blindness the bearers of a invisible sensorial ing and have contacts with the separates me from things but my handicap and a handicap which is at minds, the hearts, and the world that deafness separates me from peo- the same time grave and devastat- surround him or her, becoming ple’. ing, although it on the one hand al- through spoken language a member lows us to demonstrate empathy for of the human family; in addition, What do the numbers tell us? their suffered and difficult past, on thanks to hearing it is possible to the other enables us to recognise the have a constant and imposing flow According to the World Health initiatives and the care that in past of information and communication Organisation (WHO): centuries the Church has sought to between individuals and groups, –Intheworldone child in every give to the world of deafness in the without limitations in terms of thousand is born deaf or becomes educational, ecclesial and pastoral thought, reactions, feelings, com- such during childhood. field in the forms and ways suggest- mands, warnings, threats and in- – In developing countries which ed from time to time by the times structions. It is undoubted that the do not have a programme of health and social contexts, thanks to a ful- ability to hear has a kind of primacy prevention as regards children and some array of qualified representa- as regards the five senses, making do not supply the vaccinations that tives. man a social being to the utmost: are required, the percentage in- Before continuing, believing that the ear, by which we receive 80% of creases and is about two children I can render a service to those who the information that comes from the for every thousand live births. are not very familiar with the world reality that surrounds us, is for each – 10.5 in every thousand is the 14 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH figure in the world population for normally with the surrounding recognise that the Benedictine friar those who suffer some kind of world. But such has not always Pedro Ponce De Leon (1510-1584) hearing disability. been the case. had the great merit of demolishing – Given that the population of the In past centuries, the passing of the psychological or cognitive prej- world is about 7 milliard, one needs the human existence of a deaf per- udice by educating and instructing, to do little at the level of arithmetic son was for the most part a pathway and with excellent results, two deaf to realise that we face a problem of bedevilled by obstacles, of incom- and dumb children of the Spanish great social relevance. prehension, of isolation and of daily aristocracy. The intellectual Gero- – In addition to causes of a genet- frustrations. An education, instruc- lamo Cardano (1501-1576) had the ic character, amongst the causes tion and a social role for a deaf per- merit of demolishing the clinical that give rise to deafness there are: son are things that have been creat- prejudice. He was interested in meningitis, ear infections, mar- ed by modern society. In antiquity, deafness and dumbness because he riages between people who are re- indeed, with the exception of some had a deaf child. He established the lated, the use of ear-damaging med- sporadic cases mentioned in literary bases of contemporary audiology ical products at overdose levels, works, the deaf person received nei- when he stated that ‘those who are birth traumas, and measles (the ther education nor instruction. The born deaf are necessarily also cause in 40% of cases of deafness). lack of upbringing and education dumb, given that there is a relation- made a deaf person be seen as being ship of cause and effect between on the same level as an idiot. deafness and dumbness – surdus ac A Look Backwards During the Renaissance the deinde mutus’. This learned man, process began of educating deaf and this was something very impor- The idea that the trembling of the people, but this was something for tant for those times, grasped the tongue of a deaf child should be the lucky few because these were need to base the learning process of broken so that it should be loosened the children of rich people or noble a deaf person around the principle (cf. Mk 7: 31-7), thereby enabling families. The first didactic insights of visual sensorial vicariousness the child to speak correctly, forms a of the Spanish Benedictine friar Pe- and thus not learning based upon part of the inheritance of the most dro Ponce De Leon themselves acoustic images but upon visual ancient and cruellest practices of arose in an elite context and were moving images. Cardano wrote: medicine. We can now say that for the benefit of two deaf children ‘we can thus ensure that a deaf per- from the beginning of the last cen- who were the children belonging to son when reading, hears, and when tury medicine and technology have the Valesquez aristocratic family. writing, speaks’. taken giant steps ahead to eliminate Until the medieval period those Once the principle that a deaf the causes that give rise to deafness, people whose hearing was damaged person could be educated was es- to solve the problems that are con- were the prisoners not only of deaf- tablished based upon sensorial vic- nected with deafness, and conse- ness and being dumb but also of a ariousness, beginning with the quently to improve the quality of series of prejudices: a) a psycholog- eighteenth century and the opening life of people who are afflicted by ical or cognitive prejudice:itwas of the first state schools, the period deafness. denied that a deaf person had the of the selection of methods for the In this sense we may think of cognitive capacities that were suffi- instruction of deaf people began. In hearing aids, especially the last- cient to be of sound mind and thus it this way various teaching systems generation hearing aids, which are was thought that he or she would were created. Amongst these there miniaturised and are able to conceal not benefit from education and in- prevailed the method of systematic background noise, and also of struction; b) a clinical or physiolog- mining of the French school and the eardrum implants and ear micro- ical prejudice: deafness and being oral method of the German school. surgery. dumb were seen as independent en- The supporters of the two principal And then there is the amazing tities. The clinical concept was ab- educational methods and systems technological progress linked to sent that it a single disability, name- continued to confront each other in telephony which in recent decades ly deafness, that gave rise to the a controversy that has lasted until has really revolutionised the life of subsequent disability of being the present day. those who are without the faculty dumb. In the absence of clear diag- In the meanwhile, beginning in hearing. One need only think here nostic principles, no serious process the nineteenth century, in Europe, of the possibilities offered by the of education could be begun; c) a in the United States of America, in messages sent by SMS or by video juridical prejudice: a deaf person Australia, in New Zealand, in Cana- calls on mobile phones. was put on the same level as people da and in Latin America, the first We could summarise the situa- deemed ‘lacking in responsibility’ legislative initiatives of various tion by saying that a more modern and was declared incapable of cer- governments took place designed to way of thinking about life in the so- tain juridical acts, for example assure that people with hearing dis- cial, family and religious sphere, on property transactions; and d) areli- abilities could have in the first in- the one hand, and technological gious prejudice: a deaf person was stance compulsory education and progress on the other, have made held to be an inferior being whom it then be directed towards work. less arduous the carrying on one’s was impossible to educate and who On 21 September of 1951, in shoulders of the heavy burden of a was incapable of achieving knowl- Rome, the founding document of disability that in fundamental terms edge of the ‘true faith’. the World Federation of the Deaf afflicts the possibility of interacting Many years passed and we can was signed. DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 15

The decision of UNESCO to cel- thus could not benefit from instruc- oured by having present a number ebrate every year, on the fourth tion of a normal character, and thus of deaf brothers in the priesthood Sunday of the year, the World Day even more could not benefit from who represent the thirteen priests of the Deaf, had its roots in this instruction of a supernatural charac- without hearing who at the present event. ter, which was much more abstract time work in many parts of the Only a few years passed and on and demanding. world. the occasion of the Fifth World To complicate things even more, Their presence, while on the one Congress of the Deaf which was there was the erroneous interpreta- hand it gives us joy and hope, on held in Paris in August 1971 the tion on the part of some theologians the other urges us to work ever solemn Declaration of the Rights of of the words of St. Paul (Rom more and ever better so that the People Afflicted by Hearing Dis- 10:17) in his Letter to the Romans groan, indeed the cry of Jesus abilities was promulgated and pub- in which the Apostle writes: ‘Igitur, – EPHPHATHA – Open, echoes in lished. fides ex auditu – faith, therefore, the hearts of all the deaf people The Congress of Paris also estab- comes from listening to preaching’. who are at our side or who are lished the bases for the recognition The logic and erroneous conclu- spread throughout the world. of sign language understood as a sion of those times was that as a form of expression necessary for consequence people without the people who are not able to express faculty of hearing could not achieve themselves with a spoken language. Faith. Sign language was recognised as The interpretation of the com- having all the characteristics of a mentators during the next centuries language, with the exception of vo- had such a negative impact that the cal sounds. theologian B. Roetti, in his book In the meanwhile, although every published in 1879, declared: ‘the nation had its own sign language theologians agree that Holy Com- codified with signs, the World Fed- munion can never be given to peo- eration of the Deaf entrusted a ple deaf from birth because they are group of experts with creating an perpetual infants, and thus in the international sign language which universal practice of the Church its was subsequently given the name administration to them is prohibit- Lastly, like all the categories of ‘GESTUNO’. ed, when there is a danger of death people who respect themselves, as a It is truly curious to observe that as well’. And all of this took place result of the recommendation of the first historically documented despite the fact that authoritative Pope Pius IX, deaf people also have use of sign language is to be found personalities in the Church, both in St. Francesco de Sales, who was not amongst deaf people but Popes and saints, acted and ex- a bishop, their patron saint whom amongst people with hearing. pressed themselves in a completely their commemorate every 24 Janu- Monks, who by their vows were different direction. ary. (In North America, however, obliged to be silent, used sign lan- Despite this grave prejudice, the the Jesuit Canadian martyr, Renato guage in monasteries until the year Church, the Church that is to say of Goupil, who was deaf, is commem- 328 and they still use it, although the pastors of souls, never ceased to orated; in the Anglo-Saxon world the practice of silence has been care for deaf people. this honour is held by St. John of rather reduced. During the me- Inevitably one’s mind thinks of Beverly). dieval period the lists of signs from what over recent centuries, in every various monasteries on average part of the world, the vast flowering Rev. SAVINO G. CASTIGLIONE, reached an average of 400 signs. of noble figures of ecclesiastics and The Little Mission for the Deaf and Dumb, The more numerous the signs male and female religious Congre- Italy contained in the list of a monastery gations which were created with the ,the more rigid was the vow of si- aim of attending to the human, spir- Bibliography lence. Obviously enough, these itual, moral and educational forma- signs were different from many of tion of deaf people, has represented SELVA L., Scuole e metodi nella pedagogia degli anacusici, Collana Effeta, Bologna. the sign languages used by the deaf. for the Catholic Church. SCURI D., Psicologia e Pedagogia emenda- If anything, if this was needed, I tiva del sordomuto, Sc. di metodo ‘T. Silvestri , would like to add that the most evi- Roma. ELMI A., Pedagogia speciale: Il profilo del- The Overcoming dent demonstration of the complete l’anacusico, Padova, La Garangola. of the Religious Prejudice overcoming of all forms of reli- ROETTI A., Dei sordomuti dalla nascita alla gious prejudice in the Church has SS. Eucarestia, Giachetti, Firenze. KELLER E., La storia della mia vita, Mode- As has already been observed, been the priestly ordination of a na, Edizioni Paoline. amongst the various prejudices very large number of deaf priests. VACALEBRE L., Rapporti tra sordità infanti- borne by deaf people for very many This is an event that expresses more le ed integrazioni psicosensoriali, Torino, Mi- nerva Med. centuries unfortunately there was than anything else the care, the ZATELLI S., Psicopedagogia dell’Audioleso also the religious prejudice. love, the esteem and the trust that nell’età evolutiva, Omega Edizioni. It was argued that a deaf person the Church feels for deaf people MAGAROTTO C., L’istruzione e l’assistenza dei sordi in Italia, Roma ENS 1975. was not able to engage in a conver- and their real capacities. Atti del Congresso Mondiale della FSM: sation with the speaking world and And today’s assembly is hon- Washington DC 1975, Nad-USA. 16 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

PATRICK GRAYBILL 2. A Deaf American Person in the Life of the Church

Psalm 126:3: “The Lord has the eye of the needle, seventy However, a very small percentage done great things for us; how hap- years of my life as a deaf American of these people identify them- py we were!” Catholic and my involvement in selves as members of the cultural- the deaf culture need to be con- ly deaf community. They, includ- It is our blessing that God con- densed into less than twenty min- ing most deaf Canadians, use a tinues to create great things for us. utes. When I do that, it will be a language known as American Sign Yes, God has surrounded us with a miracle! Language (commonly known as million reminders of His presence. Ephphatha! One of my chal- ASL). Each country has its unique I indeed believe that this day is a lenges is to be true to myself as a sign language; therefore ASL is new Pentecost for our universal deaf person and open myself with- not a universal sign language. It Church. When we first learned the out feeling responsible for making does not have a written system. We news of Bishop Redrado of Spain you happy. In truth, God is the on- have borrowed English to write expressing strongly that the needs ly one who is leading all of us to about our way of life. It is easily of deaf Catholic persons be the Kingdom of peace and joy. Let assumed that ASL is a simple lan- brought more to the forefront of me explain who we deaf people guage. In fact, it is a complex and our Church’s attention, we deaf are, what gifts we have offered to three-dimensional language. It people, our families, friends, and our church, what needs we daily takes three to seven years to learn allies were filled with joy. Thanks face, and what hopes we have for how to be fluent in ASL. It has not to God in the good bishop, this our church. had a smooth and easy journey. conference is taking place. Yes, it We deaf appreciate very much The path to being recognized as a is a sign of God’s presence. that this hall is well-lit, for we de- legitimate language has been long Ephphatha! Be open! The com- pend on our sense of seeing. Fre- and difficult, and the history of mand of Jesus Christ is not only quently, swanky restaurants or fan- ASL must be studied or under- made for us deaf but also for all cy hotel ballrooms are dim in order stood to appreciate the language as others. Open to God inevitably re- to create a mood for intimacy or ro- well as the way of life of deaf sults in our openness to others, es- mance but we deaf people more Americans. Although sign lan- pecially those in need. Maybe than often groan about that form of guage has been used around the those in need include some of you injustice. We need to see each other world for centuries, only within who do not have an experience while conversing with our hands, the past forty years has been rec- meeting a person who has no idea actually not only our hands but also ognized as an actual language. of what it is like to hear. Today it is with our eyes, brows, mouth ex- Without knowing the history of your opportunity to meet me, for I pressions, nods and head shakes – ASL, without accepting myself as was born totally deaf. I was born to the visible signals which are equiv- a Deaf person, I would not be who a hearing Catholic father and a alent to vocal inflections. In fact, I am – a professional actor, a col- hearing Protestant mother who we can be disappointed, too, about lege professor of Theater and Lit- eventually converted to Catholi- dim-lit churches, for we want to see erature, a permanent deacon for cism on my sister’s First Commu- lectors, interpreters or homilists twenty seven years, and a co-pro- nion. My good parents did not ex- who communicate with their hands fessor of Old Testament, New Tes- pect to have five deaf children in to us. Sometimes priests officiating tament and Deaf Culture at St. addition to two non-deaf daugh- the Eucharistic offering ask inter- Thomas University, which has ters. I believe that my deaf siblings preters to stand far from the altar; it been offering an opportunity to and I were God’s gifts to our par- means that we deaf have to twist deaf and hearing pastoral workers ents and sisters who learned about our necks trying to follow the ritual to achieve a master’s degree in us and our Deaf way of life. and watch the interpreters at the Pastoral Work with Deaf and Ephphatha! I also believe in my same time. It is a challenge for us to Hard-of-Hearing People. Besides, heart that we deaf people have maintain our faith as Catholics in- we have seen deaf people being been God’s gifts to our universal stead of giving up. able to assume roles of leadership Church. However, how can I ex- For your information, there are and service in the Church as plain the truth in such a brief pa- twenty-six million deaf and hard- priests and deacons, as lay pas- per? Like a camel walking through of-hearing people in America. toral workers, as catechists, lec- DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 17 tors, and Eucharistic ministers. use and understand ASL. We pre- work is that we need liturgies in The Untied States of America cur- fer direct communication in ASL, ASL, religious education, sacra- rently has eleven deaf priests and but most of the time we face indi- mental preparation, martial and seven deaf deacons, and Canada rect communication with the help pre-marital counseling, retreats has three deaf deacons. God will- of interpreters. More than often, and other programs that the church ing, a deaf seminarian will be or- we have to translate Bible texts provides. We long to provide and dained in less than two years. In from English to ASL, but it re- receive a catechesis in ASL, visit fact, the number involved in these quires training. I was fortunate to and talk with sick deaf people in ministries seems to be quite small, receive such training without go- our language, and receive sacra- but we are happy to see some ing to school for that. I gained the ments in the same language. progress being made. In a word, it training by translating plays, be- In general, we deaf are profes- has been exciting to learn, show, coming a narrator in the process of sionals in many areas, including and understand the gospel of Jesus translating the Gospel of Mark as school administration, education, through ASL. The language is well as that of Luke and the Book science, engineering, to name few. God’s gift to our church, and it in- of Revelation, and being a trainer Why do we not have more of such cludes visual orientation and sto- of lectors and interpreters, and, professionalism in our church? It ries of our experiences as deaf most of all, acting as a deacon who is hoped that this conference will Catholics on our faith journey – in lives to preach in ASL. Besides, I lead to more deaf people in lead- a way, similar to Jews and their am delighted to work with an ex- ership roles. We are looking for- desert experiences on their way to cellent team of four deaf experts in ward to have more deaf experts in the Promised Land. the field of ASL, a priest with a Sa- pastoral care, catechesis, and We celebrate the Good News of cred Theology license as well as translation. Who dares to dream of our faith even when we face our expertise in liturgy, a canon lawyer having at least the first deaf bish- needs and challenges. We deaf who has a deaf daughter, and three op or cardinal or Pope? Is it a far- people come from a variety of certified interpreters to translate fetched dream? backgrounds: economic, cultural, the congregation’s responses in the social, and ethnic. Our ability to Eucharistic offering from Latin to Rev. PATRICK GRAYBILL use and understand English varies ASL. Our work is making slow but Deacon, deaf person, widely and so does our ability to sure progress. The reason for this Berwyn, Illinois,USA. 18 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

MARYANN BARTH, CONSUELO MANERO SOTO 3. The Psychological World of Deaf People

To begin this paper we would When speaking about hearing Deaf/Deafness like to point out that we have loss or deafness, the world is full changed its title from “The Psy- of myths. One in particular is “deaf The term ‘deaf’ seems to be a chology of Deafness” to “The Psy- and dumb” or “deaf – mute”. word that is easily understood and chological World of Deaf People”. Many believe that if a deaf person explained, but in reality, “deaf” The wording may seem insignifi- cannot hear, he or she cannot people are some of the most mis- cant or not important, but if you speak. What about a person who understood people in society. analyze the impact words and la- lost his or her hearing at the age of Deafness can be viewed from two bels we use have for people, then 40?Issheorhealreadyableto perspectives: the pathological and the significance is great. If we talk speak? Through speech therapy, the cultural. The pathological per- about deafness, we are viewing it people deaf from birth may be able spective views deafness as an au- as an illness, something to be to speak, perhaps the tone of voice diological deficit that needs to be cured; if we talk about the psy- and volume are not exactly the repaired, something is wrong, chology of deafness then we are same as with a hearing person’s, something is broken, and therefore looking at this from a pathological but sounds and speech are emitted. “impaired.” The most intense and perspective, something that is Language is not only the spoken graphic example of deafness as a wrong. However, seeing it as the word. It is a much broader concept pathological condition was the eu- psychological world of deaf peo- that encompasses various channels genics and holocaust experiences ple, we are viewing the person through which we can communi- of deaf people in 1933-1945. Dur- who is deaf and how the culture cate including the senses, body ing this period, the passage of the and world is defined, we look at gestures, movement, eyes, artistic Sterilization Law and the T4 Pro- the person not the decibels that expression, writing, signals, signs, gram were directly responsible for person can hear. etc. Hearing individuals often re- thousands of deaf people being The psychological world of duce these other avenues of lan- forced to be sterilized or eradicat- deaf people… what is it? What guage thus reducing the full poten- ed. The reason: they were deaf. type of world? A world of visual tial to produce language in various Deafness in that place and time language, culture, education, psy- channels, not only via the spoken was seen as purely pathological chology, sociology, biased testing, word. and something that had to be pathological perspectives, oppres- For this paper, Deaf compared erased. sion, prejudice, discrimination, with deaf, Deaf will encompass In the twenty-first century, two stereotyping, linguistic centrism, people who identify themselves as constructs of deafness are dominant audism, solidarity, customs, tradi- Deaf, use their native sign lan- and compete in shaping deaf peo- tions, families, abuse, addiction, guage, and embrace their own ple’s destinies. The one construct faith, amazing stories, authentic Deaf culture. The lower case ‘d’of sees deaf people as belonging to the love, identity, a deaf identity, and deaf denotes the absence of hear- category of disability; the other simply stated: being deaf is a way ing, the medical diagnosis of deaf. construct is deaf people as members of being. As diverse as our world, our soci- of a linguistic minority. There is a In viewing the psychological eties and our people are, so, too, is practice of capitalizing Deaf when world of deaf people, we will ex- the world of Deaf/deaf people di- referring specifically to the second plore various perspectives in this verse; thus the psychological construct/category. In the disability world; deaf people’s perspectives world is just as diverse. construct, deafness is associated on deaf people; deaf people’s per- Deaf people, universally, com- with the absence of hearing, si- spectives on hearing people; and prise a complex, rich, and multi- lence, individual suffering, personal hearing people’s perspectives on faceted society. Just as each hear- incapacities, and achievement in deaf people. As we begin this ex- ing person has unique, intrinsic, overcoming great obstacles. In the ploration into the psychological qualities, so do deaf people, minority construct, deafness is as- world of deaf people, basic infor- whether the person is deaf, hard- sociated with a unique language, mation needs to be outlined; i.e. of-hearing, hearing-impaired, or history, culture, social group, and a deaf versus compared to Deaf, deaf-blind – all “deaf” people set of social institutions. The first pathological/medical versus cul- bring some elements of homo- construct/category is governed by ture/cultural, and ethnocentrism geneity and heterogeneity to the an audiologic criterion that decides and audism. arena of humanity. which children will receive special DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 19 education, after consulting audiolo- noses that do define abnormal be- effectively with a parent will com- gists. In most countries of the havior as measured using mental promise the relationship. Attach- world, audiology and special edu- health standards. Does deafness ment to deaf people, deaf children, cation are intimately related; the adhere to these mental health mea- deaf infants; what is done to stimu- role of special education is to sures? Do the psychological chal- late, foster, support and embrace achieve as far as possible what au- lenges/dilemmas that are within the deaf person? Language devel- diology and otology could not do – the D/deaf communities result opment and literacy competency minimize the child’s disability. from the pathological/medical is- are directly related to the early in- The “labeling” of the deaf child sue of deafness or are the chal- tervention techniques used with as disabled is legitimized early on lenges/dilemmas within the D/deaf deaf infants and children. Listen- by the medical profession and later communities actually responses to ing devices, hearing aids, cochlear by the special education and wel- years of frustration, prejudice, dis- implants do not make a deaf person fare bureaucracy. When the child crimination, and paternalism from become a hearing person. The as- is sent to a special school and an outside, hearing population, the sistive listening devices may en- obliged to wear cumbersome hear- majority? Does different equal hance the residual hearing, but the ing aids, his or her socialization in- pathology? devices do not make the deaf per- to the role of a disabled person is son hearing. In addition, it is an er- promoted. In face-to-face encoun- roneous assumption that those who ters with therapists and teachers, learn speech reading or lip-reading the child learns to cooperate in en- are proficient in literacy skills. Al- dorsing a view of him or her as dis- most 2/3 of the 42 sounds of Eng- abled. Teachers label large num- lish are either invisible or look like bers of these deaf children as emo- some other sounds formed on the tionally disturbed or learning dis- lips (Hardy, 1970). Literacy com- abled. The deaf child is then treat- petency for deaf individuals is di- ed differently, placed in a less de- rectly related to early intervention manding academic program where using native sign language, profi- he or she learns less, thus the label cient signers, and signing linguists is self-validating. In the end, the that teach using native sign lan- “troubled person’s industry” cre- guage. All of the above directly re- ates the disabled deaf person. late and affect the psychological From the vantage point of the ‘make-up’ of a D/deaf person. cultures of Deaf communities, Language and literacy; voicing deafness is not a disability. The and communication; linguistic cen- British Deaf leader Dr. Paddy trism and audism; sign languages Ladd puts it this way: “We wish and speech reading are aspects of for the recognition of our right to psychology and D/deaf people. We exist as a linguistic minority as a society value the spoken lan- group… Labeling us as disabled Dr. Sussman and Dr. Brauer guage; as people we want to hear demonstrates a failure to under- (1999) observe that psychothera- voice; we as a society embrace lin- stand that we are not disabled in pists, and in turn, societies in gen- guistic centrism; we force the main any way within our own commu- eral, still pathologize deafness and language (a spoken language) onto nity” (Ladd, 2003). are hard put to describe healthy a cultural group that uses visual The troubled persons industry deaf personalities (Andrews, language (sign language). A com- associated with deafness, “the aud- 2004). Our term ‘normalcy’ needs ponent of the linguistic centrism in- ist establishment”, vigorously re- clarification. Where are D/deaf fluence is audism. sists efforts to replace their con- people on the standard bell-shaped Audism is a term used to de- struct of deafness. Audist policy is curve that reflects our “average”, scribe discrimination or prejudice that sign language is a kind of “normal”, “non-deviant”? against deaf or hard of hearing peo- primitive prosthesis, a way around Exploring the psychological ple based on an auditory condition. the communication impasse make-up of any individual, we We assume the culture of hearing caused by deaf people’s disability. have: parent/child relationships, at- people is superior to the culture of What constitutes the psycholog- tachment, physical characteristics, deaf or signing culture, or that deaf ical well-being of a person? How language and emotional develop- people are less capable (skilled, in- do we define normal? What is nor- ment and sociological develop- telligent, etc.) than hearing people. mal? We define abnormal, but un- ment. In parent/child relation- Audism accepts, unquestioningly, til we realize that “normal” is ships, approximately 90% of deaf the attitudes, conditions, or behav- largely connected with culture, children have hearing parents. iors that promote the stereotyping language, societal norms, we tend Most hearing parents do not be- of abilities based on auditory con- to view people who do NOT fit in- come fluent in sign language, the dition, a tendency to regard deaf to our culture, our language or our natural language of deaf people. persons as inferior, in need of med- society as being “abnormal” Given the importance of communi- ical intervention, unworthy of and/or psychologically impaired. cation for any relationship, the in- communication access, or unsuit- However, there are bona fide diag- ability of a child to communicate able for employment. 20 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

Language/Communication/Sign people also feel that sign lan- he or she can accept the unan- Language guages are universal – false. See- swered questions without inner ing all the interpreters working at turmoil, specifically when family Culture and language are inter- this conference refutes that state- and friends are supportive. twined, especially within the Deaf ment! There are many definitions of Community. One of the compo- – Last, many people feel that identity. “Oneness” and “unity and nents of Deaf Communities is sign sign language is a primitive lan- persistence of personality”. At the language. But do all deaf people guage, a lesser language than a heart of a healthy perception of sign? No. Each person has their spoken type of communication self is the sense of being “all to- unique skills and talents for pro- system – false! gether”. The expression “at one duction and reception of lan- with one’s self”, which implies a guage—THEIR language! How- Sign languages are not the same healthy self-awareness, means “to ever, several things we DO know. as spoken languages. Sign lan- be comfortable in one’s skin”. From the perspective of American guages are languages with gram- If a deaf person, whether child Sign Language, ASL, research has mar, syntax, sentence structure and to adult, is viewed with the con- proven that ASL is a language with discourse...visual languages that struct of disability, as a person that rules, grammar, syntax; a complete are not spoken languages on the cannot, he or she becomes very natural language, not like English. hands. How do we apply this to the sensitive to the differences, to This research has been seen in psychological world of D/deaf what they can do and what hearing many countries as well; Mexico, people? What are the mea- people can do. They incorporate Spain, Cuba, Sweden, France, etc. sures/characteristics/standards for into their life the view of having In this brief paper, one cannot recognizing the well-adjusted limitations that exclude them. present all the linguistic features of sign language, but a few that apply to the different languages in the world are: phonology, the simulta- neous formation of a sign-hand shape, location, motion, and palm orientation; morphology. The study of the smallest meaningful unit in language and how units are used to build new signs and words. In ASL, examples of morphemes are: summer, ugly, dry…location of the sign changes the meaning. Other elements of ASL linguistics, but definitely NOT ALL of the lin- guistic structure are: temporal as- pects (forms that are adjective and verbs, verb action is done TO time, i.e. ‘study continually’.), various types of classifiers, non-manual markers, eye gaze, facial expres- sion, body shifts, and pauses. The linguistic features are numerous, and definitely sign language is a D/deaf person and removing the They become aware of the behav- bona fide language! pathological view of psychology ior of hearing persons that identify Linguists know that the brain of D/deaf people? a deaf person as different or inferi- has the capacity to acquire lan- or. All this takes a terrible toll on guage naturally and pass the lan- self-esteem and the sense of per- guage on to other people. This Identity sonal identity. brain function happens whether it Is acceptance dependent on is a spoken language or a signed Self-awareness is an undeniable WHO the individual person is as language. Many assumptions and inescapable attribute of all hu- opposed to WHAT label a particu- about sign languages have been man beings. “Where did I come lar institution may place on that debated, discussed, and re- from?” “For what purpose do I ex- person? The Church has been a searched. ist?” So many of the unanswerable strong supporter of the worth of – Sign languages are pan- questions that come to mind even every individual, no matter his or tomime—false. in young children center on a per- her status, class, ethnic identity or – Sign languages are highly pic- son’s sense of identity and his/her physical/intellectual capabilities. It torial or iconic – true. search for it. A person with a is within that context that D/deaf – Many people feel, therefore, healthy sense of self can confront people have the right to see them- that sign languages can only ex- such questions, even as a child; selves and celebrate themselves as press concrete ideas – false. Some and though unable to find answers, fully human, fully capable of DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 21 achieving goals, and not to be re- Allen E. Sussman, Professor world that is rich in culture. It is strained by artificial, oppressive, Emeritus Gallaudet University, world that says: “We are here; we and ultimately false identities giv- Washington, D.C., the characteris- are of value; we are children of en to them by others. tics of a well-adjusted Deaf Person God; God makes no mistakes.” Self-concept, self-esteem, and are: Cherish us, accept us and let us all self-image are dependent on vari- – Positive self-concept and self- embrace each other as God’s chil- ous factors. Bat-Chava (1993) has esteem. dren. interpreted research findings and – Positive psychological accep- observed that the level of self-es- tance of deafness. teem is directly related to several – Ability to effectively compen- Suggestions for variables: having deaf parents, sate for deafness. Successful Service communicating with one’s family – Ability to cope with negative to the Deaf Community using sign language, and using and devaluative attitudes. sign language in school (Bat-Cha- – Assertiveness. For individuals and agencies va, 1993 1994, 2000; Desselle & – Ability to place speech ability who wish to serve Deaf/deaf peo- Pearlmutter, 1997). in perspective. ple and their families with a better – Ability to place residual hear- approach, the following are sug- ing in perspective. gestions based on these guiding The Characteristics – Positive attitude towards sign principles. First, professionals of a Well-Adjusted language. should be sensitive to the cultural Deaf Person – Effective interpersonal rela- history of Deaf people; second, tionship and social skills. professionals should find ways to How do healthy, well-adjusted – Ability to be self-reliant. meet the variety of communication Deaf people handle the “different- – Ability to ask for and use as- needs of all members of this popu- ness” of being Deaf? The simple sistance where and when appropri- lation; and third, professionals answer is they do not. They do not ate. should be aware of, and have a have to, because they are not dif- – Ability to survive misguid- working relationship with, local ferent. Deaf people today define ance. and national resources that spe- themselves as a cultural and lin- – Philosophical and unhostile cialize in serving the needs of peo- guistic minority. Yes, they speak a sense of humor. ple with hearing impairments different language to their neigh- – Gemeinschaftsgefuhl (self-ac- (Zieziula, 2001). bors, and they share a culture with tualization). If we are hearing professionals, each other, rich in poetry, art, so- counselors, psychologists, teach- cial norms and every aspect of hu- The Psychological World of ers, pastoral workers, priests, etc., manity that culture reflects. How- Deaf People as perceived by Deaf we need to recognize that being ever, having your own language people is often NOT the same as hearing tends to afford us a higher and culture does not make you the one perceived by hearing peo- status than might have otherwise more aware that you are different ple. Deaf people, generally, tend to happened. What we need to do from people of other cultures. Lan- see the cultural view, the linguistic first and foremost is to examine guage and culture are just aspects richness of a signed language, the our own attitudes intensively, be of existence. A fresh-water trout solidarity of a group of people sensitive to hearing-deaf relations does not feel the water around its sharing faith, sharing in the history in any arena, work toward a status body and notice how it is not salty of oppression, suppression, preju- of mutual respect, and understand nor wonder what it is like to be a dice and discrimination. that hearing professionals do not salt-water trout. Fresh water is that Is there a Psychology of Deaf always have all the answers. Deaf fish’s environment, as our lan- people… do Deaf people have a professionals do not, either. guage and culture are part of our different psyche than hearing peo- This process requires mutual environment. ple… or is the Psychological teaching. Hearing and deaf people A Deaf person is like a member World of Deaf People a world that must be open to understanding and of any other linguistic minority strives to take the negativism, the working with each other’s perspec- dealing with life in the world. He pathological, “fix-me” mode and tives as part of an ongoing educa- or she socializes and lives with convert the negativism into the “I tional dialogue. Many examples of people who speak his or her lan- Can”, “I Will”, “I am OK being positive hearing-deaf working re- guage, and he or she deals with Deaf”, World? lationships can be found in re- spoken language and the majority The Psychological World of search and in daily life: for exam- culturewhenheorsheneedsor Deaf People is a world filled with ple today, two women from differ- wants to. No big deal possibilities, hopes, dreams, hu- ent countries, with different lan- We take the characteristics of a mor, language, skills, education, guages, one deaf – one hearing, well-adjusted Deaf person (Dr. relationships, struggles, and soli- churches, groups and schools for Allen E. Sussman) and apply them darity. It is a world that is open for the deaf throughout the world. to our lives. We take the Hierarchy others to explore and embrace. It is Forging alliances, building pro- of Needs from Abraham Maslow a world that welcomes people who jects together, working collabora- and apply them to our lives and the accept Deaf people for WHO they tively, promotes healthy examples lives of D/deaf people. From Dr. are, not WHAT they are. It is a to all deaf and hearing, and ulti- 22 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH mately deaf and hearing are served References Deafness, Theoretical and Empirical Per- in a more complete and unique spectives,Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA, 1993. ANDREWS,JEAN F., Deaf People, evolving PELKA,FRED, The ABC-Clio companion to way, training future generations to Perspectives from psychology. Education and the disability rights movement. Santa Barbara, recognize this as a status quo. Sociology, Allyn & Bacon, Boston, 2004. Calif.: ABC-Clio, 1997. BAT-CHAVE Y., Antecedents of self-esteem SCHEETZ,NANCI A., Psychosocial Aspects A world that accepts differences in deaf people. A meta-analytic review. Reha- of Deafness. Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA, is a world that grows and enriches bilitation psychology, 1993, 38(4), 221-234. 2004. itself. If we continue to separate CORNETT,ORIN, WhoAmI?ADeafAmeri- SCHIRMER,BARBARA R., Psychological, ourselves because of our language, can Monograph, Vol. 44, 1994. Social, and Educational Dimensions of Deaf- DESSELLE, D.D., Self-esteem, family cli- ness. Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA, 2001. hearing status, color, race, then we mate, and communication patterns in relation SUSSMAN,ALLEN, Psychosocial Aspects of make a bigger gap that will sepa- to deafness. American Annals of the Deaf, Deaf People/Psychology and Deaf People. rate us instead of becoming one 1994, 139, 322-328. Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., HUMPHREY,JAN, AND ALCORN BOB, So you 1995. community united by our faith and want to be an interpreter: an introduction to SUSSMAN,ALLEN, An investigation into the love for God and each other. sign language interpreting, 2nd edition. Ama- relationship between self-concepts of deaf rillo, TX: H&H Publishers, 1995. adults and their perceived attitudes toward HUMPHRIES,TOM, Communicating across deafness (doctoral dissertation, New York Mrs. MARYANN BARTH, cultures (deaf-hearing) and language lear- University, 1973). Dissertation Abstracts In- Counsellor; (deaf person), ning, Doctoral dissertation. Cincinnati, OH: ternational, 34. 291AB, 1974 Cincinnati, Ohio (USA) Union Institute and University, 1977. SUSSMAN,ALLEN &BRAUER, B., On being LADD,PADDY, Understanding Deaf Cultu- a psychotherapist with deaf clients. In I.W. Mrs. CONSUELO MANERO SOTO, re: In search of Deafhood, Great Britain, LEIGH (Ed.), Psychotherapy with deaf clients Director of the School of Psychology Cromwell Press, LTD, 2003. from diverse groups Washington D.C. Gallau- of the Marist University; LANE,HARLAN, The mask of benevolence: det University Press, 1999, pp 3-22. psychologist and specialist disabling the deaf community, New York: Al- ZIEZIULA,F.,The World of the Deaf Com- in mental health counselling, fred A. Knopf, 1992. munity. Hospice Foundation of America E- Mexico City (Mexico) PAUL,PETER V., Toward a psychology of Newsletter. Vol. I, Issue 6, 2001. DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 23 Second Session Medical Aspects of Deafness

MARÍA ANTONIA CLAVERÍA PUIG 1. Medical Aspects of Deafness

1. General Elements ral bone. The inner ear or labyrinth within which one can hear is identi- is the temporal bone and is made up fied within an area defined by two Hypoacusia is that sensorial in- of two systems: the posterior or axes that correspond to the intensity sufficiency which is most common vestibular labyrinth, which is re- of the sound and its frequency, and in human beings. According to the sponsible for balance, and the ante- which is defined as an audiogram. World Health Organisation (WHO), rior or cochlear labyrinth, which is The unit that measures the intensity one newly born child in every thou- responsible for hearing. of sound is called a decibel (DB) sand live births is affected by grave and the unit that measures its fre- or profound hypoacusia and three in quency is called hertz (Hz). In the every thousand by moderate hypoa- 3. The Physiology of Hearing vertical axis is located the intensity cusia. of sound in a rising way from 0 to In the outer ear the sound waves 120 DB and in the horizontal axis is propagated by air give rise to varia- located frequencies from 125 to 2. The Anatomy of the Ear tions in pressure which are picked 8,000 Hz, that is to say from grave up by the auricle and transported to acute. The ear is made up of two parts, along the external hearing conduit An audiogram allows the mea- one peripheral and the other central. to the tympanic membrane, produc- surement of hearing in every indi- The peripheral part includes the ing its vibration. vidual. An environment audiogram outer ear, the middle ear, the inner In the middle ear, the vibrations allows the measurement of the most ear and the vestibular-cochlear of the tympanic membrane are frequent environmental sounds. nerve VIII or acoustic-state or nerve transmitted by the chain of little VIII, made up of the central bones to the oval window. These vi- vestibular branch. The central part brations have different characteris- 4. The Concept of Hypoacusia is made up of the central hearing tics according to the sound that is pathway and the central vestibular received. Hypoacusia is a reduction in that system. The anatomical limit be- In the inner ear, the movement of hearing threshold that is considered tween the peripheral portion and the the stirrup towards its inside pro- normal and this provokes a hearing central portion of the ear is to be vokes certain changes in pressure of deficit. A person has normal hearing found in the entrance point of the the internal liquids and, with this, when his or her hearing threshold is eighth cranial nerve of the brain the stimulation of the nerve endings equal or less than 20 decibels in all stem, the so-termed cerebral-bridge of the various sensorial cells lo- the frequencies of the audiogram. corner. calised in the cochlea, generating The outer ear is made up of the certain nerve impulses that are auricle and the external hearing transmitted through complex path- 5. The Classification conduit. The middle ear is a cavity ways of central connections to the of Hypoacusia full of air within the thickness of the hearing area of the cerebral cortex. temporal bone and is made up of the The ability of a person to hear a When we say that a person is af- tympanic membrane, the tympanic sound depends on the intensity with fected by hypoacusia we say only box with three ligaments known as which it is produced and the fre- that he or she has a hearing capacity the hammer, the anvil, and the stir- quency field that he or she has and beneath that hearing threshold that rup, the eustachian cartilage, and the hearing threshold he or she has. is considered normal, without spec- the mastoid apparatus of the tempo- The field that establishes the limits ifying other very important charac- 24 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH teristics which enable us to under- onset is from pregnancy to the age 6. Therapeutic Help for stand how he or she receives hear- of 2. Neurosensoral Hypoacusia ing information from the environ- 5.3.2. I. Perilingual, when it is ment and what his or her commu- produced between the ages of 2 Neurosensorial hypoacusia does nicative, linguistic or social etc. ca- and 5. not have a curative treatment. Ther- pacities may be – essential requi- 5.3.3. I. Postlingual, when the apeutic help involves a hearing and sites in understanding a person who onset takes place after the age of 5 (re)habilitation of hearing and/or has a hearing deficit. language. The hearing aid can be Hypoacusia can be classified in 5.4. As regards causes, three an acoustic aid or a cochlear im- many ways. They are described be- groups can be classified: plant, an implant of the middle ear, low according to those parameters 5.4.1.I. Genetic or hereditary: both involving surgical adaptation, that are held to be most relevant: 5.4.1.1. A syndrome: about 400 and in very complex cases an im- 5.1. According to the anatomical syndromes associated with hypoa- plant in the brain stem. location of the damage. cusia have been described. 5.2. According to the level of hy- Amongst these one may list: Ush- poacusia. er’s syndrome, Pendred’s syn- 7. Profound Bilateral Deafness 5.3. According to the age when drome, Waardenburg’s syndrome, hypoacusia appeared. Jervell, Lange and Nielsen’s syn- This involves a hearing loss of an 5.4. According to the cause of hy- drome, and Alport’s syndrome. intensity greater than 90 DB (BI- poacusia 5.4.1.2. Not a syndrome: reces- AP) in the different frequencies of 5.5. According to the develop- sive heredity, dominant or connect- the audiogram and in both ears. ment of hypoacusia ed with gender. The most up-to-date and techno- 5.4.2. I. Acquired: infective, or- logically advanced therapeutic help 5.1. According to the anatomical thotoxic, prematurity, traumas, for people with profound/severe bi- location of the damage. Here there metabolic alterations… lateral deafness is a cochlear im- are four kinds of hypoacusia: 5.4.3. I. Unknown origins. plant. One has to carry out an inter- 5.1.1. I. Transmissive, when the Usher’s syndrome associates disciplinary study of the person in- damage is located in the external deafness with nocturnal blindness volved so as to assess whether or and/or middle ear. caused by pigment retinitis. Three not he or she is suited to receiving a 5.1.2.I. Neurosensorial, when the types have been described which cochlear implant as treatment. damage is limited to the inner ear, are genetically and phenotypically This interdisciplinary study in- in the cochlea, and is thus called very heterogeneous. volves a complete otolaryngologi- cochlear, or in the hearing canal, Pendred’s syndrome associates cal examination, a study of radio when it is called retrocochlear. hypoacusia with a defect in the or- images with a CAT (computerised 5.1.3. I. Mixed, if the external ganisation of iodine and at times axial tomography) and NMR (nu- and/or the middle ear, and the inner goitre. clear magnetic resonance) of both ear, are affected. Waardenburg’s syndrome is char- the ears and the brain, in addition to 5.1.4. Disturbances of the central acterised by neurosensorial hypoa- psychological, logopaedic and neu- hearing system, when the distur- cusia of varying degrees, partial al- rological assessment by specialist bance is to be found in the complex binism, and dystopia cantorum. professionals. central hearing channels or in the Other anomalies can exist such as Once this study by a team of spe- cerebral cortex. heterochromia of the iris. Three cialists has been completed, the oto- types have been described, laryngologist, the coordinator of the 5.2. As regards the level of hy- Jervell-Lange-Nielsen’s syn- team, communicates to the person poacusia, here the Bureau Interna- drome associates congenital deaf- involved or to his or her family rel- tional of Audiophonologies (BIAP) ness with a lengthening of the QT atives that he or she could be a can- discerns four levels: interval in the electrocardiogram didate for a cochlear implant or oth- 5.2.1. I. Light, when the loss is which can cause ventricular ar- erwise, in addition to explaining the between 21 and 40 decibels. rhythmia and sudden death, above motivations and the expectations 5.2.2. I. Moderate, when the loss all during certain physical stresses. involved. is between 41 and 70 decibels. Alport’s syndrome associates 5.2.3. I. Severe, when the loss is neurosensorial hypoacusia with re- between 71 and 90 decibels. nal dysfunction. 8. The Cochlear Implant 5.2.4. I. Profound, when the loss is greater than 91 decibels. This in 5.5. According to the develop- 8.1.The concept turn is divided into four levels: Lev- ment of hypoacusia: el 1: 91-100 DB; level 2: 101-110 5.5.1. I. Stable: the loss remains This is an electronic device that is DB; level 3:111-119 DB; surditas: the same without changing until applied surgically and which con- 120 DB. adulthood. verts acoustic signals into electric 5.5.2. I. Progressive: the loss in- signals which stimulate the hearing 5.3. As regards the age when the creases with the passage of time. nerve. hypoacusia appeared, three types 5.5.3. I. Fluctuating: the loss is A cochlear implant has two com- are identified: unstable, periodically it can return ponents: an internal part that is po- 5.3.1. I. Prelingual, when its to the original level. sitioned through a surgical opera- DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 25 tion, and an external part which is ing. It has to be done by specialised wears the best hearing aid can reach placed about a month after the sur- logopaedists. The kind of (re)ha- a good hearing threshold but never gical operation. The internal com- bilitation is different in people with a threshold achieved by a person ponents are the receiver-stimulator postlingual deafness and children with normal hearing. and a number of electrodes. The ex- with pre- or perilingual deafness. Understanding how a person af- ternal components are a micro- fected by deafness receives infor- phone, an antenna, an integrated re- mation from his or her environment ceiver, and the language processor 9. The Hearing Repercussions helps us to identify what his or her which is behind the ear or in a box. of Deafness needs are, and in this way one can offer him or her the right and pre- 8.2 How it works Deafness provokes a quantitative cise help by which to obtain the re- (video with voice and subtitles) and a qualitative hearing loss. A spect and dignity specific to every cochlear implant, as a therapeutic human being. A cochlear implant helps people aid for a person with profound deaf- with neurosensorial hearing loss or ness which is currently applied Dr. MARÍA ANTONIA grave or profound deafness. A through medical surgery and is very CLAVERÍA PUIG cochlear implant works with two advanced technologically, in addi- Medical Specialist in Otolaryngology, parts: one on the inside which is the tion to adequate logopaedic Otolaryngology Services, The St. John of God Hospital, cochlear implant itself and one on (re)habilitation, allows that person Barcelona, Spain. the outside which is the so-called to hear sufficiently well to learn or language processor. This language remember and/or understand lan- processor has a small microphone guage. Despite this, one should not Bibliography which collects sounds, transforms forget that a deaf person, albeit with them into signals and sends them to the best and most suitable and rec- 1. BALLENGER,J.J.,Enfermedades de la na- riz, garganta y oído. Editorial Jims. 2ª ed., the transmitter. The transmitter then ommended therapeutic help, re- 1981. sends the signals through the skin to ceives from his or her environment 2. BECKER,W.,HEINZ, H., RUDOLF,C.,Ma- the internal implant which converts incomplete information that is dif- nual Ilustrado de Otorrinolaringología. Tomo I. Ediciones Doyma S.A. 1986. the coded signals into electric ener- ferent and distorted. In order to 3. MANRIQUE, M.J., RAMOS,A.,LÓPEZ VIL- gy and sends this to the electrodes. shape and have a better understand- LAREJO, P., GARCÍA-IBAÑEZ,E.,Prótesis Im- In this way the nerve fibres of the ing of these repercussions it is use- plantables en Otocirugía. Ponencia Oficial del LIV Congreso Nacional de la Sociedad cochlea are stimulated and the brain ful to compare hearing with a vision Española de Otorrinolaringología. Laborato- recognises the signals as sound. of an image from daily life. The rios Almirall. 2003. same image can be visualised with 4. CROVETTO DE LA TORRE, M.A., ARÍSTEGUI FERNÁNDEZ,J.,Otitis media en la infancia. Ac- 8.3 Logopaedic (re)habilitation greater or lesser information and tualización. Undergraf S.L. 2008. (only video with sound, thus be compared to different types 5. CRUZ, M., Pediatría. Editorial Romar- without voice) of hearing loss (light, moderate, se- graf, 4ª ed. 1980. vere and profound). For example, a A person treated with a cochlear person with profound deafness who Scientific Reviews implant must follow a hearing is therapeutically helped by a 1. WILLIAMS, P. Genetics causes of hearing and/or specific logopaedic (re)ha- cochlear implant and with the best loss. N.Engl.J.Med. 2000;342:1101-1109. bilitation. In the case of prelingual logopaedic (re)habilitation can 2. COHEN,M.,BITNER-GLINDZIC., LUXON, hypoacusia, the logopaedic (re)ha- achieve a hearing threshold that L., The changing face of Usher syndrome: cli- nical implications. Int.J.Aud. 2007 feb;46(2): bilitation must be intensive and corresponds to light loss, but he or 82-93. very specialised. she will never receive information 3. DANESHI,A.,GHASSEMI, M., TALEE,M., It involves the work of recognis- as a person without a hearing deficit HASSANZADEH, S., Cochlear implantation in children with Jervell- Lange-Nielsen syndro- ing sound and/or speech, hearing does. In the same way, a person af- me. The Journal of Laryngology & Otology stimulation, and/or language learn- fected by moderate deafness who (2008), 122:314-317. 26 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

MARCEL BROESTERHUIZEN 2. Medical Aspects of Deafness: Psychology

First of all I would like to ex- meningitis. In these cases as well, between parents and infants is still press my profound gratitude at re- however, there is no direct rela- very visual, there is no clear differ- ceiving the honour of being able to tionship between aetiology and so- ence between deaf children and make a modest contribution to this cio-emotional disturbance. As a re- hearing children at the level of at- conference in this hall which is so sult of research in the field of psy- tachment. However the situation important in the life of the Church. cho-pathology in childhood we changes when during normal de- More than this, however, I would know that the greatest mediating velopment the need arises to regu- like to express my emotion and factor in this process is an endan- late the behaviour of the child gratitude to the Lord at the fact that gered interaction between children through oral communication. for the first time in the history of and parents which can lead in the Various studies have demon- the Church deaf people and their child to an insecure attachment or strated that the quality of attach- friends find themselves so ex- even to a disturbance of attach- ment is complementary to the ped- pressly in the heart of the Church. ment. agogic style of educators – not on- The Lord has called us to bring the The English word ‘attachment’ ly the child’s parents but also other Good News to the ends of the is the term with which the psychia- people as well. The pedagogic earth, but how often in history has trist of infancy Bowlby and the style that leads to secure attach- it seemed that the deaf were be- child psychologist Ainsworth2 de- ment is characterised by so-termed yond the ends of the earth! scribed the tie that is developed sensitive responsiveness, that is to In this paper of mine I would from the first day and possibly say the ability of the educator to like to go into two psychological even beforehand between a grow- understand well and in an empa- aspects of deafness. I will begin ing child and the significant people thetic way the needs, the feelings with a description of factors in the in his or her environment – his or and the thoughts of the child and to socio-emotional development and her mother, but not only her: also react to them in such a way that psycho-social development of deaf his or her father, siblings, grand- that the child grows as regards his people and I will then speak about parents, and later teachers, friends, or her capacities. The result is mu- the ways in which deaf people ex- and so forth. In two thirds of cases tual trust between the child and the perience various developments in this attachment is secure and this educator and trust of both of them the medical field such as cochlear means that for the child the person in themselves. The infant but also implants and genetic research. with whom there is an attachment the growing child knows that his Various epidemiological studies is a secure base where physical or her educators are available if he of mental disturbances in deaf peo- proximity can be found if this is or she needs them; there is a co- ple have shown that as regards dis- needed and from which the world regulation of behaviour – the child turbances of a biological aetiology can be explored feely and safely. can decide on his or her own if he such as schizophrenia, autism and In a third of cases this attachment or she can do something and the certain forms of psychosis there is is insecure and this insecurity can educators decide on whether this is no difference between the deaf be expressed in two ways: exag- necessary. The child receives clear population and the population as a gerated physical proximity with and suitable instruction on what whole. There is, however, in deaf anxiety as regards exploration or his or her educators want from him people, as compared to the general too much exploration and the or her.4 population, a higher percentage of avoidance of physical proximity. It is clear that this sensitive re- people with affective, psycho-so- These facts have been found in a sponsiveness requires a very so- cial and behavioural problems. large number of studies in various phisticated mutual adaptation and This phenomenon is not, as some cultural contexts and the differ- a high level of communicative people thought in the past,1 a direct ences between the various con- ability. A disturbance of communi- consequence of deafness. It is con- texts in, for example, Europe, cation has very grave conse- nected to a certain extent with cer- Japan and rural East Africa are quences for this mutual adaptation. tain aetiologies that are known to marginal.3 Indeed, as the American child psy- involve a high vulnerability in Limited studies in very young chiatrist Paul Brinich who has hearing children as well, such as deaf children have shown that at looked after many deaf children prenatal viral infections, a lack of the age of six to nine months, that said: ‘Where communication col- oxygen during childbirth, and is to say at an age when interaction lapses, the strongest take control’.5 DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 27

The consequences of this is that er people, as can be seen in border- were happy about this and I can from the age when oral communi- line personalities. well understand why. But in reality cation begins to be more decisive This can be accompanied by a pro- a wall had been constructed be- in interaction, the relationship be- found feeling of not been accepted tween us and I no longer wanted to tween deaf children and hearing and evaluated for what the child have the problems of breaking parents runs the risk of becoming really is, which can lead to an au- down that wall. Not because I did increasingly insecure.6 The peda- thentic feeling of desolation. not want to, certainly, I wanted to gogic style of parents is forced by I will give two examples of this. and I have always wanted to up to becoming increasingly directive In a magnificent book on the deaf now – but I couldn’t. I will never and controlling; communication community of Nepal, the Ameri- rebuke my parents for what hap- increasingly takes the form of can writer Irene Taylor, the daugh- pened because I am certain that commands. Deaf children and ter of deaf parents, mentions what they did not know how I felt as a hearing parents, but this is also a deaf man who grew up as the on- girl and as a young woman. Only found in other educators such as ly deaf person in his family and his that sometimes I am sad and angry teachers, do not learn to communi- village told her about his youth: “I because of what happened. I be- cate about feelings, thoughts and have to sincerely admit that there lieve that my parents did what they other aspects of their inner selves. were periods when I felt like a do- thought was good...And yet I think I have met many parents of deaf mestic pet rather than a member of that my mother – if she had known adolescents, capable educators as the family. As sign language was then what she knows now – would regards their hearing children, who not yet well developed when I was have learnt sign language to use it did not now how to hold a person- young, good communication was with me”.9 al conversation with their deaf absent between me and the other When these deaf girls and boys children. members of the family. It is true, go to school and meet other deaf they fed me, they clothed me, and young people and in a short time they looked after me, but I also undergo the experience of having knew that something was lacking on-going communication with in the relationship”.7 other deaf children and young peo- Do not think that things are dif- ple, they find friendships and good ferent in Western countries. A few contacts. The fact of sharing a years ago a young deaf Flemish world with other deaf children and woman provided the same descrip- young people certainly has very tion of her family: “In reality one valuable aspects; it can even be a can say that as a girl I was a mem- protection against the psychologi- ber of my family in the same way cal consequences of a failed rela- as a domestic pet was. Perhaps this tionship with their own family rel- is something that it is harsh to say atives. Many parents recognise but I think the parallel is a good that their deaf children need to be one. People who are affectionate with their own families as a safe towards a domestic pet look after it haven from which to navigate in well but they do not have a real the sea of the hearing world.10 This conversation with the animal and can be a compensation for what is do not give it any information”.8 absent in their families but there is Later on she says: “I had difficul- also a risk: the group of deaf chil- ties from the age of ten to thirteen. dren to which they belong can also I began to think about myself and take the place of their own families to understand that I was different. I and a deaf child can grow up in a In a relationship of insecure at- remember that I felt very alone and world to which his or her own ed- tachment, children and young peo- isolated. I asked myself why I was ucators – parents, teachers and ple do not learn to have trust in different, why I could not speak others – do not belong; they are themselves or in each other. Par- simply with my family relatives, like outsiders who do not have a ents become unpredictable for the as they did with each other. I asked valid contribution to make. child and vice versa. The child myself why I felt I was not one of One day I had a conversation does not develop the certainty that them. I wanted my sisters to speak with a boy who came from a fami- his or her parents are always avail- and play with me, but this is some- ly with four deaf children and I able and if they are available that thing that they did not do. I was said to him “Wow! That sounds they are ready to help. In gave cas- very angry but I could not speak great, four deaf brothers!” “No”, es this can even lead to a distur- about it...The only thing that I he said, “it’s terrible! We are al- bance in attachment which, as de- could do at that moment was to go ways fighting, then our parents scribed in DSM IV, can express it- away but I could not do that. At the come and there are punishments self in a variety of ways: an inabil- age of thirteen I understood that I handed round; they go away and ity to enter into a relationship with was deaf and I understood how everything starts over again. At other people, a constant and insa- similar I was to the other deaf girls school it’s the same thing: we fight tiable affective hunger, or a contin- at school. And then I became with out classmates, then the uous attracting or rejecting of oth- calmer, less difficult. My parents teacher comes and a logopaedist, 28 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH punishments are handed round, Church begins in the family, the guage. In Flanders, a country and then nothing changes. Hearing domestic Church. If deafness as a where cochlear implants have de- people do not understand anything shared project takes place there veloped greatly, I know a signifi- about us, they are useless”. with good results, it will also suc- cant number of deaf young people Hearing people are no longer ceed outside the family. who were educated in a purely oral trusted. They are people who are One of the fundamental things way, integrated into hearing enemies from another world. In this that the hearing parents and other schools, and who perhaps have had situation hearing people have the il- hearing family relatives of deaf a cochlear implant, but despite this lusion that they are educating the people have to understand is that fact decided to learn sign language deaf but in reality they are educat- deaf people and hearing people and get into contact with the deaf ing each other, and not always with live in different worlds. Deaf peo- community. I know a young deaf the desired results. This process has ple and hearing people perceive woman who was always in hearing a major influence in the religious the world in different ways, they schools – she and her sister who is development of these people. At a perceive different aspects of the also deaf are without contacts with certain stage of development, the world. Logically, the hearing par- other deaf people – who received a images that children have of God ents of very young deaf people cochlear implant at the age of six- the Father, of Our Lady, of Jesus, make their choices and often these teen. During her university studies are formed and they depend a great choices are based upon a vision in on cultural anthropology she had to deal upon the images that they have which deafness is a disability. do research in this field and decid- of their own father, mother, sib- Soon, however, they discover that ed to engage in a study of the cul- lings, and friends.11 Research car- for their deaf child deafness means ture of deaf people in Suriname, in ried out by the National Catholic something else. And they have to Latin America. For her it was a Office for the Deaf of the United allow their growing child to be- shock which made her feel what States of America demonstrated come his or her owner of his or her she had always never had. She that many deaf people have an im- deafness and derive from that wrote a magnificent degree thesis ageofGodtheFatherasanimpor- deafness his or her own choices for which the company MedEl, a tant person but a person who is dis- which may be different from their manufacturer of cochlear implants, tant, who does not communicate choices. It is logical that hearing wanted to give her a prize because with the deaf, and who does not parents want their child to be a part they saw it as an example of the understand sign language. So of their world, to become like success of the cochlear implant. communicating with such a God them, to speak their language, and She said that she would accept the has no sense. And when we speak it can hurt if the child makes other prize only if an interpreter of sign about the Church as the family of choices. If from the outset they do language could be present at the the children of God and of the oth- not have an openness to this world awarding of the prize and if she er faithful as our brethren, these of the deaf, in many cases parents could narrate how she had discov- are images that easily open up old see that young people make their ered the value of sign language. wounds. At times it is better to own choices anyway, but in dis- She is now taking part in a pro- avoid these images. agreement with them. gramme of studies on deafness at I do not want to paint a tragic For hearing parents and experts, the University of Bristol, England. picture of the development of deaf the advances that have been made Her deaf friend studied peda- people. I do not want to patholo- in the medical-audiological field gogy at university and met the deaf gise the deaf. At the present time are spectacular. And it is a shock community only at the age of six- deaf children and young people re- for them to see that these great dis- teen. She learnt sign language, she ceive an education that is very dif- coveries are not assessed in the was active on the Deaf Action ferent from that received by the same way by all deaf people. When Front which collected the number generations of deaf people before the cochlear implant was invented, of signatures needed to comment them. Most deaf people continue the deaf community was very much during a session of parliament on a to live with their families rather opposed to implantations in deaf petition for the recognition of sign than going to residential schools people because it appeared to them language. A parliamentary Bill and colleges. There is an increas- to be a capitulation to the medical- along these lines was introduced ing number of families who use audiological vision of deafness in by a deaf Member of Parliament sign communication with their which deafness is seen only as a who also had a history of oral edu- deaf children. There is more sensi- disability. For a good number of cation and integration in hearing tivity towards the needs of deaf years allowing an implant was seen schools. All these three deaf peo- children. The deaf American psy- as a betrayal of the deaf communi- ple relate that in looking back- chologist Martha Sheridan12 ob- ty. Given that in the post-modern wards they feel that their educators serves that most of the deaf chil- epoch deaf young people base their were not able to grasp certain dren of hearing parents have expe- choices on pragmatic reasons, there needs for contact and communica- riences within their families which is at least in Europe a growing tion that they had. are much more positive than those number of deaf young people who In an interview with one of them reported by deaf adults about their have a cochlear implant and per- in the newspaper of the Fleming youth. It is my belief as a psychol- haps go to musical festivals with Federation of Deaf People a fa- ogist and a believer that authentic deaf friends, with whom they pre- mous medical expert in the field of participation of deaf people in the fer to communicate in sign lan- cochlear implants said that he DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 29 thought that within a few decades many years I thought that this idea, emotionele ontwikkeling van dove kinderen, Sint Michielsgestel: Instituut voor Doven, therapies would be discovered that amazing for people with hearing, 1992, 49. could treat deafness and other de- was typical of an ideology for indi- 5 PAUL M. BRINICH, Maternal style and cog- fects at the level of genes and that vidual, troubled Western countries, nitive performance in deaf children, Universi- ty of Chicago, 1974; PAUL M. BRINICH, everybody would be very happy but I have also found it in other “Childhood Deafness and Maternal Control”, with these therapies. He said that countries and cultures such as So- Journal of Communication Disorders, 1980, he was not able to understand the malia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea 75-81. 6 AMATZIA WEISEL,AHIYA KAMARA,“At- doubts of the deaf community and Ethiopia. This awareness of be- tachment and Individuation of Deaf/Hard-of- about genetic manipulation. In his ing normal people despised by Hearing and Hearing Young Adults”, Journal vision what was of great impor- hearing people I also found in of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 10, 2005 no. 1, 51-62. tance was for deaf children to be- them. 7 IRENE TAYLOR, Buddhas in Disguise: Deaf come hearing people, integrated What lesson can be drawn from People of Nepal, San Diego: Dawn Sign Press, into the world around them.13 this? Unfortunately a section of 1997, 131-134. A British researcher in the field deaf people grew up in a way 8 MIEKE VAN HERREWEGHE,MYRIAM VER- MEERBERGEN, Thuishoren in een wereld van of genetics, Anna Middleton, which led them to learn to live in a gebaren, Gent: Academia Press, 1998, 153. found that amongst deaf people frustrating mixture of submission there is more suspicion about ge- and diffidence towards hearing netic research than amongst hear- people. This is a state of mind ing people with deaf children or which goes back to the beginnings parents. She asked the people tak- of their lives and which since them ing part in her research to describe has been confirmed on a number their feelings about genetic re- of occasions by educators who did search with a choice of adjectives. not know how to enter into a real The most used adjective amongst dialogue with them and for whom deaf people was ‘worried’ and the the first question was how deaf most used adjective amongst hear- people understand me and not how ing people was ‘hopeful’. Various I understand deaf people. The so- deaf people made comments such lution lies in an improvement of as ‘why do you interfere in the the sensitive responsiveness and lives of deaf people – leave us in the communicative capacities of peace’. Less than a quarter of deaf their educators. people but a half of hearing people were interested in the prenatal di- Prof. MARCEL agnostics of deafness. The deaf BROESTERHUIZEN, people who were interested were Faculty of Theology, almost all deaf people who did not The Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. 9 identify with the deaf community MIEKE VAN HERREWEGHE,MYRIAM VER- 14 MEERBERGEN, Thuishoren in een wereld van and deaf culture. gebaren, Gent: Academia Press, 1998, 157. An observation that I have fre- 10 BENJAMIN J. BAHAN, “Comment on Turn- quently made when in contact with Notes er”, Sign Language Studies 21, 1994, 241-270. deaf people is that many of them do 11 D. ELKIND, The Development of Religious 1 J. D. RAINER ET AL., Psychiatry and the Understanding in Children and Adolescents, not see deafness as a disability. Yes, deaf, New York, 1967. in Research on Religious Development: A as children they had a period when 2 J. BOWLBY, Attachment and Loss. Volume Comprehensive Handbook, ed. M.P. Strom- it was difficult to accept themselves II: Separation, 1973; J. BOWLBY, Attachment men, New York: Hawthorn Books, 1971; A. and Loss. Volume III: Loss 1980; J. BOWLBY, GODIN, Some Developments in Christian Edu- as deaf people but now they see Attachment and Loss. Volume I: Attachment, cation,inResearch on Religious Develop- themselves differently. Life could New York: Basic Books, 1982; M. D. ment: A Comprehensive Handbook, ed. M.P. be easier if they were hearing: a AINSWORTH ET AL., “Individual differences in Strommen, New York: Hawthorn Books, strange-situation behaviour of one- year-olds,” 1971; R.J.HAVIGHURST,B.KEATING, The Reli- better job, better pay, less problems in The origins of human social relations, ed. H. gion of Youth,inResearch on Religious Devel- at the level of communication – this R. Schaffer, London-New York: Academic opment: A Comprehensive Handbook, ed. indeed is the case. In research on Press, 1971; M. D. AINSWORTH ET AL., Patterns M.P. Strommen, New York: Hawthorn Books, of attachment: a psychological study of the 1971. deaf adolescents some of them said strange situation, Hillsdale N.J.: Erlbaum, 12 MARTHA SHERIDAN, Inner Lives of Deaf that to call them disabled would be 1978. Children: Interviews and Analysis, Washing- an insult to people who were really 3 C. DONTAS ET AL., “Early social develop- ton, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2002; ment in institutionally reared Greek infants: MARTHA SHERIDAN, Deaf Adolescents: Inner disabled such as the blind, people Attachment and peer interactions”, Mono- Lives and Lifeworld Development, Washing- in wheelchairs, or mentally handi- graphs of the Society for Research in Child De- ton D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2008. capped people. It hurts them and velopment 50, no. 1-2 1985, 136-146; R. KER- 13 MAARTJE DE MEULDER, ‘Interview: Prof. MOIAN ET AL., “Infant attachment to mother and Dr. Paul Govaerts’, Dovennieuws, tijdschrift scandalises them when they have child caretaker in an East African community. van Fevlado 82, no. 1 (2007): 2-5. the impression that hearing people Special issue: Cross-cultural human develop- 14 ANNA MIDDLETON, Attitudesofdeafand see a deaf life as having a lower ment”, International Journal of Behavioral hearing individuals towards issues surround- Development, 1986, 455-469; K. MIYAKE ET ing genetic testing for deafness, Unpublished quality of life than a hearing life, as AL., “Infant temperament, mother’s mode of Ph.D. Thesis, University of Leeds, 1999; AN- a disabled life. For many of them interaction, and attachment in Japan: an inter- NA MIDDLETON, “Deaf and Hearing Adults’ deafness is not the loss of hearing im report”, Monographs of the Society for Re- Attitudes toward Genetic Testing for Deaf- search in Child Development 50, no. 102, ness”, in Genetics, Disability, and Deafness, but membership of a minority with 1985, 276-279. ed. John V. Van Cleve, Washington, D.C.: its own language and culture. For 4 MARCEL BROESTERHUIZEN, De sociaal- Gallaudet University Press, 2004. 30 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

3. Round Table: Experiences from the World of Silence

MARCO RADICI 3.1 Congenital Deafness

Centuries ago, Aristotle wrote: on the communicative and cogni- sentially based upon education and ‘the ear is the organ of education’, tive development of the child. Giv- sensitisation in the health-care field, and by this he meant that the ear is en the scale of the phenomenon (it on the prevention of the principal the basis for the development of is calculated that the risk is of the infectious diseases involved (vacci- language. If a child displays grave order of 1/1,000 new born chil- nations) and on advances in the or very grave hearing problems, dren), it is easy to understand how field of audiological genetic re- whether they are congenital or ac- important an early diagnosis is and search. Indeed, in recent years two quired prior to the development of this is even more important because genes have been identified (Con- language, he or she will not be able it is during the very first stages of nexine 26 e Connexine 30) which to correctly develop language in a life that language is developed. are responsible for congenital deaf- spontaneous way. He or she will not A failing at the level of the work- ness and the test for their identifica- have those sound stimuli which, ing of the hearing organ clearly ob- tion is today available in Italy as when reproduced after being assim- structs this delicate and complex well. ilated, constitute spoken language, process and thus to be able to recog- Today it is brilliantly possible to and thus he or she will find himself nise during the first days of the carry out what is termed ‘sec- or herself isolated amidst other peo- child’s life if the hearing organ has ondary’prevention, that is to say the ple, like a person who watches a alterations has a fundamental im- removal of the clinical and social film that is a talking film for every- portance because its provides us consequences that occur with early one but a silent film for him or her, with the opportunity to act quickly diagnosis and subsequent educa- with all the implications that this so as to assure that the unfolding of tional action. A diagnosis may be marginalisation involves, begin- the stages of development of lin- termed ‘early’ if it is carried out and ning with the deficit in his or her guistic communication and the use confirmed during the first six overall development of his or her of the hearing organ itself follow months of life. With the advent of personality, being frustrated and not the ‘physiological’ stages. The ear- new technologies and with the be- gratified even by the comfort of his lier one acts, the greater the external ginning of a new culture of preven- or her mother’s voice. Still today in- sound information is organised so tion, diagnosis is being brought fant deafness constitutes a frequent that it can be used correctly. Late di- back to 18-24 months but this date problem. Indeed 1,500-2000 chil- agnosis makes everything much may be even further moved back in dren are born in Italy every year more difficult for the child. Ap- time: neonatal screening with otoa- who have grave hypoacusia. Forms proaching him or her after nine coustic emissions can already be of infant hypoacusia are in the great months of listening to his or her en- carried out during the first hours of majority of cases congenital in vironment means that from then he life of a child. It is not invasive, it is character (about 90%), connected, or she must begin to understand rapid, specific, sensitive and costs that is to say, to agents that act dur- what he or she hears in the great little. Hearing screening has been ing the prenatal or perinatal period; confusion of sound signals that confirmed by numerous interna- hereditary causes are the most fre- come to him or her, suddenly, all to- tional scientific studies as being ex- quent, followed by infectious, toxic gether, in an amassed and indistinct tremely useful in achieving the re- or traumatic causes. Of these, only form covery of optimal hearing at a func- a half are identified before the age The strategies of ‘primary’ pre- tional level. This good functional of one and the others, even if they vention, that is to say removing the result is highly influenced, there- appear early on, are identified sub- causes of deafness, are still today fore, by early diagnosis, as long, sequently with an enormous impact very much limited and they are es- however, as this early diagnosis is DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 31 immediately followed by the edu- constitutes the first real sense organ pregnancy. The level of deafness at cational itinerary of the child in his of an artificial kind which can be birth at our hospital has been or her family: the provision of hear- implanted in man. 0.7/1000, a level that is lower than ing aids and specialised logopaedic For a number of years, the ‘San most of the latest statistics in the lit- intervention must be carried out by Giovanni Calibita’ Fatebenefratelli erature in the field. Children with expert personnel who should, in ad- Hospital has offered the possibility severe and profound hypoacusia dition, guide the child’s family and of carrying out an audiological discovered by us have been directed all those (relatives, teachers, etc.) screening of all children who suffer to programmes involving rehabili- who will interact and be figures of from risk factors as regards congen- tative hearing aids and the cochlear reference during the various stages ital deafness (being premature, implant. of the growth and development of icterus, infections during pregnan- the child. If these conditions take cy, admission to neonatal intensive Prof. MARCO RADICI place a total social, school and oc- care etc.). Since January 2008, we Director U.O.C. Otolaryngology, cupational recovery of an optimal have subjected about 6,500 children The ‘San Giovanni Calibita’ level will be assured, as well as a to the EOE test in concomitance Fatebenefratelli Hospital, the Tiberine Island, complete affective development in with the first paediatric examina- Rome a serene family environment. tion about a week after birth. Of After a diagnosis of hypoacusia these children, about 95% had nor- has been carried out and the loca- mal levels of EOE and 5% have Bibliography tion of the lesion has been estab- mono- or bi-laterally altered levels. Eziologia, diagnosi, prevenzione e terapia lished with reasonable precision, it The test was repeated with these della sordità infantile preverbale. Quaderno is advisable to proceed swiftly with children two weeks later. Children monografico di aggiornamento AOOI, 2007. L’impianto cocleare nella pratica clinica. the organisation of the most suit- who at the second test had altered XXI convegno nazionale di aggiornamento able therapy. The instruments for parameters were subjected to a sec- AOOI. Viterbo 3-4 ottobre 1997. the correction of the neurosensorial ond-level test involving evoked FERNHOFF P.M., ‘Newborn screening for ge- netic disorders’, Pediatr. Clin. North. Am. 2009 hearing deficit are still today en- hearing potentials which in four of Jun;56(3):505-13. trusted in the majority of cases to an them confirmed the diagnosis of BAILY M.A. and MURRAY T.H., ‘Ethics, ev- early acoustic hearing aid which, congenital deafness. The causes of idence, and cost in newborn screening’, Hast- ings Cent. Rep. 2008 May-Jun;38(3):23-31. however, has been flanked in recent deafness were attributable in two of ARN P.H., ‘Newborn screening: current sta- years by another technological re- them to an alteration in the Connex- tus’, Health Aff. (Millwood) 2007 Mar- source in the form of a cochlear im- ine 26 gene and in the other two to Apr;26(2):559-66. Gifford K.A., Holmes M.G., and Bernstein plant which has, without doubt, be- an infection by the cytomegalovirus H.H. ‘Hearing loss in children’, Pediatr. Rev. gun a new chapter in as much as it during the first three months of 2009 Jun;30(6):207-15. 32 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

FRANS CONINX 3.2. Medical and Technological Interventions Offer New Possibilities to Improve the Quality of Life of Persons with a Hearing Impairment

The diagnosis and treatment of These differences between 1990 themselves, but also make this de- hearing impairment has medical, and 2010 have caused very sub- cision for their deaf children. technical-audiological, psycholog- stantial changes. Most children Some of my deaf students in ical and educational foundations. can hear and pick up sound quite Cologne speak to me in one-to-one In all these professional fields, well. Even more important…they conversations, use signing but also knowledge and practices have benefit from already hearing in speech when communicating with changed substantially over the past the first year of life. other deaf students, and use sign- twenty years. The processing functions of the ing when interpreters are present at My main message today is: it is auditory nerve and perception my lectures. important and necessary to care- process in the central brain (audi- Deaf adults now (2009) were fully compare the past and the pre- tory cortex) can develop and ma- born before 1990. Most of these sent and conclude that it is not pos- ture in a time window where the deaf adults could not yet benefit sible and not appropriate to trans- neural plasticity is still optimal from the achievements of the med- fer all experiences from the past (first years of life). Speech and ical and technological advances into the future. For that reason I spoken language develop primari- described above. They might have want to compare the conditions ly by natural and incidental learn- acquired spoken language, but and circumstances of twenty years ing; children quite often speak the with limitations and with a large ago with those of today. local ‘dialect’ (proving that they amount of effort. Twenty years ago hearing loss in are picking up pronunciations by Often, sign language is, then, a children was identified quite late, the ear and imitating it). The child better alternative. This has to be often at the age of 2-4 years. Diag- can be included communicatively recognized, respected and support- nostic options for infants and and socially in the family, with ed. young children (age < 3-4) were parents and sisters/brothers who in The options for the individual limited. Hearing aids were simple most cases use spoken language to deaf child growing up today are amplifiers with many limitations communicate. When there is inclu- based on the individual choices of and could not be adjusted very sion in the family then there is a parents. well to individual needs. A lack of solid basis for inclusion in widen- The traditional medical-audio- effective high-frequency amplifi- ing social circles (neighborhood, logical distinction between hard- cation was one of these limita- kindergarten, school, work, of-hearing and deafness (90 dB) tions. Cochlear implants were just church, etc). seems to be obsolete. With only a in a first phase of implementation With this foundation many chil- few exceptions, children will have and used only for older children dren will be able to participate in the possibility to HEAR and when and adults. society in a way that follows the they can start hearing early enough Today neonatal hearing screen- UN convention on ‘inclusion’. also to UNDERSTAND, and use ing has been installed in many Later in life, these children will spoken language, identify sounds countries; alternatives for early have the real free choice of how and enjoy music. And for that pur- screening at 6-24 months are being they want to live and participate in pose they have a series of options: implemented, such as littlEARS society like most other people: us- acoustical: advanced digital hear- (Coninx 2008, 2009). Good objec- ing speech, spoken and written ing aids. Also acoustical and rela- tive and subjective tools for early language. It enables them to have a tively new are: frequency shifting diagnosis are in place. Digital way of life that is dependent on hearing aids – inaudible high fre- hearing aids can be fitted very ear- hearing technology but indepen- quency sounds are shifted down- ly to provide infants with adequate dent of interpreter services; being wards into an audible range; elec- amplification. When amplification really bilingual through the use trical: cochlear implants – bilateral is not effective, cochlear implants spoken language and sign lan- provision has proven to improve can be provided starting from the guage. An increasing number of spatial hearing skills; electric and age of 8-12 months. deaf adults decide to go this way acoustical (EAS): the combination DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 33 of acoustical amplification in the might impair language acquisition, auditory nerve and the central lower frequencies and electrical including sign language. brain, these neural structures will stimulation in the higher frequen- Some final words on the issue of degenerate. When many years lat- cies (using a short electrode into acquired hearing loss and hearing er the hearing loss in the cochlea is the cochlea); and acoustical: im- loss in the elderly. When spoken (successfully) compensated with a plantable middle ear implants, for language skills have been already hearing aid or CI, the brain has lost special cases such as children acquired and a person becomes its capability to process and recog- without an outer ear canal. hard-of-hearing or deaf at a later nize these signals. The older per- In children, deafness might go age, the potential success of hear- son will hear, but maybe not un- along with additional develop- ing instruments is very high. The derstand. The ear is just a gate to mental problems such as learning brain has to be ‘re-wired’ and learn the brain. In order to keep the audi- disabilities, cognitive limitations to process the new signals entering tory part of the brain in good and mental retardation, physical through the auditory nerve, shape, the early identification and limitations (also affecting the mo- whether they come from an early provision of hearing technol- torics of speech as well as of sign- acoustical hearing aid or from a ogy is also important for elderly ing), visual impairments, environ- cochlear implant. persons. mental deprivation etc. What is important is that the This means that even the best brain is still capable of ‘re-wiring’. Prof. FRANS CONINX and early provision of hearing in- This becomes less likely when the Audiologist, struments is not a guarantee for the brain has been deprived for a long teacher of deaf people, good development of spoken lan- time. When the ear (cochlea) does physicist and teacher of mathematics, guage in a deaf child. However, it not provide neural excitation to the Solingen, Germany. 34 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

ANTONIE ARDATIN 3.3 My Experiences as a Religious Education Teacher of the Deaf in Wonosobo, Indonesia

One day when I was teaching are from different confessions. In tions of people who have been my deaf students aged twelve Indonesia, 88% of the population called to join the priesthood or the about the healing of the deaf man is Muslim and 12% is Catholic, Congregations of sisters/brothers by Jesus according to the gospel of Hindu or Buddhist. The parents or who want to teach at a Catholic Mark 7:35, they were astonished know very well that our school is a special school for the deaf. There and asked me “How can it be? If Catholic school. So besides the is also a new law that forbids peo- Jesus is still alive today, then we Catholic religion, we have also de- ple to choose the partner that should be healed also”. I was chal- veloped a curriculum for Hin- he/she loves to marry when they lenged to make them understand duism, Buddhism and Islam. It is a are not of the same religion. Thus abstract concepts such as: Jesus, great challenge for students and Muslim people have to marry miracle, spirit, heaven and Heav- our members of staff to learn to be Muslims and Catholics have to enly Father. I had to explain that tolerant to each other, to accept marry Catholics. Many of our deaf “Jesus is still alive today! That he and to build interfaith relation- alumni feel very insecure. This is lives in the hearts of the students, ships. difficult to explain, to understand teachers, parents and siblings”. and to accept. “How can that be?” they an- Our school is a private school. swered. “I don’t understand”, Dita We have to pay the salaries of our said. And I asked her “Do you re- members of staff out of our own fi- member when you were five years nances which is very difficult for old and came to the school for the our institute! So parents must pay first time? How did you communi- the school fees but usually they are cate?” “Oh, we were using body unable to do so or can pay just a language and trying to sign”. And I fraction of the real costs. An addi- tried to explain: “Through the love tional problem with teachers sent of your parents, your teachers, by the central government is their your siblings and your friends for lack of training. They are not you, you were able to learn to trained or qualified to teach chil- communicate. The Spirit of Jesus dren with special needs, such as was and is still working in you and deaf children and youngsters. This also in them!” means that we had to develop pri- Our school ‘Dena Upakara’ is vately our own in-service training one of seventy schools for the deaf programme at our school despite in Indonesia. It is a Catholic school Since 1975, our government has the existing special education pro- and was founded by the Dutch paid special attention to the special grammes at the state teacher-train- Congregation of Sisters, ‘the needs of children with disabilities. ing colleges. We are inspired to Daughters of Mary and Joseph’, in Many government schools for spe- fight for justice and the rights of co-operation with the Institute for cial education have been founded. deaf children of all confessions to the Deaf, St. Michielsgestel, the After the political reform of 1998, have equal access to quality educa- Netherlands, in 1938. Our Congre- democracy started gradually to de- tion. gation has embraced ten Dutch velop. In reality, this means that Some of our alumni are able to deaf women with a vocation in its Muslims are in a majority and attend professional training in reg- community in the Netherlands. Christians in a minority. However, ular training schools and a small Our school is the second school for this does not mean that we have re- number have graduated from uni- the education of the deaf in In- ligious freedom. This is not always versity. They always see the com- donesia but the first school for an easy situation for the Catholic pany of their deaf friends and or- deaf girls. Besides Catholic stu- Church. As far as I know, there are ganise so-called Deaf Clubs where dents, the majority of our pupils at this time very few or no voca- they can socialise and organise a DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 35 monthly special Holy Mass for in the deaf clubs or communities. the Credit Union to buy a sewing- deaf people administered by a However, as a result of their inter- machine to start a small tailor’s priest. Also a group of Muslims faith relationships the deaf clubs shop or catering etc. So you see, pray at the same time in their started the Credit Union pro- little by little we are making mosque. After finishing Holy gramme after Holy Mass to help progress in the education of chil- Mass and Muslim prayers, they deaf people who are poor. Our dren and youngsters who are deaf. have a social gathering: Catholics staff guides them on how to organ- We need your prayers and support and Moslems together. That is a ise this Credit Union concept. and especially the Blessings of the good example of good practice, of They like it and have learned step Lord. living together, of being tolerant by step to save money first togeth- and of being respectful of each er. Then, if they need financial SR. ANTONIE ARDATIN other. An interfaith relationship! help to in their businesses, they Provincial Superior. And this is happening in the world can borrow money from the Credit Teacher of deaf people, of deaf people! As far as I know, Union at a low rate, e.g.1% a Jawa Tengah not a single deaf man or woman month, while other people pay Indonesia has entered a Catholic Congrega- 2.5% interest to the national bank. tion or is active in pastoral services Usually, they borrow money from 36 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

JAIME GUTIÉRREZ VILLANUEVA 3.4 My Personal Experience and my Pastoral Experience

1. My Personal Experience people (up to that moment I had ing what is said at these meetings. not had contact with such people) I have to make a greater effort at and he had me meet a religious confession and in my various ac- I am a non-hearing Spanish from Valencia who worked at a tivities. I have to ask people to priest. At the present time I exer- pastoral level specifically with speak more clearly and to repeat cise my ministry at the Parish of non-hearing people. I spent a peri- what they have said or I ask them St. Mary of Silence which works od of time in the company of this to give me notes on what they have in the pastoral field of care for the priest and saw how he worked. said. For them as well there has deaf and the deaf and dumb in the Subsequently I began to learn sign been greater work and involve- archdiocese of Madrid. Parallel language and to belong to the Na- ment because on many occasions with this activity, I am writing a tional Assemblies of Deaf People they have had to photocopy texts doctoral thesis in theology on the which are held in Spain twice a or papers given to the meetings so subject of Christian identification. year. Thus I gradually began to that I could follow these meetings I also work as a diocesan council- know these people, their world, better. They have had to speak to lor of an apostolic movement, the their special features characteris- me standing in front of me, in a Christian Cultural Movement, tics, their different pastoral experi- clear and slow way, etc. whose objective is the formation ences, and I began to work in San- All of this has helped me to feel of Christians. I am thirty-five years tander with deaf people (catech- totally integrated into the life of old and I was ordained a priest ten esis, meetings, pilgrimages, etc.). the Church and more specifically years ago. I became totally deaf All of this helped me to accept my into the groups with whom I have seven years ago and at the present condition as a deaf person and to worked in the field of pastoral time I have a cochlear implant. discover that I could be useful to care. This experience with hearing My hearing difficulties go back other people even with my handi- people has helped me a great deal to twelve years ago and in the ear- cap. as regards my work with the deaf. ly years I did not want to accept When I was ordained a priest For this reason I have campaigned this reality, that is to say that I was my bishop appointed me the – and this is something that I con- going deaf. These were years of diocesan head for pastoral care for tinue to do – for a greater integra- isolation, of loneliness and of a deaf people: I could dedicate my- tion of deaf people into society and lack of communication. I had few self totally to non-hearing people, into the life of the Church. I be- friends because I encountered dif- as regards sacramental responsi- lieve that this is possible and this is ficulties in forming relationships bilities as well. something that is confirmed by my with other people because of my I have never devoted myself ex- personal experience. We deaf peo- deafness and because of the fact clusively to the deaf. Indeed. I ple cannot represent an isolated that I did not accept my condition. have worked, and I work, with community within the Church, and My first contact with deaf people hearing people in parishes and in the same may be said about our re- took place roundabout nineteen the apostolic movement to which I lationship to society as whole, be- years ago when I had been at the have already referred and whose cause this approach not only seminary for a number of years (I national councillor I have been for would isolate us but would also entered the Minor Seminary when five years. I see this experience as impoverish us. We need specific I was fourteen years old). very positive and enriching be- care, specific support, and also a One day I spoke to my bishop cause work with the hearing peo- certain involvement on our part, about the doubts that I had about ple and above all else with the but I believe that the development the fact that I could be a priest de- adults who belong to this apostolic and interaction of deaf people is spite my deafness, which for that movement has given me a great possible if everyone works in this matter was progressive and was deal as a priest and I have always direction. My personal experience causing me increasing difficulties felt integrated into this communi- tells me that we can succeed and and made me notice limitations as ty, even though this has involved a for this reason welfare and pater- regards my studies and in relating great effort on both sides. As re- nalistic attitudes, which do not to people with hearing. He advised gards myself, the effort has been help in the development of indi- me to work as a priest with deaf greater with respect to understand- viduals but, instead, humiliate DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 37 them by telling them what they can situation but that many of them able to read and to understand and cannot do, cause me suffering. live it with resignation, without what they read, as if this disability hoping that it will possible to was something that was natural change it. They see this situation and insuperable. We have come to 2. My Pastoral Experience as irremediable. the point of widely developing in Deaf people must discover in an these people an ideology that I call In my pastoral experience with increasingly clear way and become ‘deaf nationalism’ and which in- deaf people the greatest challenge aware of the fact that: volves believing that deafness cre- that I have had to address is that of 1. Our situation is not a fatal law ates its own identity derived from conjoining evangelisation with the laid down by God or by the forces its own language which is different integral promotion of the interests that dictate history and it is possi- from the identity of people with of non-hearing people. We cannot ble to address the difficulties hearing – sign language. All of this speak about Jesus Christ if we do caused by deafness and overcome isolates and separates deaf people not have the approach at the same them through permanent action from the rest of society and the time of a integral promotion of the and struggle. Church, impeding and delaying interests of people, of every per- 2. This action or struggle must their integral promotion. The point son, so that he or she experiences overcome the difficulties that are should be understood: one should the salvation and the liberation that caused by deafness, must be a col- not interpret what I say as a state- Christ came to bring us. This lective action on the part of non- ment to the effect that sign lan- means that every human being hearing people and must embrace guage is not necessary or that we should live in line with his or her all deaf people of the whole world deaf people do not need specific dignity as a person, developing as in a movement of international sol- care and support. We certainly a person to the full. When the idarity. I have often asked myself need this, but this should not be Gospel speaks to us about Jesus what being deaf in Africa or in the used to justify closed groups and healing the deaf and dumb man we Honduras or in so many other poor communities. We must journey to- see that not only did he heal him of countries actually means. I hope wards greater real integration into a his deafness and unloosened his that the speakers who come from social and ecclesial life and this tongue so that he could speak, but these continents of the world, with will be possible only through a he also, and above all else, re- whom we have had an opportunity pathway involving the integral and stored to him his dignity as a per- to take part in this international collective promotion of the inter- son so that he could be reintegrat- conference, will illustrate to us ests of these people. ed into society and the Church. their experiences. I would like, therefore, to begin 3. This action must have as its this second part of my paper by objective the social, human and re- observing how Pope Benedict ligious promotion by which deaf XVI in his latest encyclical Cari- people can fulfil to the utmost their tas in Veritate places emphasis on own personalities and enjoy the the fact that ‘the authentic devel- goods created for the progress of opment of the person concerns in humanity which exist for all men. a unitary way the totality of the For this reason cultural promotion person in every one of his dimen- is necessary. We must achieve a sions’. Thus such development professional, human, social and re- must be integral, it must promote ligious culture. As a yeast and an the interests of all men and each instrument for directing this action man. This encyclical is an authen- we should take as a model the inte- tic pearl and a gift for the whole of gral promotion of the interests so the Church which will help us to many deaf people which can serve understand better what I am about as an impulse and guidance for In order to serve faithfully the to say. other people. good of the whole community of Almost nobody thinks that the deaf people, I would like us to con- promotion of the interests of deaf In this way one will manage, centrate out attention on certain people is possible. Let us begin step after step, to form in non- points that could direct us on this specifically with non-hearing peo- hearing people a new awareness of pathway of their integral promo- ple. We ourselves do not have, in their capacities, developing pro- tion so that we ourselves can pro- general terms, an awareness of our motional action that is increasing- vide some answers to the problems capacities. Each deaf person suf- ly deep, vast and unequivocal. that are caused by our disabilities. fers and accepts as he or she can Hitherto most of the social and 1. Authentic international soli- his or her own situation of isola- pastoral action with deaf people, darity between deaf people and tion, of lack of communication and and in general the whole of the hearing people is required, from of culture, as well as many other field of disabilities known by me, which will come authentic free- problems that come from deaf- and which I myself have devel- dom and equality, a sharing of all ness. We realise, in addition, the oped, is action of a paternalist and social, economic, cultural, politi- fact that there are very many deaf welfare kind, such as the fact of cal and spiritual resources, in addi- people who find themselves in our thinking that deaf people are not tion to the commitment of every- 38 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH one according, obviously enough, sponsible for our own promotion. than the obstacles that we find in to their capacities, and always We must accept that one can do front of us. And this energy can bearing in mind in particular non- nothing alone; it is absurd and con- only be God and the experience of hearing people who live in the tradictory to speak about our pro- His love which leads us to struggle poorest countries of the world motion when one does not begin permanently without becoming where in many cases they are de- with the recognition of our dignity discouraged. The experience of nied what is most basic and impor- and our right to organise and direct shared suffering, of exclusion and tant – their dignity as persons. And the matters that relate to us. of struggle, to fight with hope. in many cases they are not even A few years ago an advertising Suffering makes us more humble; treated as people. billboard was produced in which it is a source of the wisdom of 2. Thus a collective hope will two sets of hands were depicted: God. It is an opportunity to under- begin to develop and grow, a one belonged to a person with stand further, and in a better way, shared goal, an ideal with a great hearing and opened up from above our brother who suffers in order to power of attraction which will whereas that of the deaf person draw near to him, to develop a have gradually to be completed seemed to come from below. I be- greater sensitivity when faced with and expressed in action and expe- lieve that it would be difficult to the suffering of other people, in or- riences, and which inevitably will find a graphic design which more der to enter into communion with give rise to the birth of promotion- indicated the way in which the all our brothers and sisters in the al collective action. promotion of the interests of non- world who suffer because of forms 3. This requires the discovery hearing people should not be pro- of injustice. that this collective promotion is moted. It is certainly the case that What is necessary, therefore, is a possible. we deaf people need other people, preliminary and radical promo- in addition to associations and pas- tion, a spiritual promotion. We toral workers who are ready to Christians will not amount to strengthen our collective and pro- much if we do not know to do – motional action, but the first thing thanks to our faith – much more that they must do is to enter into than other people who have ideas the questions and issues of a deaf that cannot be compared to the person. To enter into means to un- Christian message as regards its derstand, to participate, to accept potentialities for heroism and love the inspirations and the actions for those who suffer. Christianity that we deaf people engage in, or can develop a spiritual and reli- want to engage in, and join them. gious promotion at the service of The promotion of the interests of the whole of mankind. And thus, non-hearing people should not be starting from this spiritual and reli- done beginning from the top, with- gious promotion, God is making There have always been cases of out changing anything, without emerge in many places the action individual promotion and there improving the situation, but, in- of deaf people so that our integral have always been people who be- stead, it should be done beginning promotion will be effective and at cause of their resources and atti- from the bottom by joining us and thesametimewillbeamagnifi- tudes, because of their spirit of our action. cent instrument of evangelisation struggle or because of the help that The promotion of the interests not only for us but also for the they have received from other peo- of deaf people requires time and whole of the Church, of which we ple, have managed to engage in in- dedication, but the fundamental are active members with the same dividual promotion. Now, howev- thing is to want to engage in such rights and duties as our brethren. er, the time has come to envisage promotion. When one discovers I will end this modest contribu- collective action by deaf people on the capacities and the limitations tion by transmitting a message of the part of all of us who work in of oneself and of other people, one courage and of hope to all non- this field of pastoral care. This pro- acquires confidence. We must be hearing people, especially to motion also needs collective ac- protagonists and not passive spec- young non-hearing people, telling tion. Many of us, indeed, engage in tators as regards life. them that they can obtain what such promotion at an individual To make this integral and collec- they want in their lives if only they level and look for the resources by tive promotion of the interests of propose it. However, it is neces- which to do this. I believe that the non-hearing people possible, we sary to want and to fight for this, best evangelising service that we need people who are prepared to and to do this with other people, can offer to non-hearing people is struggle constantly and to make all because alone we will not succeed. to organise joint action whose ob- the sacrifices that this promotional jective is their integral and collec- action requires, and this is possible Rev. JAIME GUTIÉRREZ tive promotion, in whatever part of only with faith. Whoever decides VILLANUEVA the world they may be. to engage in this promotional ac- a deaf priest, And to succeed we must be able tion will encounter many difficul- the Parish of St. Mary of Silence, to rely specifically on non-hearing ties and few rewards. It follows Madrid, Spain. people. We deaf people must be the from this that to go forward our en- protagonists and the first people re- ergy must be much more powerful DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 39

SANDER BLONDEEL 3.5 An artist

Sander Blondeel is a stained guage skills. He assimilated there vate houses on three continents. glass artist, born deaf to a family of quite well and gained a sense of in- The subject of each window is dif- people with hearing, from Ghent dependence. At the school and his ferent, with input from the client, (Belgium). He grew up in a world father’s atelier, Sander Blondeel of course. The decoration of a of silence and beauty. A native of met and had contacts with many of church building in former days Ghent, Belgium, he was born the the Catholic brothers and priests, would be used to teach the illiter- moment the International World because these persons were clients ate the stories from the Bible and Exposition of 1958 in Brussels of his father, his teachers and also lives of the saints. Thus Sander opened. The son of a stained glass his scout leaders. Blondeel was asked to design five artist, Sander Blondeel started Later Sander Blondeel attended windows for the St. Francis of As- helping out in his father’s atelier hearing schools in his native Bel- sisi Deaf Catholic Church, in Lan- when he was four and completed gium and earned two master’s de- dover Hills, MD. in the United his first piece of stained glass at grees from the Royal Academy of States. The subjects of these win- the age of eight. Born deaf into a Fine Arts in Ghent (one in painting dows, using sign language, are in hearing family, he has three broth- and one in the restoration of art ob- attitudes which represent faith and ers. Two of his brothers are hear- jects). He followed that up with love. Also in Flanders, Sander ing and one is deaf and has serious two and one-half years of indepen- Blondeel created figurative (non- mental problems. dent study In the US at the classical style) windows, the one At the Catholic school for the Rochester Institute of Technology more contemporary than the other. Deaf of the Brothers of Charity, Institute of Technology and Gal- the brothers taught him all that a laudet University, and now main- Mr. SANDER BLONDEEL healthy boy of his age and intelli- tains his studio in Ghent. Stained-glass window artist, gence needed to know, including Most of Sander Blondeel’s com- born deaf to a family of people mathematics and reading. He missioned works are done in the with hearing, learned lip-reading and speech, traditional style; these adorn Ghent, Belgium and acquired considerable lan- churches, public buildings and pri- 40 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

JENNIFER NG PAIK YENG 3.6 The Challenges of Deaf Catholics in the Life of the Church

I serve in a deaf ministry with for greater development of deaf this perspective, they stay away the name REACH, a parish group Catholics and the Church. from deaf people. in the Church of St. Francis The clergy is not exposed to the Staying away from the deaf Xavier, the only parish to engage needs of deaf people. Many are un- causes interpreters’ skills to flag or in a deaf ministry out of thirty- comfortable or unable to minister stagnate. They also lack exposure three parishes in the Archdiocese to the deaf. The result is ignorance and understanding in relation to of KL. There could be above 700 and insensitivity towards the deaf deaf culture and language, and to deaf Catholics out a population of and their special needs. There is the development of the deaf. They 131,000 Catholics. We serve only not much liturgical support for the thus serve only at their conve- about twenty deaf people. deaf, especially when it is the only nience and the needs of deaf peo- Set up as a parish group, we time when deaf people are present ple are not given priority. The for- have had many setbacks. Activi- at the Eucharist. Often the deaf mation and development of deaf ties can be done within the parish and an interpreter are seen as a dis- people is being compromised be- only. People remain ignorant traction to the congregation at cause interpreters are not available. about the deaf ministry and pas- Mass or any session. Signing This rift has caused reluctance toral care for the deaf. Other deaf priests are sent far away from the among the deaf to correct or criti- people are not aware of the exis- deaf community; the priority is to cise interpreters because they are tence of the deaf ministry. There is serve the larger community. Edu- afraid they will have no interpret- no emphasis on the deaf ministry cation in pastoral care should be ing service at all. by the Church nor is pastoral sup- implemented in the seminary. Deaf ministries should be set up port given. The ministry cannot Lack of awareness about deaf under the diocese/archdiocese, cou- grow/develop. The deaf remain people and their needs affects the pled with the appointment of a full- un-empowered, marginalised, ig- recruitment of interpreters. With time pastoral worker who would nored by the Church. only a handful of interpreters, they make a greater contribution to- Emphasis on BEC does not help are heavily depended on by deaf wards holistic pastoral care for deaf minorities like the deaf because of people. Having no support from people as well as for those near to its special needs. There would be the Church for formation and de- deaf people – the clergy, caregivers, no holistic pastoral care for the velopment or upgrading of inter- interpreters and family members. deaf in BECs. The segregation of preting skills causes interpreters to the deaf into BEC drains resources. be weary of being depended on for Miss JENNIFER NG PAIK YENG Special gifted people serving the other roles. Interpreters prefer to Catechist, born with hearing deaf are hard to come by. Yet the only perform the role of the inter- but became deaf Church fails to draw their talents preter and nothing more. Having Pealing Jaya ,Malaysia. DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 41 Third Session The Family and Deaf People

MAURA BUCKLEY 1. The Family and Deaf People

Initial Remarks stitute for Deaf People and I am course, not all children did well very involved as a volunteer with with the oral method. Without sign It is a great honour to be here. the Deaf Blind community in language, their expressive and re- Thank you for inviting me. I must Dublin. ceptive language skills suffered. admit that when I was first asked Today, I would like to share my However, I was lucky. I adapted to talk to you today about ‘The experiences as a deaf child, as a well to an oral education. My Family and Deaf People, I was in- deaf parent and, more recently, as comprehension and language timidated by the idea. I wondered a deaf grandparent. I hope they skills grew. Communication with what made me qualified to speak give you an insight into how the my parents improved and I was to you today. I made a list in my Irish deaf family fits into the deaf able to understand the stories and head of my qualifications to con- community, the wider community information that they shared with vince myself. I hope it convinces and within the Church. me. Books had an important place you. I would also like to describe the in our home. My parents often I suppose I know quite a bit experiences of others to give you a bought religious books as a way to about deaf people. After all, I have clearer picture of the deaf family explain ideas to me. I could finally been a deaf person for all my life. in Ireland. Some experiences may grasp the concept of God and the On my long journey through life, I be familiar to you. Some may be stories behind Christmas and East- have experienced firsthand how uniquely Irish. I hope you find er and other Bible stories. the deaf person exists within the them useful. As you can see the role of the family. I have been the deaf child parent is crucial. We, teachers, re- of hearing parents and, for over fer to them as the primary educa- forty years, I have been a deaf The Deaf Child tors. It is the parents who deter- mother. As a child, I attended a mine how their child will develop. school for the deaf and, later, went As I mentioned, both of my par- Their choice of school and method on to third level at a Catholic Uni- ents were hearing. My mother and of education shape the education versity in USA where I got a de- father had no previous exposure to of the deaf child. And it is the par- gree in sociology and education. deaf people and were intimidated ents who are the first people to After living in the USA for sev- by the challenge that I – their first pass on values and faith to their eral years, I returned to Dublin in child – presented. However, they children. Ireland to marry Hugh, a deaf were motivated to get what was The choices my parents made man, and to raise our family. We best for me – and that meant being for me leave me in no doubt as to had three hearing children. able to communicate with me. My their values and their faith. And In Dublin, I trained further as a mother was a school teacher and while times may have changed the teacher of the deaf at University knew education was crucial to my objective remains the same: to College Dublin and, later, I stud- success. She researched the edu- achieve what is best for the child. ied at Mater Dei theological col- cation options available to me and The choice available in Ireland lege. I have spent over thirty years discovered the oral method for ed- today is between sending the deaf as a teacher of deaf girls at St. ucating deaf children. child to a specialist school for the Mary’s School. I finished my ca- The oral method was a popular deaf or ‘mainstreaming’, where reer there as Vice Principal. Now philosophy at the time and my par- the deaf child is integrated into the retired, I fill some of my time as a ents were convinced that this was hearing classroom. board member of the Catholic In- the correct approach for me. Of The failing numbers in schools 42 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH for the deaf make obvious which adapted in a way that the child can schools yet they are seeing in- option the parents are choosing. understand. This complete ap- creased numbers of non-Catholic They are choosing to integrate proach ensures that the child gets students. Within the classroom, their children in increasing num- the full ‘classroom experience’ this means children are often bers and this is putting the futures with interaction between the child taught with children of other reli- of specialist schools for the deaf in and the teacher as well as with gions and cultures. doubt. other children. In this multi-faith environment, This policy is motivated by a The language issue is crucial teachers deal with religious educa- desire to improve communication here. For many deaf children, tion differently. Parents are viewed as the primary source of religious instruction. In the case of parents of deaf children, this pre- sents problems if they are unable to communicate effectively with the child. This leaves religious education in a ‘no man’s land’. On the one hand, the parents may have limit- ed ability to communicate their values and faith to their children. And, on the other, teachers are spending less and less time on re- ligious education. In deaf schools, we have chap- lains for the deaf who visit the school on a regular basis. They perform signed masses and in- volved the children in discussion. Children are encouraged to partic- ipate more fully in masses and between parent and child and by English is their second language. prayer services and religious festi- the desire to keep the deaf child Often, the language from the cur- vals. They may not get the same within the family. Attending a spe- riculum is beyond the child’s cur- opportunity in hearing schools. cialist school often means sending rent level of understanding. Some the child out of the local area, per- kind of translation is needed. For haps even to boarding school. The the deaf child, sign language – in The Deaf Community advantages of sending the child to our case, Irish Sign Language the same local school as its broth- (ISL) – truly opens up the child’s It was the children of the ers and sisters are obvious. mind. The child spends less time schools for the deaf who created However, the disadvantages are struggling with language and the social networks that we refer sometimes subtle. In a ‘main- more time grasping the concepts, to as the Deaf Community. In oth- stream’ school, the child may not the ideas and the message. er words, the ‘deaf community’ have full access to the teacher. It is important to stress that both began in the deaf schools. Special needs assistants (SNAs) or options have their strengths. Chil- Deaf people continue to meet resource teachers act as intermedi- dren have done very well in both after they finish school. They want aries and may not have a specific systems. It seems to me that the to maintain the sense of belong- training in handling deaf children. key difference between the two ing, the support structures and Without sign language, the child’s options revolves around the access communication developed while ability to communicate can be to language. at school. The deaf community of- limited. And while the child may When I was at school, the op- fers lifelong friendships between perform well academically, out- tions were much more limited. An people who share the same identi- side the classroom things may not oral education was imposed on all ty, culture and language. go quite as well. The child can of- children, no matter what their abil- The deaf community is different ten be isolated or lonely and, as a ities. Nowadays, the philosophy because it does not have a geo- result, the development of social has changed and the approach fo- graphical nucleus. Deaf people are skills may suffer. cuses on the individual child. This scattered throughout the hearing Within a school for the deaf, is a change for the better. community. We do not work in small class-sizes mean specialist Of course, Ireland is a much dif- large groups where we can use teachers can give the child higher ferent place from when I was a sign language. In fact, we spend levels of attention. In smaller child. It is changing fast and shift- most of our time in the hearing classes, the deaf child is encour- ing from a predominantly Catholic world, working with hearing col- aged to ask questions and to take country to embrace a variety of re- leagues. We do spend most of our part in discussions. Using sign ligious and secular perspectives. social time in the company of oth- language, the curriculum can be Most public schools are Catholic er deaf and signing friends. DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 43

We also come together for birth- integrated and sustainable manner. read stacks of books about what I day parties, anniversaries and fu- This will be no Deaf Ghetto! should do. No matter what the nerals. It is a feature of the deaf The Village Project reduces books told me, I found that, at the community that funerals have un- concerns that the deaf community end of the day, I tended to follow usually large turnouts. may be smaller in the future as a my own instincts. Sport is also a major attraction consequence of ‘mainstreaming’ Twenty years ago, I was asked for deaf people. The Irish Deaf deaf children. Offering exciting to address another conference – Sport Association (IDSA) has a facilities and an active community coincidentally, also here in Rome. number of major sporting events will encourage participation. I spoke there about the early during the year and it is not unusu- The deaf community in Ireland stages of motherhood. At that al for deaf people to travel long is thriving. There are lots of peo- time, I was still in the thick of it. distances to attend them. However ple doing great work in all parts of Two of my boys had recently be- there are no dedicated sport facili- the community. It is a community come teenagers! ties for the deaf in Ireland. that is tightly knit by the many At that conference, I spoke of Because of this, and because of friendship networks formed by its the wonderful support from my a compulsory purchase order on members. With this kind of social husband, Hugh. Together, we the site of the current Centre for structure, it is obvious that many found rearing children to be rela- the Deaf in Dublin, the Catholic deaf people then go on to marry tively straightforward. The fact Institute for Deaf People (CIDP), other deaf people. That is how I that we were both deaf did not of which I am a Board member, met my husband. seem to make being a parent any has been motivated to create a new For the past thirty years, deaf more difficult. If anything, it was Deaf Community Village in people about to get married have an exciting time to be a deaf par- Dublin. participated in a popular Pre-Mar- ent. There were lots of new and riage Course. The course is organ- fantastic gadgets for deaf parents ised by the Chaplains for the Deaf that we found very helpful. Tech- The Deaf Community Village and is conducted in sign language. nology that was brand new back Project It takes place once a year in then is, of course, widespread Dublin and deaf couples travel now. The objective of the Village from all over the country to attend. One thing we both noticed was Project is to create an environment The aim of the course is to prepare that our problems and concerns where deaf people can relax, play, the deaf couple for married life were very similar to those of our learn and worship. It will support and for raising their family within hearing neighbours. the interaction of deaf people as a the Church. We tried to include God in our community and with wider Irish everyday lives and did this by in- society. troducing our faith in the very ear- The Village Project will provide ly lives of our children with daily educational and residential facili- prayers and also providing the ties for the elderly and for deaf- children with a loving and happy blind adults and children. It will environment. also provide community, sports When I read my talk from that and social amenities – all in one conference twenty years ago, it re- location. minded me that my boys had a Representative and service or- very happy childhood. Of course, ganisations will have offices there. they were sometimes subject to By delivering integrated re- bad moods but we, as parents, sources, the Village Project is es- were happy to encourage, guide sentially about community devel- and reassure them as we went opment and the consolidation of along. We had good times and bad services. times and we experienced them It will provide a place for the together as a family. The children deaf community that encourages experienced their own special development, pride and mutual days for their First Holy Commu- support. It will be a facility where nion and Confirmation. They also ISL is the first language but in a The Deaf Parent experienced their own sad days on bilingual context with written and the death of their grandparents and oral English. At its core will be a For all parents, bringing up chil- we spoke together of how their chapel and the National Chaplain- dren is a complicated and tiring loved ones had gone to God. cy for the Deaf. business! But it is also a task that As our own children developed Of course, the Deaf Village will brings with it tremendous plea- into teenagers, the way we ‘han- be open to the local community sure, joy and sheer fun! As a moth- dled’ them had to develop too. We who will benefit from the facilities er, I was one of the few who did tried to be open with our teenage too. The plan is to employ hearing not know what I was letting my- sons. We tried to take them as they and deaf people and to operate self in for when I had children. Of were and also tried to take their within the local community in an course, I was terrified and had to worries, anxieties, fears and ideas 44 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH seriously. We tried to enjoy their to heavy metal music. When I saw with a poor understanding of the company, listen to what they said some of the music posters he hung subject. and praise their efforts. We reas- in his bedroom, I became worried. I recently heard a story about a sured them – even after their bad He laughed at my concerns that he baptism. A deaf couple were hav- patches– that they were still loved. was involved in a cult of some ing their child baptised and were We reminded ourselves that, at the kind. Of course, my worries were asked, “Why do you want to bap- end of the day, they are really only groundless. Within a few weeks, tise your child?”. They replied, ‘on loan’ and when they have he had a new favourite band and a “Because this is what we are sup- flown the nest, we would miss new favourite kind of music. I posed to do. Everyone else is do- them greatly. We tried to encour- learned quickly that if I had tried ing it.” When asked if they under- age our sons to bring their friends to ban the music that I did not ap- stood the meaning of baptism, home, even though it was hard on prove of, he would have liked it their faces went blank. They had tea, coffee and biscuits. This way, for longer! That is what teenagers absolutely no idea! They were we knew where they were and do! thrilled to have the rituals ex- with whom they were friendly. I My experiences are from some plained to them by the chaplain in feel in my heart that we, as par- years ago. Ireland has changed sign language. At last, both par- ents, did our best to lay founda- much over those twenty years. ents understood that their baby tions in them in order to build up When I was a young mother, the was becoming a member of the their own faith. Church had great social and polit- Church. ical power. Recent scandals have This story demonstrates a lack damaged the Church’s reputation. of understanding that is all too And there have been far too many common among deaf parents. It of them. also shows that there is an oppor- In 2009, the Irish Government’s tunity to provide adult education report into abuse in religious classes in religious education. Per- schools and institutions was re- haps this could constitute part of leased. It was not pleasant reading. the pastoral work within our new The scale and the severity of the Deaf Village Project. abuse have horrified the country. It is the intention that the Deaf Another government report into Church will be at centre of the clerical sex abuse in the Dublin community village. It is a well Diocese is about to be published. known fact that deaf people prefer It is expected to be equally horri- to go to Deaf Church. It is the fying and has serious implications Deaf Church that addresses the for the Church. Because of these needs of deaf people. Within the revelations, many Irish people Deaf Church, deaf people have di- have turned away from the rect contact with the signing Church. priest. There is no need for an in- In this context, I asked a number terpreter distracting the eye from of younger deaf parents about the priest and from the altar. Passing on our faith to teenagers their experiences bringing up Using ISL to adapt the liturgy and young people is even more young children in Ireland today. has improved comprehension of difficult these days. Parents face Some things never change... but the liturgy itself. Also, there is in- major concerns such as alcohol some problems are new. creased participation by the deaf and drugs. They also talk about Teenagers are embarrassed by themselves. Participating as Eu- more minor concerns such as the their parents. That is no big sur- charistic ministers, readers or in amount of time spent on the Inter- prise! They do not want to go any- the deaf choir, we are involved in net, the kind of music teenagers where with their parents. They every aspect of the Mass. listen to and the time spent on certainly do not want to go to Of course, it is not possible for nights out. Mass with their parents. In fact, all deaf families to attend Deaf Deaf parents complain, as I sus- many parents reported that their Church because deaf churches are pect hearing parents do, that their teenagers have negative views not everywhere. Therefore some teenager’s faces are always glued about religion. Yet, they also re- families have to go to their local, to an electronic box of some kind. port that their young people are in- hearing churches. This is not al- With laptops, iPods and volved in volunteer work within ways a satisfactory and inclusive widescreen televisions absorbing the community. experience. all of their leisure time, they seem Deaf parents wishing to pass on Deaf people often feel excluded to forget about the outside world. their faith face certain difficulties. when they attend a hearing For deaf parents, there is the ex- Many feel that the religious edu- church. We do not have access to tra concern that they do not know cation they received in Ireland the priest. And while many – or understand – the music that was weak. They often feel unable churches may provide a mass their children are listening to. to share their faith with their own leaflet, the deaf person is unable to One of my own sons went children. A lot of them blame oral follow the homily and any an- through a short phase of listening education. They feel it left them nouncements made during the ser- DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 45 vice. This effectively denies them care’, which is the Social Care The wedding Masses were fully access to the community aspects Agency of the Dublin Diocese, signed with Mum signing a read- of the living church. aims to contribute to the building ing at the church and Dad signing I have a recent personal story of an inclusive society. It has done a speech at the meal. Hearing which highlights this all too well. I some great work in installing a guests were very impressed by the met a neighbour and enquired af- loop system for hard of hearing in- sign language and realised that ter her husband. I was upset to to many of the churches in Dublin. sign language really helps deaf hear that he had died three weeks However, this does not help the people be included. Many said before. I was also hugely embar- profoundly deaf. Without im- how it also made the experience rassed. When I mentioned it to an- proved accessibility to their local more meaningful for them too. other neighbour, she said, “But it churches, deaf parents miss out on As I continue my journey was announced at church. You this important local support to through life, the happy times in- were there!” Then it dawned on their parenting. evitably mix with the sad. I sup- her. She forgot I had no access to Parenting is not always easy. I pose it is natural that I have expe- the announcements. Maybe the must admit that I have failed in rienced loss more frequently as announcements should be printed! some areas, like not giving my time goes by. My parents have The deaf families I spoke to say sons a chance to talk when I insist died, one of my brothers has died they have limited contact with lo- on giving my own views! When I and sadly, three years ago, my cal community churches. Because spoke to younger parents, I was youngest son died. they have no access, they feel ex- pleased to reassure them that most Ciarán was thirty-one when cluded and therefore do not both- of their concerns are common. I cancer took him away. He had er. Sometimes involvement with know it will all turn out okay in been married for only one year the local churches is unavoidable. the end! when the diagnosis came. It was a In those cases, the experience is My husband and I watched my shock. Even worse, the doctors in- not always satisfactory. children grow up with satisfac- formed him that his disease was Recently, the deaf parents of a tion. We watched as they finished terminal and that he had one year hearing child approached their lo- school and went off to college. We to live. Exactly twelve months lat- cal church. Their daughter was were so proud as they graduated er, he was gone. about to make her First Holy and began their first jobs. And we Ciarán faced his journey with Communion with her classmates were sad when they moved away courage – but, at times, he was un- in the local church. They asked for from home. certain. He and his wife reacted to an interpreter, which they could We, as deaf parents, have been the cold, clinical diagnosis by not afford. They were told that it very much involved in their lives reaching out to their families and to the Church. My son was a social worker and his thoughts, even at this difficult time, were for other people. He was anxious about his parents and asked us to help him on his diffi- cult journey. It was very important to Ciarán that his family were there to support him. When Ciarán was told his chemotherapy did not work, he visited his priest and got great comfort from their conversations. He asked the priest whom he should pray to and laughed at the advice that he should “go straight to the top”! Ciarán worked with deaf-nlind adults in Bristol, England. Through his work, he met Fr. Cyril Axelrod who travelled to Bristol when he heard of Ciarán’s illness. was not the church’s responsibility since. All of my sons are fluent That meant a lot to us. Both Ciarán to finance the interpreter. This left signers and so are their partners. and his wife spoke of the calming them frustrated and upset. It also Two of our sons have been mar- influence that visit had on them. reinforced their sense of exclusion ried. In both cases, the Chaplain Towards the end of his illness, from their local church. Who is re- for the Deaf travelled far to offici- Ciarán and his wife moved home sponsible for this access? ate at the wedding. Our sons made to Ireland. During this stage, the In some areas, the Church in sure to provide access for their Chaplains for the Deaf continued Ireland has made great efforts to parents. We certainly felt we were this wonderful support. improve accessibility. ‘Cross- at the centre of the ceremony. When Ciarán died, I felt numb. I 46 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH was angry. I found it difficult to The pain I feel from losing Cia- ily. But the interaction with the pray. I was grateful for the support rán has not lessened much but I do deaf is there. One of my grand- of the deaf community who came feel calmer. The continuous sup- children was baptised while Cia- in huge numbers to be with us. port from the Deaf Community rán was ill. The chaplain for the Ciarán’s wife was shocked at how and from the Chaplaincy for the deaf performed the rite in my many deaf people came to the fu- Deaf made things easier. On the home and through sign language. neral. I explained, “That’s the deaf other hand, we have not received My grandchildren give me great way!” much attention from our local joy and, like most grandparents, I The service was held in our lo- church since. Perhaps they feel probably spend far too much talk- cal, hearing church but our parish they lack the skills to minister to ing about them. Often in the Cen- priest welcomed Ciarán’s priest us. Or perhaps, having witnessed tre for the Deaf, the grandparents from England and the chaplains the Chaplaincy for the Deaf in ac- sit around sharing photographs for the deaf. There were several tion, they feel we are in good and boasting about our grandchil- sign language interpreters for the hands. dren’s sign language skills. mixed deaf-hearing crowd. The I am excited for the time when deaf people could follow every- their communication with me im- thing while the hearing people Deaf Grandparents proves and I can share my stories, were very moved by the experi- my values and my faith with them. ence. Of course, life goes on. I have I would like to think we suc- had many happy moments – espe- Mrs MAURA BUCKLEY B.A. ceeded as parents in sharing our cially those spent with our three H.DIP. (DEAF ED.) values with our son. I take great beautiful grandchildren. From a A deaf mother of a family, emeritus deputy headmaster comfort in knowing that he was a young age, they recognised that of the St. Mary School for the Deaf, respected and loved person. After Grandma and Grandpa are differ- sociologist, teacher of deaf people his death, his special qualities ent. They each have their own way and catechist, were recognised when a new resi- of interacting with us and have al- Dublin, Ireland dential centre for the deaf in Bris- ready begun to learn sign lan- tol was named after him. guage. They live in a hearing fam- DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 47

2. Round Table The Family and Deaf People: the Experiences of Couples

FRANCO ALBIERO, RITA STESI 2.1 The Experience of the Albiero Family

My name is Franco Albiero and Matteo in the activities of the our time. In addition to helping us I am here with my wife Tesi Rita parish together with children with in the practical things of life thanks who like me is deaf, and with my hearing has enabled us to help our to the fact that he can speak and son, Matteo, aged eleven, who can son in the faith through our behav- hear, he also acts as an interpreter hear and who is present here with iour as parents together with the for us when we find ourselves in us to bear witness as a Christian good examples which I and my situations where there are no family which has to deal with the wife Rita try to give by this route priests or catechists to celebrate difficulties that come from handi- more than through words. Despite Mass and to preach in sign lan- cap at the level of hearing. We live our disability, we can say that even guage. Unfortunately, at times in Valdagno, a small town in the though with great difficulty and having Matteo interpret for us province of Vicenza. hardship we have been able to help what is taking place in church or We took our first steps forward him to grow in faith. Certainly we what the priest is saying is seen as in the faith, we learnt our first cannot conceal the fact that it is the a distraction and an irritation by prayers thanks to our parents who words of hearing people around the intolerant people in the pews like us are deaf people but who are him and those of the group that neartous. profoundly religious. Then we re- have more influence than ours. As a couple we would like to ceived the most complete of reli- We know that it is God with His deepen our faith by taking part in gious educations thanks to our love who sustains our lives and our the preparation and refresher teachers and then, after schooling, Faith. For us, He is like oxygen courses that are organised by our thanks to the priests that we met that gives us the strength to over- parishes and dioceses. But how who enabled us to have experi- come the obstacles of life. Our can we take part in them if we do ences that strengthened us increas- faith in God needs to be nourished not have someone who can inter- ingly in our faith. and this is something that as a fam- pret for us? Unfortunately we have to leave ily we can do principally through This situation of ours and this our homes every time that we participation in Holy Mass every expression of dismay of ours is must, or we want to, take part in Sunday. During the Mass the priest common to the very large number activities connected with the faith: explains the words of God and en- of couples made up of deaf people the catechesis and pastoral care for courages us to be Christians. But that we know. By now there are deaf people and activities that are for us, who are deaf and who do very many of us who are leaving engaged in and organised specifi- not have people who are able to the Catholic Church because in the cally for we deaf people and which use sign language, the Mass on other religious sects (principally are offered in sign language, the Sunday loses value and participa- Jehovah’s Witnesses) they always language that enables us to partici- tion. We strive to do our best to find trained interpreters and joy- pate to the full. make up for this but this is some- ous religious meetings. They feel We in our local area, for exam- thing that is not always easy. more welcome and appreciated. ple, have an opportunity to take However we are rather fortunate These departures, unfortunately, part in the activities of the Teacher and we thank the Lord that we are now almost at a mass level. Sisters of St. Dorothy of Vicenza, have Matteo, our hearing son Unfortunately, we deaf people activities which are organised by whom we brought up in the have the impression that we are them for us every month. Catholic faith since an early age, somewhat neglected. Our problem The participation of our son dedicating to him a great deal of is not seen. We are still a part of the 48 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

Christian community but often we and a little support to young deaf plete their studies of this language. seem to understand that priests and people and to we married couples If they are educated during their the community are not aware of us of deaf people in particular, we ask time in seminaries, subsequently and our difficulties in belonging to that parishes and dioceses think se- we will not experience the embar- it. Certainly, the problems of blind, riously about how to help couples rassing experience of priests who lame or paralysed people is per- like us as well, couples of deaf do not allow sign language to be ceived more easily than our deaf- people, by drawing up pro- used in church. ness and receive greater attention. grammes and creating appropriate 2. Every diocese should have at This situation has made fragile initiatives. There are many of us. least one priest who attends to deaf many married couples who do not In Italy there are many of us, even people, even though not full time. know where they should go to talk though we are invisible. We would He should learn sign language about their family problems and in like not to be treated as…the chil- well and be ready to prepare young the end one should not be sur- dren of a lesser God. couples of deaf people for mar- prised if they separate and their In particular, I am thinking of riage and for when we celebrate marriage hits the rocks. how we deaf people as well, like the sacraments and especially for During one of our personal mo- hearing young people, enter into the sacrament of reconciliation. (It ments when we read the Gospel contact with the great reality of the is always difficult to find someone we read the ‘parable of the nets thrown into the sea’ (Mt 13:47-53) and we came to make certain ob- servations. This parable seeks to demonstrate the triumph of the love of a God who always requires the participation of men. The Fa- ther is the great fisherman. The nets, that is to say the Kingdom, are large and they are thrown out in order to gather every kind of person, without any distinction. The Father does not want to leave anyone at the mercy of the waves of evil and wickedness. Jesus sug- gests to his disciples that they broaden their hearts as much as possible in order to gather as many people as possible despite their limitations and their disabilities. To carry out this extraordinary gesture of mercy one has to have a large and generous heart. The Church can still do a great deal for us, as it has done in past world and with each other. We who can listen to and understand centuries in so many convent spend a great deal of time in front our confession). We know that schools organised by priests and of the computer in order to have there are religious Congregations sisters, in which we, as well, were contact, to communicate, to ex- involved in pastoral care for deaf educated. Now that there are more change news and to gain informa- people who offer specific training special schools to educate deaf tion. courses for seminarians and people and state schools no longer For this reason, I believe that the priests. give the religious education that Church as well, at a diocesan and 3. At least one church in major they once did, what is required is a parish level, must reach us through cities should be identified where a commitment suited to the times. the huge network of information priest who knows sign language But it is important to know that and communications technology. celebrates Holy Mass at a specific we deaf people as well, if we are As regards important and effec- time. given the opportunity, can give a tive work for the lives of deaf peo- 4. There should be short courses great deal to deaf people in the ple within the Church, we have a of theology, liturgy and on the name of then Church. We, too, can number of proposals to make: Bible for deaf people who are in- be evangelisers. Sign language is a 1. My proposal is to train young terested in such courses at a dioce- language that enables us to reach seminarians in seminaries in the san level. deaf people in a way parallel to problems connected with the 5. There should be a Catholic what happens with a spoken lan- world of deaf people through spe- website that deals with the topical guage. Our God of the Pentecost, cial courses. To them it would be subjects of our faith. In this web- amongst the many languages, cer- necessary to give short courses in site it should also be possible to tainly also knew sign language. sign language and to encourage follow a Holy Mass and the homi- To give help, encouragement those that display a wish to com- ly and, when this occurs, to have a DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 49 better understanding of the ques- explain and assess any initiatives men and baptise them in the name tions of those referendums that are for the benefit of the world of deaf of the Father and the Son and the related to subjects connected with people. Holy Spirit, he who had healed the morality. 8. Dioceses should have a regis- deaf and dumb man in a totally 6. It would also be important to ter for interpreters who are certi- special way, he certainly said the think about deaf people who do not fied to work in a church. It is not same thing for all of us, the deaf now sign language, of those who possible for a person who is not a people spread throughout the become deaf, or about adult people Catholic, who does not now the world. We believe that the task of who become afflicted by deafness. rite and the meaning of Holy our priests and our bishops, as St. For them it would be important to Mass, and who does not now the Paul said, is to work to win every- have screens where there are the history of the Bible, to interpret for one to Christ, and thus to us as well answers required during Holy us into sign language in an exact should be preached the gospel of Mass and subtitles for the sermons. way what takes place in church or Jesus, who made the deaf hear and 7. We would like special atten- what is preached. the dumb speak. tion to be paid to deaf people in the planning of parish pastoral care. When Jesus said to his Apostles Mr. FRANCO ALBIERO, We believe that it is advisable to that they should go out into the Mrs. RITA STESI, have the presence of one of us to world, preach the Gospel to all Italy

LUCA LAMANO, CHIARA SIRONI 2.2 The Experience of the Lamano Family

Good morning. I would like to every Sunday my father took me to anger and this anger hindered me introduce myself. My name is Lu- Holy Mass and even though I did from listening. Often Chiara asked ca, I am twenty-seven years old not understand anything he taught me to try to go to the initial catech- and I am a deaf person, the son of me the importance of being there eses of this itinerary but I refused deaf parents. I have been married and receiving the Eucharist. until the evening when Chiara for three years to Chiara who is a We read the handout with the asked me how we were going to hearing person from a hearing Sunday readings but we missed bring up our children if she was family, and we have two children: the whole of the meaning of the close to the Church and I was dis- Rachele, aged two, and Samuele, liturgy and above of all the homily. tant to it. aged one, and a third child is on the The fact that I did not under- This sentence of hers reanimat- way. Our children are hearing chil- stand anything generated in me a ed in me that seed of faith that had dren. rejection to which I gave full ex- been sown within me. Now Chiara I met Chiara at a sign language pression during my adolescence, and I are walking together along course. She was taking a degree in attractedasIwasbyhavingagood this itinerary; my wife and I today logopaedia and wanted to spe- time and making new friends, a re- are one body, she is my hearing cialise in the education of deaf jection that became a refusal of the and my voice and in our communi- children and I was her teacher of Church and everything connected ty my brethren in the faith are Italian sign language (LIS). with it. steadily learning to communicate I am truly happy that this confer- And then I met my wife…she with me: with a great deal of diffi- ence which deals with the problem comes from a Christian family that culty but also with a great deal of of the reality of deaf people in the is very close to the Church. The patience and charity. Every day we Church has been organised be- whole of her family, her parents feel that the Spirit gives the gift of cause I hope that this will be an in- and her four siblings, followed an languages… strument that will make evident itinerary of Christian formation in- This Christian journey has be- the difficulties that we deaf people volving the rediscovery of baptism come essential in my life and my have in feeling a part of this body during their neo-catechumenal married and family life. Chiara and as a consequence in having an journey. and I come from two different cul- encounter with the Father. During the period of our en- tures, from mentalities and up- I received a Catholic upbringing gagement she insisted that I drew bringings that are different. In it- from my family to the extent that closer to the Church but my rejec- self social life between a deaf per- this was possible for my parents: tion of it had by now become son and a hearing person is already 50 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH difficult, but it is not impossible. we would never be able to per- us, of missing it. I cannot be a full However, it is a constant clash. form, and also in our Christian participant in the pastoral activities Keeping a marriage solid is a fight marriage which every day in- of the parish because I always every day against all those tempta- volves giving our lives to each oth- need the figure of Chiara, and hith- tions that the Devil offers to de- er, amidst the fights, the humilia- erto I have not encountered pas- stroy what is holy in Christian tions and the frustrations. toral realities for deaf people, for marriage. The Devil always tempts Our children learn from little young deaf people and for families us about the impossibility of this signs that life and what has been of deaf people in any of the parish- marriage, the difficulties of my given to us comes from God; our es outside the old colleges and in- wife in being a support where I child aged one sits on his high stitutes for the deaf. In this I would cannot go, about our children and stool at table and looks at us. He exhort the Church…we are limbs the difficulties that we experience puts his hands together to remind of the same body; certainly we every day in bringing them up. us to bless God the Father for the could never be the ears of this The Church is doing a great deal food; the oldest often and willing- body because we are defective, but to help us to be open to life and to ly pretends that he is at Mass and we could be the eyes, or the hands, accept the children that God decid- prays…jokes but they are a sign and we would like to feel that we ed to give us, fighting against the that the seed has been sown in are truly a part of it; we would like temptations of economic precari- them… to feel that we are flesh of the ousness, of weakness, and of phys- However all of this is always ac- Church that comes to us and loves ical tiredness. companied by the difficulties that I us as we are in our physical and The Church is educating us in experience in being able to be a spiritual weaknesses. the faith, entrusting us to God, and part of this Church…I rely on my in the transmission of the faith to wife and if for certain reasons she Mr. LUCA LAMANO, our children, a task that is very dif- cannot be present with me at the Mrs. CHIARA SIRONI, ficult for us and which on our own Eucharist we run the risk, both of Italy

ALESSANDRO COMAZZETTO, MANOLA SCIMIONATO 2.3 The Experience of the Comazzetto Family

In our experience as parents, one questions are, of those like our- faith is truly difficult. To manage of the very first rocky shallows selves who have deaf children, to follow Holy Mass on Sundays, that we encountered – something which have to be faced up to in the for example, is already complicat- that probably happens with many space of a week, with the many ed for any family with young chil- other so-called ‘normal’ families – other commitments connected dren. One can well imagine what it was that of having to harmonise with therapies of rehabilitation of a is like for families who have deaf the many requirements of family logopaedic kind or of a kind based children, to whom no kind of oral life with being Catholics. on mind/movement problems, information arrives and who for Through the sacrament of mar- constant medical visits for tests or this reason are especially difficult riage, in fact, we took on the com- controls, infinite and exhausting to keep amused given that they are mitment of bringing up our chil- bureaucratic procedures for the not involved in what goes on dren responsibly and with love and recognition of health-care services around them. For parents such as to bring them up according to the and rights which should instead be ourselves it thus becomes very tir- law of Christ and his Church,but automatically guaranteed, at the ing to make them behave in a suit- what at the level of intentions same time managing to reconcile able way that does not disturb the should take the form of a priority everything with the usual organi- sensitivity of those who are at ends up, instead, by giving way to sation of a family, running the prayer during the celebration, and other needs that are more im- home, and employment activity sometimes it is even embarrassing pelling. that is indispensable to their main- when an irritated faithful looks If, indeed, it is already very tenance. askance at one of your children. onerous for many families today to In this scenario, where one also In addition, a strong emotional survive with the rhythms of mod- loses track of passing time and and psychological impact weighs ern life, you can but only faintly resting becomes almost an option- upon the equilibriums of couples imagine what the problems and al, observance of commitment to who have to face up to a complete- DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 51 ly unknown reality such as deaf- she, too, is deaf, but I manage to of their catechesis as a traumatic ness: knowing about its various as- communicate better with her event when only a half of what pects, breaking down the preju- thanks to the attainment of a high- was taught to them was compre- dices that exist, and adapting to the er linguistic competence in sign hensible. new rules of communication and language on my part. Fortunately, in this sense, the of education as regards one’s own The Catholic upbringing of group of the class of my older children. Raul, our first deaf child, was post- daughter, Virginia, who is a hear- Not being supported in any way, poned, despite our wishes, for this ing a child but belongs to the same not even from a spiritual point of reason until catechesis. Having school as Raul (a group made up view, couples run the risk of ‘ex- reached this point, in fact, the real- of various children, both hearing ploding’ under the pressure of the ity that we have before us has not and deaf), had already begun, the numerous responsibilities that are been one of the most encouraging previous year, a course of integrat- connected with the daily decisions given that in Rome there are few ed catechism to prepare children thathavetobemadeasregards places with a specialisation in cat- for their first communion specifi- their children: a hearing aid or a cochlear implant, bilingualism or oralism, educational and rehabili- tation methods, etc. etc. We have been lucky because we have kept our faith and our union in the face of this crisis which emerged not once but twice for both our deaf children and for var- ious reasons. But near to us many other families have, sadly, broken down. And yet we, as well, have to ad- dress the consequences of an im- portant decision – that of having introduced into the education of our children Italian sign language. This decision, indeed, on the one hand has loaded us with another commitment, that of attending a specific course to learn Italian sign language; on the other, it has di- rected us – as regards compulsory school – towards a specialised in- stitute which is very far away from our home and which has distanced us from our local environment, in- cluding our parish, forcing us to move constantly. It is no accident that going to our parish has become increasingly echesis for deaf people and any- cally in the church next to the chil- difficult and it has not been possi- way the trips and the distances dren’s school (the parish of St. ble to entrust ourselves to our would further aggravate the over- Joseph’s in Via Nomentana). This parish priest to request spiritual all burden of our family if we al- course – which was created thanks support for our family in the sense lowed Raul to attend the course. In to an initiative launched by a num- that we have not asked for this, but addition, just as in our decision ber of parents and the support of at the same time it has not even about schooling we preferred to the parish priest – was made possi- been offered. place our child in a bilingual con- ble in concrete terms because of In addition, we have not been text (Italian/sign language) with a the involvement of a deaf sign lan- able to give our first child a basic view to achieving integration be- guage catechist who helped the Catholic upbringing in the sense tween deaf and hearing children, at hearing catechist. that at that time the linguistic level the same time we would have pre- It would be interesting at this in- that we achieved in the LIS cours- ferred not to have isolated Raul ternational conference to be able to es were not sufficient to transmit from Catholic teaching. We were hear about the experience of this very abstract contents and before worried about leaving our deaf catechist herself as well, and of the our meeting with Padre Savino, child alone in an parish catechesis parish priest concerned, both of last year, we did not have any course attended only by hearing whom had to be open to this inno- knowledge of sign language. The children given the accounts of cer- vation, in order to understand the situation with Aurora is very dif- tain deaf adult friends of ours who difficulties that they encountered in ferent. She is my third child and still today remember the moment launching this project. Unfortu- 52 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH nately, they have not been able to echist, Daniela, who never stops nities existed and I wonder how come. I can, however, relate the thanking me. many adults today have been left testimony of a mother, a dear friend This year in the group of my son by the wayside. of mine, who is also the mother of Raul we have placed, in addition to I beseech with all my heart the a deaf child – Federico – who as the two deaf children of his class, also Church to remedy as soon as pos- promoter of this initiative told me two foreign deaf children aged sible the important failing which about the distrust and the fears that twelve and fourteen respectively. for many years has existed as re- she encountered when expounding Like the girl referred to above, gards deaf people and their fami- her project and the forms of resis- they have no instrument for com- lies by providing suitable training tance that she had to overcome. munication except sign language. to pastors of souls, actively involv- Whatever the case, the project These have clearly been victo- ing deaf people in the catechesis began, albeit with some difficul- ries but there is still a great deal of and in Catholic life, and support- ties, but the result was so encour- road ahead of us. Despite the good ing families on this difficult jour- aging that when it was proposed will of the catechists, there is no ney. The subject of deafness and for the class to which my child be- basic training about deafness that the various methods of communi- longs both the catechist and the could give them those instruments cation, including sign language, parish priest were enthusiastic that are suitable to addressing this must be well known about for this about proceeding with this innova- pathway. support to be concrete. With a tive experiment and wanted to in- Fortunately we have brought small amount of commitment this volve other catechists. with us into this adventure two is possible for everyone because, In addition, as I work as a com- communication assistants and two to finish with the words of the fa- munication assistant at the same deaf educators as well, my work mous English neurologist and school, but at its secondary level, I colleagues and dear friends. They writer Oliver Sachs, this is a jour- also pointed out this initiative to are indispensable as regards real ney which can make what was pre- the Catholic mother of an eleven- and concerted integration and viously familiar, strange, and what year-old deaf girl who had not they are worthy of praise. was previously strange, familiar, even received the sacrament of In the light of what we are to everyone. baptism. This girl was placed in achieving, my concerns today re- the first group, that to which my late to all those families who, with Mr. ALESSANDRO first daughter also belongs, and I less spirit of initiative, have re- COMAZZETTO, personally accompanied her along mained isolated, not knowing Mrs. MANOLA SCIMIONATO, this pathway at the side of the cat- whether for their children opportu- Italy DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 53

JOSÉ GUILLERMO GUTIÉRREZ FERNÁNDEZ 3. The Family and Deaf People: Reflections and Proposals

Greeting and Introduction these facts alone makes us become velopment of each of its members aware of the need to address the and as Mrs Buckley has pointed I would like to begin by congrat- pastoral challenge of integral care out the families of deaf people are ulating first and foremost the Pon- for these people. very similar to the majority of tifical Council for Health Care However from the rapid exami- families with hearing people. Workers for offering me the op- nationthatIhavebeenabletocar- However, deafness introduces portunity to speak at this interna- ry out in relation to this subject, unique circumstances and special tional conference which has and the testimonies that we have requirements that we must know placed at the centre of our atten- listened to, one can deduce that about if we want to address them tion the reality of people who have pastoral care for deaf people is properly. hearing difficulties. In particular I still at its initial stage. In our com- A broad gamut of typologies of would like to express my strong munities there is a great ignorance families with deaf members exists. gratitude for the invitation – as a about the number of people who Hearing parents with one or more member of the Pontifical Council suffer from these difficulties as deaf children; deaf parents with for the Family – that was extended well as about their specific condi- hearing children; and families to me to take part in this important tion and needs. Amongst other rea- whose members are all deaf. Each session where an analysis has been sons, as I have just observed, given of these circumstances requires engaged in of families with deaf that one is dealing with a dysfunc- pastoral care that has its own spe- people. tion that is not evident at first sight, cific characteristics. For me personally and for our one becomes aware of it only However, prior to accompany- Pontifical Council this has been an when one lives in greater proximi- ing families who receive the gift of opportunity to draw near to a real- ty to those who suffer from it. As a a diversely able child, our pastoral ity which hitherto has not been consequence, usually there is not a programmes, especially in devel- sufficiently known about and ap- sufficient number of structures and oping countries where the sub- preciated. I believe that there is a pastoral workers who can take sidiary action of the Church in this still a great deal to be done in the care of these people in line with field could be more necessary, sphere of family pastoral care for their specific needs. I would ven- should provide information that deaf people. You are those who ture to say that this international helps parents to prevent deafness. have the experience: we wish to conference will foster a growing We know that in many cases the gather it up and disseminate it so awareness on the part of the hearing deficit could have been as to be able to offer certain guide- Church which, I very much hope, avoided with suitable treatment lines that are the outcome of joint will be translated into effective ac- and measures, as long, that is, as work. I will now try to share with tions for joint work which will the necessary resources were actu- you some reflections and propos- overcome the temptation of pater- ally available. On the one hand this als on the basis of the testimonies nalism. is a matter of working for a culture that we have listened to. In this sense I believe that one of of prevention, and, on the other, the first challenges to be addressed we are dealing with the challenge lies in ensuring that our communi- of calling on the various social ac- The Challenge of Pastoral Care ties are welcoming and open to all tors in this field to achieve a better for Deaf People people, and in concrete terms to distribution of resources in the those who have hearing difficul- health-care and educational According to the statistics that ties. sphere. have been presented during the The Christian community course of this meeting, the number should be enabled to accompany of people who live with hearing The Challenge of the Pastoral those families which find them- difficulties reaches the figure of Accompanying of the Families selves faced with the arrival of a 278 million, 59 million of whom of Deaf People child who will require specific are afflicted by total deafness, and forms of care and treatment (‘spe- it is calculated that 1,300,000 deaf Every person is born and devel- cial specific needs’). The arrival of people are members of the ops within a family. The family a deaf child is usually accompa- Catholic Church. Considering plays a fundamental role in the de- nied by a feeling of frustration, 54 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH guilt and loneliness on the part of or meeting requests for excessive the initiatives present in many the parents. Hence a first message special attention. As I have already places that involve communities of of the community should be that of observed, the integration of these deaf people which should be en- making them feel that ‘they are not brothers and sisters and their fami- couraged and accompanied so that alone’. lies into the communities also in- they are able to offer support ser- In addition, however, as is well volves great enrichment for the vices to families. known, there are dysfunctional re- communities themselves and for I find especially interesting the actions which if they are not ad- people with hearing. In this way, project which Mrs Buckley want- dressed in time will involve major two possible pathways of care ed to talk to us about, namely the damage not only to a child with emerge. That of specific care and ‘Deaf Community Village’. It hearing difficulties but also to oth- that of care for needs within pro- would be advisable to encourage er members of the family or to the grammes, groups and services that this kind of structure so as to be whole family unit. are offered to all people and their able offer integral care to these Normally, families tend to reor- families. The pathway to be fol- people on the basis of their specif- ganise themselves in the search for lowed in each case depends on the ic needs; it should as its character- equilibrium. In this way one runs circumstances and the capacities istic hold up the prospect of open- the risk of falling into the tempta- both of the families and of the ness and integration. In the same tion of reorganising the group communities, always bearing in way one could think of areas and around the child who has the prob- mind the criteria of subsidiarity specific programmes for the ac- lem, placing him or her at the cen- and joint responsibility. companying of couples and of par- tre of the family relationships. This Whatever the case, the testi- ents in their task of upbringing is not the healthiest thing for him monies that we have listened to (schools for parents) as well as ac- or her or for the rest of the family. have allowed us to become aware tivities for families which foster One can try to reorganise the fam- of the extent to which the family is friendship and from which could ily by ignoring the deficit and fundamental for the development spring networks of solidarity and adopting an approach involving of deaf people, as for that matter it mutual support. the segregation of the member of isinthecaseofeveryoneelse.The A subject that is especially held the family who has a disability. family allows the acquisition of dear by the Pontifical Council for Another kind of dysfunctional re- those capacities, virtues, traditions the Family is that of the impulse to sponse is the reorganisation of the and values that give identity to in- evangelising subjectivity in the group which delegates the respon- dividuals and allow them to be in- family: families should not only be sibility for care for the deaf child tegrated in a positive way into so- the objects of pastoral care provid- to one of the members of the fami- ciety. The family, for example, is ed by the Church but also, and ly, normally the mother. Where the key to communicative devel- above all else, they themselves there are other children it may hap- opment and the acquisition of lan- should be active subjects in the pen that they are relegated to a pe- guage on which depend the devel- Church community and also in ripheral position and suffer a cer- opment of individuals and the civil society. The families of deaf tain abandonment; or that they are achievement of a full and au- people as well must be active sub- excessively protected by because tonomous life. Thus one should be jects. I believe that this morning an attempt is made to keep them at able to rely on certain service and we have been witnesses to this the margins of the situation. The care groups which offer their ad- subjectivity in action: families that bond of the family as a group with vice and in addition hold up strate- evangelise first and foremost the ‘half-outsider’ can undergo al- gies for action for the family and through witness to their faith lived terations. For example, the diffi- practical work instruments for the with joy in various circumstances, culties encountered in the relations family, as well as helping the fam- with education in, and the trans- with grandparents who feel unable ily in the management of its re- mission of, faith, and which, when to help their children bring up a quests. they can, work with the multiple deaf child and unable to comfort Parents need support in the dif- services of the Christian commu- them and support them, are well ficult task of bringing up their chil- nity. Families where not only par- known. dren. In contemporary circum- ents evangelise their children but These observations are only an stances they often need additional where parents are also evangelised example of how necessary it is for help in following the school per- by their children. Families that ra- the Christian community to be pre- formance of their children and in diate the Gospel to their neigh- pared to accept and accompany some cases they also need advice bours, at school, in sports associa- families who have deaf members, in choosing the most suitable tions and lastly in that entire net- through the help of certain support school for them. It would be advis- work of relationships that every groups as well. able for associations of parents family lives. It is important to make it known, with children and schools for chil- For this reason, families should as has already been observed, that dren to be placed in a condition to be accompanied and should live an although it is true that deaf people do this. intense spiritual life, an under- need specific are, they also and People with hearing difficulties, standing and continuous friend- above all else need to be integrat- as has already been observed, also ship with the Lord Jesus. Deaf ed. One should thus avoid the need to socialise with each other. people, and in order to grow spiri- temptation of forming ‘ghettoes’ In this sense of great interest are tually they need the sacraments DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 55 and especially those of reconcilia- having priests and pastoral work- urgent because deaf people are tion and the Eucharist. Although it ers who know and can communi- particularly active as regards this is not always possible for all cate through sign language. We virtual means of communication. parishes to have translation ser- have just listened to the proposal It has to be acknowledged, howev- vices during Holy Mass and spe- to train seminarians in the ques- er, that many good Catholic web cial liturgical services for the deaf, tions and issues connected with the sites exist which offer many re- and it cannot be envisaged that all world of deafness and with a sources for formation. priests will understand sign lan- knowledge of sign language. I can I would like to end my paper by guage in confession, it would ap- tell you with joy that this, without thanking the institutions, the reli- pear, as has been suggested, that in any doubt, is the road that can be gious communities and the people each diocese one could have a followed. In some seminaries op- who are involved in pastoral care priest to help in this form of pas- tional courses are already being of- for families with deaf people. We toral care. Here I can cite certain fered in sign language but also on would be very interested in learn- examples that I know about from the specific needs of deaf people. ing about positive pastoral experi- the many that certainly exist in the Allow me to share with you my ences where families have been world. In the archdiocese that I experience in this field. During the the subjects of evangelisation, in come from as well, the primate’s six years that I worked as a teacher the various fields of pre-marriage archdiocese of Mexico, there are at at the Major Seminary of the Arch- preparation, listening to the Word least two parishes where for a diocese of Mexico I was a witness of God and family prayer, support number of years specific care has to how year after year a group of for catechesis, Christian educa- been provided to deaf people. In seminarians was trained in this tion, etc. Our Pontifical Council addition, in the metropolitan field. They were always enthusias- has a project involving the identifi- cathedral, at the Holy Mass cele- tic about the progress they were cation of best pastoral practices in brated every Sunday and presided making and I believe that this order to place them in circulation over by the Archbishop, a person is training/knowledge enormously as a service for the Church com- available who translates the cele- contributed to their priestly train- munity so as to encourage the im- bration and the homily into sign ing as a whole. plementation of similar initiatives. language for non-hearing commu- Within the field of family pas- It would be wonderful if we could nicants. In part, as a result of an toral care in general, and in that of integrate the riches of the experi- initiative taken by the deaf faithful, pastoral care for families with deaf ences of families with deaf people pastoral programmes are being en- people in particular, we should into this project. acted at the level of the Bishops’ take better advantage of the re- Rev. D. JOSÉ GUILLERMO Conference and at a regional level sources that are offered to us by in- GUTIÉRREZ FERNÁNDEZ as well. formation and communications Official of the Pontifical Council As one can well see, one of the technology through internet. It for the Family, most urgent requirements is that of would appear that this is especially the Holy See. 56 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH Fourth Session Pastoral Care for Deaf People

KAZIMIERA KRAKOVIAK 1. Care by Priests in Poland for People with Damage to their Hearing Faculties: the New Areas of Special Needs

The special care provided in those who encounter barriers her mind through the development Poland to the deaf by priests has which are of such a kind as to limit of religious ideas and language. ancient origins, given that it came their own development as persons. The task that the author of this into being with the first schools1 Damage to the hearing apparatus paper has given herself is that of and developed at the same time as does not make an individual less pointing out the areas of special the educational system for such worthy and does not limit his or her needs that are correlated with the people. We are thus talking about vocation to holiness. However, it dynamic developments of civilisa- the first half of the nineteenth cen- can lead to an impoverishment of tion which influence the destiny of tury. Its principal characteristics, the contents of the faith that he or people affected by hearing disabil- from the point of view of the forms she has received, given that there ity thereby offering new possibili- of activities of priests, were, first of are physical limits in the process of ties of growth but at the same time all, a close connection with cate- understanding Holy Scripture and creating new risks. At the base of chistic work and the teaching of re- oral forms of religious worship. these reflections there are the ob- ligion in special schools, and, sub- The fundamental assumption of servations and the analyses made sequently, care for the contexts in my analysis is the thesis according by the author over the last thirty which deaf and dumb people who to which the support given to en- years with pupils, students and for- communicated through sign lan- sure the development of a person mer alumni from various kinds of guage met. The tradition of this affected by hearing problems lies schools that are specialised in the pastoral service, the activity of in- primarily in overcoming the barri- education of individuals affected dividual priests, their self-denial, ers that limit that person’s ability to by hearing problems, as well as her their worth and methodical experi- communicate and to transmit the personal experience which has ence, require an in-depth examina- meaning and the value of what is arisen because of daily contact tion from a historical point of view said orally. The support given to with her own deaf children and and knowledge in this field de- his or her religious development their friends. serves to be transmitted to subse- lies, among other things, in facili- The specialist care that was tra- quent generations. However, the tating access to the linguistic di- ditionally provided by priests to elements that have just been cited mension of the message connected deaf and dumb people, which de- will not be the subject of my analy- with the truth of faith and in allow- veloped in the presence of an or- sis in this paper. The objective pur- ing complete participation in the ganisation of education that tended pose of this conference is to illus- sacramental and devotional life of to isolate them and was based upon trate contemporary needs in the the Church. The special character adaptation of the system of com- field of care by priests for people of priestly service to an individual munication to their requirements with hearing problems from the who has damage to his or her hear- and needs, had a rather uniform point of view of special Catholic ing apparatus derives from the character from the point of view of pedagogic and logopaedia, which need to adapt forms of communi- method, given that the pupils and are characterised by a concern to cation to his or her sensorial limits the former alumni of special achieve the integral education of and to prevent a poverty of his or schools were a group of people DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 57 characterised by a similarity as re- the establishment of the tasks of he or she does not have access to gards their mental resources and priests and the search for forms of the acoustic dimension of letters above all in terms of linguistic abil- support for the religious develop- and thus cannot develop a mental ities and the capacity to communi- ment of people who are affected by procedure for the phonemic codifi- cate. When hearing aids did not ex- hearing problems. The aim of this cation (through vowels and conso- ist, all those who were not able to paper, therefore, is to engage in an nants) of meanings. For this reason, hear vocal sounds from birth or attempt to recognise these princi- his or her mind cannot sponta- early childhood lived as deaf and pal needs and to transform them in- neously develop a phonic language dumb people. This situation ap- to a list of questions on which the- which is made up of a system of plied both to those who had very ologians, and particular specialists signs with a dual structure made up serious damage to their hearing in the field of the theology of pas- of phonemes and morphemes. His systems and to those individuals toral care, should reflect. These or her phonation organs are predis- who had significant damage, as questions will be presented at the posed to speech but the limited well as to those who had only mod- end of a brief description of the sit- working of the hearing system ob- erate problems with their hearing. uation of individuals who suffer structs control of its correctness Those few of them who managed from damage to their hearing sys- and its sound. Such a boy or girl to acquire the ability to use their tems in their family environments runs the risk, therefore, of a painful own voices most of the time had a and within society, as well as in re- form of distancing and a loss of form of speech which outsiders lation to the characteristics of the roots; exclusion from the society in were not able to understand be- changes which have taken place in which he or she came into the cause they could not control their this situation at the beginning of world and the inability to accede to own pronunciation through their the twenty-first century.2 its cultural and religious values be- own hearing. For this reason, both cause of an insufficient level of the individuals who were able to communication with people who speak and those who did not have 1. People with Damage have normal hearing. The danger is this capacity usually remained in to their Hearing Systems even graver if we consider the fact the same environment, maintain- Amongst People that the inability to codify mean- ing a contact which assured that who have Normal Hearing ings from a phonemic point of view they felt that they belonged to a provokes difficulty in reading and community. Deaf people who were The pre-condition for the inte- writing, blocking the process of outside this group were con- gral development of an individual learning through written texts. In demned to social isolation and of- is to have good relationships with managing to recognise letters, a ten to spiritual deterioration. other people. The best relation- child learns to read and afterwards The principal characteristic of ships, which are based upon mutual to write single words; however he the present situation of deaf people love and are rich from the point of or she does not learn to combine in Poland is the dynamic character view of contents, develop within them correctly into authentic sen- the family, in a context in which all tences because, as he or she cannot people communicate using a com- identify the grammatical mor- mon language. In addition to air phemes, he or she does not per- and food, all children, including ceive the rules of syntax. Alexander deaf children, need for their correct Graham Bell defined in an effica- development a language which as- cious way the difficulties of chil- sures that they can communicate dren with hearing problems as the freely with their parents and the ‘three infelicities’: ‘lack of speech, whole of the environment to which a lack of knowledge of written lan- they belong. A child is born with an guage, and a lack of progress in in- innate capacity to assimilate his or tellectual development because of her mother tongue. It is a divine gift an inability to enter into a relation- which, like life itself, we receive ship with and encounter other through our parents. The drama of minds’.3 The causes of all these dif- hearing parents who have a new ficulties is the absence of a lan- born child with problems at the lev- guage in the mind of an individual el of his or her hearing system lies who is affected by deafness, a prob- in the inability to transmit to that lem linked to that problem which, of the changes that are underway child the gift of language in a natur- in the field of logopaedia, we de- which have never been so intense al and spontaneous way without the fine as the phonemic barrier4 or as they are now and by the differ- need for special forms of care. The aphonemia/dysphonemia.5 The entiation of the individual condi- child’s brain, to tell the truth, has an damage to hearing does not reduce tions of individuals. The existence innate ability to recognise the simi- the intellectual potential of the of these differences has led to the larities and differences of the child but the reduced quantity of emergence of new contexts of spe- sounds of human speech, as well as contacts with other people can cial needs in the field of the activi- to categorise perceptions. Howev- mean that these qualities do not ty of priests and should be taken in- er, because of the damage that af- come out during the development to consideration at the moment of flicts that child’s hearing system, of the individual. 58 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

Parents, therefore, find them- apply.9 At the same time they have tors that belong to the first group selves faced with a fundamental to reflect upon the possibility of concern above all else the early di- problem: what should be done to acting in an alternative way: is it agnosis of children with damage to enable the child to learn a language more advisable to help the child in their hearing organ (something that so that he or she can live and de- the search for a special social envi- is already carried out with new velop within his or her own family ronment in which are used gestures born children), the implant of aids and amongst the people that love that are accessible to the eyes and and medical treatment provided to him or her? What should be done without phonemes? If the parents children, as well as language thera- to impede the exclusion of the decide upon sign language then py and education during all the child from the family community? other questions arise: which kind stages of a person’s life. Over the How can one strengthen and devel- of code of gestures or which vari- last twenty years, in Poland as for op the mental tie with the child? ant of this language is it advisable that matter in many other coun- Specialists, therefore, have a task to choose? Is a union of this kind of tries, care for children with hearing that is connected with the problems communication with spoken lan- problems has advanced; the results that the parents have to address: guage, reading, and writing possi- of the implantation of a hearing they must help them to choose the ble? If it is, then when and how aid, of rehabilitation and formation system for the learning of lan- should one act? Subsequently, the have achieved a much higher level, guage that is most suited to the de- most important question of all has velopment of the child and they to be posed: can hearing parents, in must be assured support so they learning sign language (most of the can follow the pathway that has time insufficiently), ‘speak the lan- been chosen with perseverance. guage of their hearts’ and bring up In the always living tradition of their child in the culture and the re- pedagogic thought, there are vari- ligion of their family? ous approaches to the problem of The choices that are made by the the linguistic functioning of the parents depend in large measure deaf. Amongst these, it is possible upon external factors and, first of to distinguish various philosophi- all, upon the support and help that cal-pedagogic currents and various they receive from specialists and methods of action.6 From a linguis- the social environment in which tic and logopaedic point of view, the family itself lives. In recent two fundamental procedures are decades, the situation of family visible, namely: units that raise children with hear- a) The logopaedic procedure, ing problems has experienced a dy- which is based upon communica- namic development. In this con- tion in a phonic language and upon text, it is worthwhile reflecting on the creation of linguistic, commu- what kind of support and help a thereby increasing the hopes of nicative and cultural competence7 priest attentive to the spiritual de- parents and young people. After using methods for the education of velopment of the child and his or these changes, an increasing num- hearing and the development of a her family should offer to the par- ber of people with hearing prob- phonemic perception of spoken ents. lems, having such aids from early language through which a deaf per- childhood and taking advantage of son learns to speak, read and write. the techniques of rehabilitation, b) The procedure based upon 2. Changes in the Situation profitably attend support schools communication by signs, within of People with Hearing and normal schools together with the framework of which gestures, Problems in Poland hearing children and then go on to mime and visual perception are study at university (something that used. This kind of approach in- The factors of change can be di- was still rare at the end of the twen- volves the need to place the child vided into two groups. The first of tieth century).10 The number of within a community of people these is connected with the devel- people who have attained this goal which, thanks to this method, has opment of medical sciences, to is, however, still unsatisfactory. managed to obtain a high commu- progress in the field of the technol- However, there is an increasing nicative ability and to transmit its ogy for the production of hearing number of deaf children who, de- rich inheritance of knowledge.8 aids, and to the new possibilities of spite serous linguistic deficits and rehabilitation as regards hearing deficits at the level of general cul- The parents of children with and speech. The second group of ture, wish to follow an educational hearing problems must answer dif- factors consists of the new currents pathway of the highest possible ficult questions. First of all, indeed, of thought, of political-social levels. This requires great effort, they must decide on whether they movements, and of trends in cus- discipline and concentration di- should teach their child the lan- toms which have changed the atti- rected towards personal develop- guage of the community of people tude of society towards excluded ment. In addition, in these cases with normal hearing by using spe- people and various minorities who great help and support is required cial methods; and secondly they have so far been marginalised. from the family and school envi- must decide upon which system to The changes provoked by fac- ronment. DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 59

The increasingly important success achieved by medical sci- and develop. Those who have not goals achieved by young people ence and logopaedia, in the pres- limited themselves to learning the whose hearing organ has been ence of particularly grave damage phonic language of their own damaged lead us to believe that in to a person’s hearing system it is country and speak foreign lan- the presence of suitably organised not possible to eliminate the diffi- guages also need special condi- educational assistance they can be culties and the disturbances that tions to facilitate communication assured the natural learning of a obstruct linguistic communication. with people with normal hearing. language that is almost equal to One can only reduce them. In some This help should involve above all that of their hearing contempo- cases the result is more satisfacto- else a significant and aware simpli- raries. It is clear that for this to be ry; in others, less so. Electronic fication of the form of communica- possible the three pre-conditions hearing aids, both in the case of tion and special attention being listed below must be met: aids that increase the sound stimuli paid to mutual understanding. a) To have access to the linguis- and n the case of cochlear implants A further difficulty lies in the fact tic meaning of the sounds of (which transform sound waves into that the needs of individuals are not speech, a child must acquire the electric impulses and transmit always the same and it is not possi- ability to distinguish with precision them directly to the nervous sys- ble to meet them through the impo- all the elementary units of a sen- tem), are very useful, above all in sition of a single system of help, the tence (that is to say syllables and the control of the person’s own diffusion of a single method for mu- phonemes) within the flow of spo- speech and the learning of a lan- tual understanding or a single auxil- ken speech (in the phonic se- guage. However, they do not as- iary device (for example a sole ver- quence). sure complete access to the sound sion of sign language). There are b) To have access to the contents of spoken speech during conversa- various valid help strategies suit- of what is said and to the meaning tions held in natural languages, ably adapted to various individual attributed to the individual units of above all when many people take needs which allow a use of visual the linguistic system of society, a place. Acoustic aids have major ad- perception, of the capacity for figu- child must have continuous inter- vantages only for those people who rative thought, and of mental im- action with people who express have moderate and significant ages. These methods simplify the themselves with words in the con- damage to their hearing systems. In learning of a national language and text of daily life. the presence of profound damage, in addition improve communicative c) The interaction with individu- they allow a recognition of only a ease and quality of life. It is also als who express themselves in small percentage of phonemes, al- possible to use writing11 and the phonic language should take place lowing the user to create replace- manual alphabet. In addition, the in an atmosphere of acceptance ment ideas as regards sounds but visualisation of what is said can be and love for the child, such as to without assuring the possibility of used with the Cued speech method stimulate his or her complete cog- distinguishing syllables in the so as to facilitate the distinction of nitive, emotional and social devel- rapid flow of spoken speech. In syllables and in this way assure a opment, without obligations and these cases, induction equipment greater perception and understand- violence, establishing clear and un- and equipment for the transfer of ing of speech.12 The adoption of derstandable requirements. sounds without wires at a distance these auxiliary systems of commu- do not obtain the results that are nication requires skills, capacities The problems and the difficul- hoped for. In situations of this kind, and self-denial on the part of people ties derive from the fact that for cochlear implants are used. How- with normal hearing. What impedes many families who have children ever the experience of therapists the obtaining of effective help is a with hearing problems meeting and the numerous data from the lack of knowledge about the needs these three pre-conditions in daily specialist literature in the field in- of individuals with hearing prob- life is not something that is easy. dicate that at least 30% of children lems on the part of society, together An improvement in the level of who have had an implant of this with attitudes that generate disad- rehabilitation, however, does not kind, despite the known advan- vantages for them. One is not deal- assure for individuals with damage tages, do not manage to distinguish ing here with negative approaches to their hearing systems either their the sounds of spoken speech and or expressions of bad will, which, unlimited functioning within soci- only a small part of young patients indeed, are rather rare situations. ety or the possibility of freely join- are able to recognise them with The causes of the difficulties that ing communities and being active precision. In this situation, if the are encountered should be looked within them. At the same time, it communication is made using a for in an insufficient knowledge of does not assure the possibility of phonic language, the person with the problems of hearing and their coming to be a part of the parish hearing problems has to make a consequences, as well as the opin- community or participating in greater effort. This requires con- ions, which are simplified and Holy Mass and other forms of stant and exhausting concentration based on stereotypes, as regards the common prayer. Deaf people en- as well the performance of actions opportunities for individuals with counter many limitations and diffi- designed to compensate the hear- these pathologies. Changes in so- culties in this context. The first bar- ing insufficiency (above all lip cial relationships do not take place rier of the problems regards per- reading). Deaf people, therefore, as rapidly as those connected with ception of speech because of their require constant help from the so- the development of medical knowl- hearing impairment. Despite the cial environment in which they live edge and technology. In opinions 60 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH about individuals with hearing ety is the increasing interest in sign creation of a relatively homoge- problems and in attitudes towards language which is seen as an ex- nous system which could be used them, it is possible to observe the ceptional cultural phenomenon. by deaf Polish people with a high presence of contradictions and con- Without doubt, this situation is the educational level (Polish Sign Lan- fusion. There are still old stereo- outcome of attention being paid to guage, PJM). 14 types that amplify a distorted image everything that is unusual, acci- c) The Polish gesture-linguistic of mental handicap linked to hear- dental and mysterious, and this is a system (SJM), that is to say an arti- ing disability and, at the same time, phenomenon typical of the period ficial union drawn up for teaching the tendency is to think, with an in- between the end of the twentieth purposes of the Polish language genuous and excessive optimism, century and the beginning of the and the manual alphabet.15 that hearing aids are absolutely ef- twenty-first century. The conse- d) Mixed gesture systems, which fective. The mass media propagate quences of all of this are, however, are both linguistic and non-linguis- ideas that act to publicise hearing the appearance of a multitude of tic and are used spontaneously by aids and similar devices discovered myths about this language and the the pupils of special schools. by technology and advertise cours- spread of unfounded opinions as es of the most varied kinds of sign regards the deaf people who use it. The widespread belief that sign language, presenting each one as This superficial interest is still language is the first language of the best there is. alive and involves a distortion of people with profound damage to The greatest problems are those the image of problems typical to their hearing wrongly simplifies generated by the activity of those this group of people. Deaf people, the system. Indeed, it is assimilated political-social movements that in fact, communicate through the as a mother language only by the concentrate on the struggle for the use of various codes and not deaf children of parents with the rights and privileges of various mi- through sign language alone. Not same problem in the family in norities. The representatives of all groups of gestures can be called which there are no hearing people these movements, led by their own a language in the true sense of the (for example grandparents). Only ideology, try to attract deaf people term. 5-10% of deaf children have deaf within their orbit. The real needs of In Poland sign language is not parents. Over 90% of children who such people are of no interest to characterised by uniformity and have damage to their hearing sys- them. They see them as a social one may define it as a collection of tems are born to hearing families. group on a par with ethnic or sexu- idiolects (individual languages) The percentage of married deaf al minorities and try to obtain their and codes created by various couples with children with the electoral support by offering them groups in a process of progressive same problem is not above 25%. in exchange to fight for their rights. homologation. This process has The observations that have been This makes people with hearing not yet ended. However separate made over many years lead the fol- problems more active from a social social communities that use sign lowing theses to be formulated. point of view, stimulates their language do not exist. The gestures Sign languages are first of all the search for autonomy as a group, of this language are, instead, used result of a self-therapeutic group but nonetheless in some of them in various ways and in heteroge- process. The principal factors creates a false image of their own neous environments. The most im- which lead to their appearance are person and leads to an intensifica- portant systems of communica- the system of education based up- tion of a negative attitude towards tions by signs are the following: on segregation and its pedagogic society which – in their view – has a) Family gestures, that is to say failures. Deaf children learn sign the obligation to provide them with those groups of signs in the form of language within special schools, help and support in their process of gestures/miming that are created most of the time from each other, autonomisation, as well as to com- spontaneously within the family creating innumerable neologisms pensate the damage caused to them and small groups in which children neo-semanticisms, as well as tak- by destiny through the provision of with hearing problems from hear- ing advantage to a certain extent of special privileges. In this way not ing families are concentrated: they the abilities of their classmates only does their sense of injustice are not phonemic, they belong to a who come from hearing families. grow but also their frustration and single class and they do not form A deaf child who does not go to a their enmity towards people who sentences. special school will not create a lan- are not deaf and towards individu- b) Natural sign language, which guage (understood as a productive als who, despite their hearing prob- is also called ancient or classic sign system with two classes). Instead lems, try to achieve integration language and which is traditionally he or will create numerous signs of with hearing people. used in environments in which a his or her own which he or she will large number of deaf people are employ to communicate with his or concentrated; this is a non-phone- her near environment. 3. The Role of Signs and Gesture mic system with two classes13 Gestures and sign languages are Languages in the New which does not have its own gram- the product of human creativity Situation of the Deaf mar. It is possible to observe re- which is worthy of admiration. The gional and environmental variants observation of this fact and respect One of the manifestations of the of this language. The conscious at- for the fact that deaf people do not changes that have taken place at tention paid to this language and its require an easy system of commu- the level of the awareness of soci- unification is directed towards the nication are not, however, ele- DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 61 ments that are sufficient for us to care. A lack of attention paid to the On the one hand, in fact, progress declare that the use of this lan- adaptation of methods of commu- in the field of medical and lo- guage (and above all its exclusive nication and teaching to the indi- gopaedic care during the period of use) is optimal in the case of chil- vidual needs of various pupils, to- early infancy allows many people dren with hearing problems who gether with lessons where there is a with hearing problems to achieve a are raised in hearing families. Deaf rather uninformed use of sign lan- high level of linguistic skills and people, in fact, do not constitute an guage, provoke serious distur- ability. The result of this work, ethnic minority in the narrow bances in communication and hin- subsequently, should allow pa- sense. They are the children and der the religious development of tients to communicate freely with heirs of hearing people. They have young people. individuals with normal abilities. the right to inherit their national Reflection on the role and the The other side of the coin, howev- language and culture as well as to possibility of using gestures and er, is frustration connected with a be brought up in the religion of various choices in sign language in feeling of unease in communica- their ancestors. The fact that they catechesis, in the teaching of reli- tion. This situation strengthens the are treated as a linguistic minority gion, in priestly service and the or- attraction exercised by those envi- is first of all dangerous for them. ganisation of religious life is indis- ronments that remains connected This approach, in fact, can lead to pensable. The belief according to with the traditions of communities them being alienated and disinher- which all individuals with hearing of deaf and dumb people and sign ited, to their being deprived of their problems can be helped to under- language. We thus encounter two ties with their families and to their stand reality through sign language phenomena: access to education being made belongs to the group of false and 1. Increasingly numerous groups more difficult. Specifically for this injurious ideas connected with this of young people with hearing dam- reason, it is necessary to try to category of people. However, an age engage in an educational path- break down the barriers between incomplete knowledge of the vari- way involving secondary school, hearing people and deaf people. ants of gestures and sign languages university and even PhDs. Some of that are really used by young peo- them, therefore, come to belong to ple is a serious barrier that acts to the community of speaking indi- obstruct both actions directed to- viduals, they form a part of it, but wards education and catechesis they continue to need special help. and those connected with pastoral 2. A significant number of people service. with hearing problems, after finish- ing their educational pathway amongst people with normal abili- 4. The Question of the ties, return to the environment of Emancipation of Groups deaf people who have chosen sign of Deaf People language, distance themselves from the world of people with normal The difficulties experienced by abilities, manifest a negative atti- those who have hearing problems tude towards that world and seek to when they try to belong to the com- obtain forms of autonomy and spe- munity of people with normal abil- cial privileges for deaf people. ities is demonstrated dramatically in the strong search for autonomy The dynamism of these two ten- on the part of deaf young people. dencies is so evident as to make the Movements for the emancipation best effects of rehabilitation and of this category of people, stimu- the successes achieved by various An important consequence of lated externally, are connected with people in the use of phonic lan- the current changes is a reduction a process which indirectly has its guage appear as a stimulus to re- in the number of deaf pupils in spe- origins in the changes that have search into links with the commu- cial schools entrusted to traditional taken place in medical and lo- nity that has remained attached to care by priests. These children gopaedic care offered to children sign language and isolated from have been replaced by children and whose hearing systems are dam- speaking society. This dynamism young people with various kinds of aged. This process involves the ap- leads to a visible tension between disability and multiple disabilities pearance of two tendencies which specialists concerned with the re- (first of all movement, intellectual are typical as regards the life choic- habilitation and re-education of and behavioural handicaps, often es of young people. We may define deaf people and people who are accompanied by light or moderate them as flight from, and flight to- hard of hearing, promoting incom- damage to their hearing). In this wards, ‘the world of silence’, that prehension, concealed conflicts, case, children do not only need is to say a search for their own and above all a sense of powerless- other methods of rehabilitation and place within society in environ- ness as regards those psycho-social education but also a different ments where many people with the and socio-linguistic processes methodological approach in cate- same kind of disability are concen- which are so difficult to under- chesis and the teaching of religion, trated or within societies open to stand, from which these contrast- as well as other forms of pastoral hearing and speaking individuals. ing tendencies come. In all activity 62 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH in favour of deaf people – includ- tion. Participation in the sub-cul- a priest.17 Parents who have been ing pastoral activity – one should ture of these societies influences interviewed emphasise their need bear in mind the existence of this the development of children and to speak with priests who are able phenomenon. young people much as takes place to understand the specific character Recapitulating these reflections, with sect, leading to the appear- of the difficulties that they have to it is worthwhile to stress the het- ance of pathological phenomena. face together with their children. erogeneous character of the deaf Personalism, on the other hand, is They look for a clarification of the and the hard of hearing who do not based upon a coherent and multi- meaning of this experience in the form a uniform group of disabled ply motivated idea of the freedom light of faith, as well as for help in people and do not create, as might of human beings. Adherence to this the religious upbringing of their appear, a single community united philosophy implies the moral children. as regards the specific problems obligation to oppose illusory forms The needs of families can be di- and issues of their own condition. of simplification. vided into the three following cate- Damage to the hearing organ, in gories: fact, varies a great deal and pro- 1) The need for spiritual help for vokes different levels and types of parents who experience the trauma functional disturbance in individu- and the suffering that are connect- als who are afflicted by such dam- ed with the diagnosis of the hearing age.16 Conditions of development problem of their child (this help is during childhood change accord- needed above all in order to over- ing to individual cases, and the come negative emotions, to re-es- same may be said of the objectives, tablish spiritual balance and to ac- the methods, and the system and cept the difficult experience that the results of rehabilitation. How- has been imposed by destiny. Of- ever, there exists a dangerous ten- ten, work is recommended that is dency to generalisation in the opin- directed towards the control of a ions on this subject which all too feeling of injustice and guilt, re- often are based upon stereotypes gret, rebellion and even of hope- and the search for single solutions lessness). as regards rehabilitation, educa- 2. There is a need for prolonged tion, social assistance and other support during the period of adap- initiatives designed to provide tation to the condition of parents help. There are dangerous general- who are desperate to perform their isations in the field of the various duties towards their disabled child. currents of modern thought con- 3. There is a need for advice and cerning the pedagogy of deafness, assistance in the transmission of as well as in the anti-pedagogic 5. The Special Needs of People faith and in religious education (in ideas that are currently in fashion. who have Damage to their the case of a deaf child with a retar- These forms of thought are based Hearing Systems in the Field dation as regards development of upon various ideologies which, in of Pastoral Care speech, the religious education pro- clashing and struggling with each vided by the example of the parents other, introduce chaos into practi- In trying to recognise and classi- in not enough – a special education- cal solutions and rather than nor- fy the needs of individuals with al approach is required: facilitated malising the conditions of life of hearing problems in the field of communication, the teaching of re- those who have to address prob- pastoral care one should take into ligious language, the development lems caused by sensorial disability consideration all the aspects of of ideas, and introduction to an end up by making them worse. their lives in which the presence of aware participation in the religious Thus one must do what one can to a priest as a spiritual adviser and as- life of the family. All of this should ensure that these changes do not sistant can stimulate spiritual take place with a method that is lead to extreme ideas and actions growth and the attainment of full suited to individual conditions). that do nothing else but aggravate humanity. To begin these reflec- these pathological phenomena. tions, one has to understand the fact The second group of needs is Amongst the most dangerous the hearing handicap in children is connected with changes in the or- threats, we encounter isolation in an existential drama that concerns ganisation and the improvement of relation to society of groups that the family and which the family it- the level of formation. Formation are made up of purported linguistic self has to address. In the presence in the field of integration can in minorities. These groups, which of this situation, the actions involv- fact be seen as a special procedure are often manipulated by people ing help must be directed in the first implemented in varying social who act for their own exclusive ad- place to families and not exclusive- conditions. Thus, both catechesis vantage, are united by an illusory ly to deaf individuals. and special pastoral care should be sense of disability, of group auton- A large number of parents who adapted to the new social situation. omy and by a limitation as regards bring up children subject to this The needs derived from this postu- their ability to assess on their own form of disability manifest the late can be summarised in the fol- in a realistic way their own condi- need for contact with the figure of lowing points: DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 63

1. The need for pastoral care for his or her knowledge and his or her metod wychowania językowego)’, Audio- fonologia 2002, t. XXI, pp. 33-53. Reprinted in: individuals with hearing problems ability at the level of thought. Studia i szkice o wychowaniu dzieci z who live and study together with Thus, in order to break down this uszkodzeniami słuchu (Lublin, Wyd, KUL, people with normal abilities and barrier we must learn to speak. In 2006), pp. 135-155; ‘Antynomie poznawcze w surdopedagogice i sposoby radzenia sobie z ich above all the need to be placed learning to speak with them and in dolegliwością’ in Filozofia a pedagogika. Stu- within parish communities. adapting to their needs, we do not dia i szkice, (red. P. Dehnel i P. Gutowski. 2. The need to complete the confine ourselves to taking part in Wrocław, Wyd, Nauk, Dolnośląskiej Szkoły Wyższej Edukacji, TWP, 2005), pp. 151-170. methodology of catechesis and the their difficulties and their suffering Reprinted in: Studia i szkice o wychowaniu teaching of religion in the presence – we take part in the joy of discov- dzieci z uszkodzeniami słuchu (Lublin, Wyd, of various forms of education and ering the wealth and the greatness KUL, 2006), pp. 81-95 . 7 S. GRABIAS, ‘Mowa i jej zaburzenia’, Au- various levels of linguistic compe- of human life. Every mediated at- diofonologia 1997, t. X, pp. 9-36. tence. In particular, this apples to tempt to adapt ourselves to the con- 8 M. ŚWIDZIŃSKI, ‘Głusi uczniowie jako the method of work with children ditions of an individual with dam- uczestnicy badań nad PJM’, Audiofonologia, 2000, t. XVII, pp.67-68. Reprinted in Studia bought up an educated in a context age to their hearing, in being an act nad kompetencją językową i komunikacją of integration and that method to of solidarity towards them, opens Niesłyszacych (red. M. Świdziński, T. be adopted in the presence of chil- up new and hitherto unknown Gałkowski. Warszawa, UW, PKA, Instytut Głuchoniemych im. ks. Jakuba Falkowskiego, dren with children who have more spaces for interpersonal relation- 2003), pp. 19-29. than one disability (the traditional ships, creating new fields of devel- 9 K. KRAKOWIAK, ‘W poszukiwaniu włas- methods based upon the visualisa- opment for disabled people and for nej drogi wychowania dziecka z uszkodze- niem słuchu (próba oceny współczesnych tion through images of the contents those people who work with them. metod wychowania językowego)’, Audio- of a message and upon the use of However, to take on this task is no fonologia 2002, t. XXI, pp. 33-53. Reprinted sign language are not sufficient easy thing. This is something that in Studia i szkice o wychowaniu dzieci z uszkodzeniami słuchu (Lublin, Wyd, KUL, here). often requires a profound change 2006), pp. 135-155. 3. The need to create conditions in our attitude towards people who 10 K. KRAKOWIAK, O wsparcie studentów that favour the complete participa- are deaf and towards ourselves. It niesłyszących w społeczności akademickiej Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego tion of deaf people in the liturgy of involves abandoning our sense of (Wydawnictwo KUL, Lublin, 2003). the Holy Mass and other forms of linguistic abilities and superiority, 11 J. CIESZYŃSKA, Od słowa przeczytanego worship (this requires the use of as a well as a change in our behav- do wypowiedzianego. Droga nabywania syste- iour. In our work with deaf people mu językowego przez dzieci niesłyszące w means that are carefully chosen wieku poniemowlęcym i przedszkolnym (Wyd. and are designed to help oral com- we need able mouths and hands AP, Krakow, 2000). munication, the use of universal that are able to express love and to 12 KKRAKOWIAK, Fonogesty jako narzędzie systems for the transmission of the transmit truth. formowania języka dzieci z uszkodzonym słuchem, Komunikacja językowa i jej contents, and the openness of the zaburzenia T. 9 (Lublin, Wyd. UMCS, 1995); community of hearing people to Prof. KAZIMIERA KRAKOWIAK Studia i szkice o wychowaniu dzieci z the presence of deaf people and to The John Paul II Catholic University, uszkodzeniami słuchu (Lublin, Wyd KUL, Faculty of Social Sciences, 2006); K. Krakowiak and J. Sękowska, working together with them). Mówimy z fonogestami. Przewodnik dla rodz- 4. The need to disseminate Institute of Pedagogy, iców i przyjaciół dzieci i młodzieży z uszkod- knowledge about the needs of peo- Chair of Special Pedagogy, zonym słuchem (Warsaw, WsiP, 1996); E. Do- Lublin, Poland. magała-Zyśk (ed.), Metoda fonogestów w ple affected by hearing problems Polsce i w Stanach Zjednoczonych. Wspoma- amongst the religious and lay ganie rozwoju językowego dzieci i młodzieży z members of parish communities. uszkodzonym słuchem (Lublin, Wyd. KUL, 2009); see also: www.fonogesty.org. 13 W. Stokoe has isolated the configura- Pastoral activity with deaf peo- Notes tions of these gestures and has attributed to ple – as with pedagogic activity – them a value analogous to that of phonemes; 1 The organiser of the first school for the he has defined them as ‘cheremes’ (B. requires that predisposition of the deaf n Polsh national territory – the Institute Szczepankowski, Niesłyszący – Głusi – Głu- spirit which John Paul II called for the Deaf and Dumb of Warsaw (1817) – choniemi. Wyrównanie szans, Warsaw, WsiP, ‘imagination of mercy’. Openness was Don Jakub Falkowski (1775-1848). 1999, p. 134). 2 Given the brevity of my paper, the biblio- 14 M. ŚWIDZIŃSKI, ‘Głusi uczniowie jako to their needs enables us to under- graphical references are limited to the indis- uczestnicy badań nad PJM’, Audiofonologia, stand that hearing disability, by ob- pensable minimum. 2000, t. XVII, pp. 67-78. Reprinted in: Studia structing interpersonal communi- 3 R.O. CORNETT AND M. E. DAISEY, Czym nad kompetencją językową i komunikacją jest uszkodzenie słuchu, (w:) Metoda fono- Niesłyszacych (edited by M. Świdziński and T. cation and relationships, is not on- gestów w Stanach Zjednoczonych i w Polsce. Gałkowski, Warsaw, UW, PKA, Instytut Głu- ly a problem of individuals who Wspomaganie rozwoju językowego dzieci i choniemych im. ks. Jakuba Falkowskiego, have this handicap but also con- młodzieży z uszkodzonym słuchem (red. E. Do- 2003), pp. 19-29. magała-Zyśk. Lublin, Wyd, KUL, 2009), p. 15 B. SZCZEPANKOWSKI, op. cit. cerns every person that they enter 23. 16 See K. KRAKOWIAK, Pedagogiczna ty- into contact with. If my interlocu- 4 KKRAKOWIAK, Fonogesty jako narzędzie pologia uszkodzeń słuchu i osób nimi dotknię- tor cannot hear, I do not know how formowania języka dzieci z uszkodzonym tych,[w:]“Nie głos, ale słowo…” słuchem (Komunikacja językowa i jej Przekraczanie barier w wychowaniu osób z to speak. If my interlocutor does zaburzenia. T. 9, Lublin, Wyd,UMCS, 1995), uszkodzeniami słuchu, edited by K. not manage to attribute meanings p. 36. Krakowiak and A. Dziurda-Multan (Lublin, to words, what I say is empty and 5 B. OSTAPIUK, ‘Zaburzenia dźwiękowej re- Wyd. KUL, 2006), pp.255-288. alizacji fonemów języka polskiego – propozy- 17 A. KUCHARCZYK, Problemy rodzin without contents. If my interlocu- cja terminów i klasyfikacji’, Audiofonologia wychowujących dzieci z uszkodzeniami tor is not able to express himself or 1997, t. X, pp. 117-136. Reprinted in Logope- słuchu, doctoral thesis written under the super- herself correctly, I cannot under- dia 28, 2000. vision of the free lecturer Prof. K. Krakowiak 6 Vedi K. KRAKOWIAK, ‘W poszukiwaniu (KUL, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana stand his or her intentions, have ac- własnej drogi wychowania dziecka z uszkodze- Pawła II, Institute of Pedagogu, Chair of Spe- cess to his or her mind, or assess niem słuchu (próba oceny współczesnych cial Pedagogy, 2007). 64 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

2. Round Table Experiences of Pastoral Care

PATRICK A. KELLY 2.1 A Bishop

A bishop and our deaf sisters risen: I do not believe. He is dead. Thirdly: a bishop keeps together and brothers: a bishop and the eye Eight days later Jesus comes: he the followers of Jesus as one people. Jesus chooses a bishop stands in the middle of the Eleven: Church, one family, one Holy Spir- first, to continue the signing of the Thomas, come, see my hands, my it, one body; each one needs all the Apostles, and this is the most won- side, put your finger here, your others, all the others need me. derful sign. Jesus is risen: like the hand here. Jesus forgives him. Je- Walking with deaf sisters and apostles I rejoice and proclaim al- sus raises him up. Forgiveness: a brothers taught me: show how we ways and everywhere: “I hand on sign, to see, mercy to touch. This can all receive the signs of God, the same I received: that Christ bishop must show mercy, forgive- show how we can all with one died to take away our sins just as ness: my friends the eye people heart sing, sign, praise, adore our the Scriptures sign and that Jesus show me, see, touch, mercy, for- one Father, through our one Lord was buried and then Jesus rose on giveness for us who hear, see, who was an eye person: he saw, he the third day just as the Scriptures touch, taste, and the Church must watched, in the unity of the Holy proclaim in sign”. shine with the glory of mercy, for- Spirit, the fountain of true words, My deaf sisters and brothers giveness, resurrection. beautiful signs. who are deaf, my friends the eye And now here again in Rome, people help me because they show sisters and brothers who became me how to receive the four gospels deaf were far away, isolated from when Mathew, Mark, Luke and us. Now Pope Benedict: Benedict: John proclaim Jesus is risen: my blessed by God, blessing us, deaf friends say: receive this with strengthens us in one Church, one your eyes. family, one fellowship. This bish- Watch; see: the women come to op must today rejoice, give thanks the tomb; see, they are carrying and praise and proclaim: Jesus is oils with beautiful smells. Look: risen. We are risen. Now new life the sun has risen. Now look: the in the Holy Spirit: one fellowship big stone has been rolled away. with Mary, Madonna of silence, Look: Jesus is not here. This bish- Saint Peter and Saint Paul and all op has learnt to receive the won- the Saints. derful sign: Jesus is risen with his eyes. H.E. Msgr. PATRICK A. KELLY Next: Jesus forgave the apostles: Archbishop of Liverpool, one had said three times: I do not Great Britain. know Jesus; all deserted him, they died, they chose not to know Jesus, love Jesus, follow Jesus. But as the sun is setting Jesus comes to them with his sign: peace be with you. Jesus shows them his hands, feet, side, he forgives them, he raises them from the dead. Thomas was not there. He says: he is not DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 65

PORFERIO GALON 2.2 Go and Preach the Gospel to all Humanity, Including Deaf People

Introduction have left school but attend the ing of signed information varies mission house on Sundays. I have among the deaf people who come Porferio Galon, a deaf person also been teaching the Catholic to Mass. It is thus important that himself, works as an itinerant cat- religion to deaf children in ele- the simpler, more readily under- echist for deaf students in eight el- mentary schools in Metropolitan standable signs are used, wherev- ementary schools in Metropolitan Cebu for the past fifteen years. er possible accompanied by ap- Cebu, in the Philippines. He grad- Both these roles involve the great propriate, meaningful body lan- uated in rechnical drafting in challenge intrinsic to communi- guage in terms of movement, 1992. He is married to a deaf cating information to deaf chil- pointing, facial expression and woman and they have two chil- dren but at least I have the advan- eye contact. dren who are hearing. He is em- tage of being deaf myself and thus 3. Careful preparation by the in- ployed by the Gualandi Mission being in a good position to under- terpreter in familiarising him/her- for Deaf Persons in Cebu which is stand how they think. self with the prayers, readings and part of the work of the Congrega- As the capacity to absorb the songs is essential for effective in- tion of the Little Mission for the meaning of spoken or signed in- terpretation. Such preparation Deaf, founded by Father formation varies from child to greatly helps the interpreter to Giuseppe Gualandi in Bologna, child, I always seek to present the cope with issues such as the fast Italy, in 1872. This mission was facts and concepts in the simplest tempo of certain songs and with opened in Cebu in 1988. way so as to include all members words which are difficult to inter- of the class. For us Filipinos, Eng- pret spontaneously. Thus careful lish is a second language whose preparation assists in achieving Part One: Our Mission syntax and vocabulary are chal- concise, slow and comprehensible lenging and, thus, all the more so signing. In St. Mark’s Gospel we find for the deaf children. So I use sim- 4. It is frequently useful to omit Jesus’ words of instruction to his plification and paraphrase in order from the signed interpretation Apostles: “Go into the world and to make the religious concepts in- proper names and other words preach the gospel to every crea- teresting and understandable for which require finger-spelling, or ture.” Jesus sent the Apostles to deaf children. phrases which are not essential to continue his work of spreading These same challenges to effec- the core message to be communi- God’s message of love and salva- tive communication which I meet cated. It is better to avoid as far as tion to all people in every genera- in the classroom are also present possible pauses in the signed in- tion. in the signed interpretation during terpretation so that the deaf peo- Father Giuseppe Gualandi, who the Eucharistic celebration of the ple receive a continuous, coherent lived from 1826 to 1907, wished Mass. The following comments signed account of what is being to bring this message to deaf peo- arise from the shared experiences spoken. ple in particular. With this in view, of we deaf persons of signed inter- 5. The aim of interpreting for he founded the Congregation of pretation during the celebration of deaf people during the Mass is the Little Mission for the Deaf in the Mass. their pastoral care. Thus, at appro- Italy, which has now been extend- 1. A main challenge for the in- priate times during the homily the ed to Brazil and the Philippines, terpreter is to arrive at signs which interpreter may opt to insert some working for the education and can be expressed fluently and prayers or reflections which the evangelisation of deaf persons. clearly by the interpreter and priest has not spoken but which I work with the Little Mission which deaf people can under- may be of assistance to deaf peo- for the Deaf as a leader in the stand. Good professional compe- ple in their spiritual life. In this Apostolic Movement for the Deaf tence and adequate preparation sense pastoral interpreters are fa- (AMD) and as a catechist for deaf for each interpreting event are es- cilitators as well as standard inter- children. As an AMD leader I help sential components of successful preters. to organise prayer groups and re- interpreting. 6. We deaf people in the Philip- treats, along with other AMD 2. As has already been stated, pines often wonder why more members, for deaf children who the capacity to absorb the mean- priests cannot find time to learn 66 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH sign language and spend some parishes will become involved in bers? Where can deaf people look time with the deaf community. We the work of the Mission to Help for love and acceptance if they are often faced with the worry of the Deaf people hidden away in cannot find these values in their finding a priest to whom we can their midst, thus breaking down own family? Jesus continues to make our confession. We ask why the isolation of deaf people. say “Ephphatha”tousasa there are not courses on the needs Church, as members of his living of deaf people in seminary stud- body, so that each of us may be ies, along with some exposure to Part Two: open to welcome the deaf people sign language. We hope that with Reflection on the Words in our midst as members of the the help of God this situation may of Jesus (Mark 7:24) same body of the Lord. improve so that St. Paul’s words Jesus said that what we do for (Rom 15:21), citing Isaiah Some 2,000 years ago, Jesus the hungry, the thirsty and the sick (52:15), may bear fruit: “Those said the word “Ephphatha”, that we also do for him (Mt 25:35-36). who have never been told of him is, “Be opened”, and thus healed So we can be sure that whatever shall see, and those who have nev- the deaf-mute man of his disabili- we can do to benefit deaf people, er heard of him shall understand.” ties of hearing and speech. In our Christ will accept as being done As I reflect on these prophetic days Jesus continues to ask us all for him. He speaks the word “Eph- words I realise the importance of to be opened or in other words to phatha”tousasaciviccommuni- our work with deaf persons in open ourselves to our neighbour. ty so that we may be opened to the making Jesus’redemptory life and He continues to speak to our needs of deaf people among with teachings known to them, who hearts and minds. regard to honouring their dignity can so easily be left aside and de- He continues to say “Eph- and rights as fellow citizens. void of Christian knowledge and phatha” to deaf people so that My prayer is that Christ’s word understanding. Thus I find the may be opened to the joys and “Ephphatha” may bring healing work, whilst challenging, a great hope precious to the Christian into the lives of all, freeing us satisfaction and spiritual joy. concept of daily living in a com- from the sterility of indifference munity united in love, in particu- to the needs of others and opening Along with me, hundreds of lar the Church community. He us all to the beautiful experience deaf people are grateful to the re- continues to say “Ephphatha”to of solidarity with all, including ligious of the Congregation of the the parents and relatives of deaf our deaf brothers and sisters, in Little Mission for the Deaf, to the persons so that they may seek to the Lord’s name. May his word many benefactors in Italy and bring love and acceptance to their “Ephphatha” bring his good news elsewhere, and to the volunteers deaf family members remember- of love and salvation to our deaf with the Mission for the Deaf, for ing the old adage “Charity begins people. the educational, social and pas- at home”. How can we say we toral work which they carry out. wish to love others if we do not Mr. PORFERIO GALON We hope that more people in the start with our own family mem- Cebu City, the Philippines. DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 67

CYRIL AXELROD 2.3 My Priestly Life and Experience in Pastoral Care with Deaf People

My Dear friends in Christ, serves as a bridge of communica- perience and philosophy in devel- I am happy and honoured to tion of God’s message of love and oping pastoral care. This needs the give a paper at this conference. I hope between the Church and deaf build up of a network and the idea am Father Cyril Axelrod, a man people. of developing an idea of interna- born deaf who became blind; a Re- 2. Sign language needs recogni- tional pastoral training and the demptorist priest and an interna- tion as one of the Church’s lan- spiritual formation of pastoral care tional preaching missionary to guages. As the Church through the for deaf people based on the deaf people in the world. I engage Pope speaks eight to fifteen spo- Church, teaching, religious educa- in extensive travel in Africa, Asia, ken languages, sign language tion, spiritual formation and basic America and Europe, giving a re- needs to be added to them for the theology which could lead to treat or a preaching mission to Church to show respect and loving working together among pastoral people. In every country, I have re- support for deaf people. This will workers in the world. ceived the same statement from help them to feel that there is a 5. Canon law needs to include the deaf community which says: close relationship between the sign language as a language to be please tell the Church that you Church and themselves. used in the administration of the have learnt from us. In fact, I am 3. Vocation among deaf people sacraments and other activities. not a professor of theology or a to the priesthood or a religious Or- canon lawyer or a bishop but only der has an importance to the Jesus said… Go and tell the peo- a priest. I have one question in my Church as they serve the inclusive ple that you have learnt from ME. mind. In my position what is the community. This needs encour- Once again my question is… link between the Church and deaf agement on the part of bishops and WHAT IS THE LINK BETWEEN people in the world? the heads of religious Orders to ac- THE CHURCH AND DEAF I would like to make the five fol- cept and support them through in- PEOPLE IN THE WORLD? lowing points: ter-pastoral care with deaf people. 1. Deaf culture and sign lan- 4 Most pastoral workers in the Rev. CYRIL AXELROD guage as a part of God’s wisdom world depend on their personal ex- South Africa 68 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

NICOLE CLARK 2.4 Go and Make Disciples of all Nations...

Good afternoon everyone, I am Australian perspective, but in par- Centre. Previously the centre had so pleased to have the opportunity ticular I will share some of the been led by very capable and very to speak with all of you, how won- things that I have come to experi- good people – all of whom were derful it is for all of us to be here ence and learn myself. Largely the people that could hear, and had a together. My name is Nicole issues of leadership, access and variety of understandings of deaf Clark; I am from Sydney Australia empowerment. culture and sign language. We are and work for the Ephpheta Centre As I said I work at the Ephpheta one of the only organisations in which is the catholic centre for the Centre with a team of five people – Australia to be lead by a deaf per- deaf. a mixture of deaf and hearing peo- son. This change has had an in- My role at the Ephpheta centre ple. We have no religious on staff credible impact on our community is that of interpreter and assistant and have not had a full time chap- and our work. While we have al- to the director. My duties include lain for the deaf for some years ways had a very strong group of interpreting for our staff and our now. When people ask what we do committed Catholic deaf commu- community, and liaising with the I find the easiest way to describe nity members, over recent years archdiocese. I also work on creat- how we work is to say we are just we have become more prominent ing spiritual development opportu- like a local parish, but our parish in the deaf community and also in nities for our deaf community, like borders are the size of the three the archdiocese – I believe this to sacramental preparation with indi- dioceses we work in, a very large be because of the change in leader- viduals and groups, prayer days area; we do a lot of travelling. We ship. Deaf people and interpreters and retreats. It is important thing to provide all the sacramental ser- have become the norm around the let you know – I am not deaf, I vices that any parish would pro- offices of our archdiocese which have 100 percent of my hearing, I vide but we also have a very big has proven to be a powerful learn- was not born into the deaf commu- focus on visitation and pastoral ing curve for all involved. Now I nity but came to it as an adult. care through advocacy and inter- do not suggest that the Sydney Before I go on I am not sure how vention. We help to run the only archdiocese has become a utopia many of you are familiar with Aus- playgroup for deaf mothers in the for deaf people – we are still work- tralia. Recently WYD was held in state as well as many other social ing towards equality and access in Sydney so many people came to groups. We hold regular prayer many areas of church life but we visit and saw one of the most beau- groups and retreats as well as have made much progress in the tiful cities in the world – Sydney! weekly Mass and other sacra- last five years. The first thing to know is that we ments. At the moment we use sup- At the end of the Gospel accord- are way down the bottom of the ply priests and join parish Masses ing to Matthew, Jesus said “go and world – we are a very hot country. for our Sunday services. We rely make disciples of all nations…. Our country is huge – just a little on interpreters at every mass in our teaching them to obey everything I bit smaller that the US – but we church year. The Ephpheta Centre have commanded you”: go and do only have 22 million people living is celebrating its thirtieth anniver- as I have taught you – I think he in Australia – most people live sary this year so we have had a was speaking to each one of us! close to the edges of our country wonderful year of celebrations. Having our centre and our com- almost no one lives inland – and Last year here in Rome I was munity led from within is one of no one lives in the very centre! We lucky enough to attend the ICF’s the most powerful changes we have more than ten thousand first international conference – have made to our ministry and I beaches! there I heard many exceptional am a firm believer in the strength Because our population is very speakers and one in particular re- of self-determination and I have small – our deaf community is also sounded with me: this presentation seen the enormous effects of very small – about fifteen and a addressed the importance of self- strong leadership on our commu- half thousand signing deaf live in determination and deaf leadership nity. Who else will fight harder, Australia – and to break that down within the Catholic deaf communi- stand stronger than one who has a a little further: in the Archdiocese ty. This idea I could not agree with vested interest? Who will under- of Sydney, Parramatta and Broken more. stand better than one who has Bay, were I work, there are about About five years ago His Emi- walked the path of the people 2,000 deaf community members. nence George Cardinal Pell made around? Today I wanted to speak to you the decision to place a deaf person A natural effect of having a deaf about pastoral experience from an in directorship of the Ephpheta person in leadership was that im- DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 69 mediately the archdiocese had to of work that can be done as regards ceived a huge blessing. The bless- recognise the need for a profes- interpreters from a pastoral per- ing for all involved was a wonder- sional interpreter as a paid position spective. ful feeling of experiencing what it – another first for us! This, too, we So from years of not quite un- feels like to be God’s witnesses. So see as a huge step forward on the derstanding what the book of powerful was this experience that path of access and equality. When Leviticus is actually saying, and the community has decided to con- we think about access I believe years of fumbling over many dif- tinue this every year; just recently that we have to think about the ferent versions of the Hail Mary we decided that 2010 this will be a quality of the access, with the aim because none of them seem quite special homeless centre in Sydney. that the message received is as right, I have come to realise that This decision is about the deaf close as possible to the source we who understand the workings community empowering them- message. of the Church as regards her lan- selves to say – it is not with our Now, I was born into the Catholic Church and have been surrounded by Catholic language all my life. I hold the highest inter- preting qualification available in Australia for sign language inter- preters. I started interpreting in the Mass about seven years ago.... again: remember the Church and the language of the Church is something that I am very comfort- able and familiar with. Now I can- not tell you how shocked I was when I first started to attempt in- terpreting the Mass – I had not considered how complex the meaning of the words were that I had been rattling off for years! I think back to those early days and I wonder how clear the message was that the deaf people received... because to be honest I am not sure… Still now – after years in- terpreting the Mass – I am chal- lenged by the complexity of Catholic text and constantly check and recheck myself over my guage need to support our inter- hands out asking for help – we are choices when I interpret and go preters as part of our pastoral care. here with our hands open offering back to the same question – is the The last point I want to make is help – very empowering – and a end message the same as source? about a new project that has been community-driven movement! This has caused me to consider: if established in our community that I hope that I have been able to it is hard for a practicing Catholic has brought many more fruits that give you a glimpse of an Aus- interpreter to interpret the Mass, we ever expected. During our tralian pastoral perspective. Before imagine what it is like for an inter- Lenten Prayer Group we decided I finish today I want to thank all of preter that is not familiar with to try many different forms of you for the opportunity to share Catholic language. Sometimes the prayer – formal prayer, group my perspective; it is an honour and task can be overwhelming – St. prayer, meditation, and active a blessing to do my job. Jerome knew the importance of a prayer. With a very strong social And to revisit my earlier com- correct translation. I am relieved justice commitment we decided ments as regards interpreters, I al- that we have someone up there our prayer in action would be to so ask you to all help me in con- who understands and struggled help another community – this was gratulating and honouring all of over the perfect interpretation. In a local Catholic indigenous com- the interpreters in the room: thank my experience I have come to re- munity that owns a large property you for your efforts and your skill. alise just how critical the interpre- where traditional ceremonies are tation is to the pastoral experience held. The property is run by an el- Mrs. NICOLE CLARK of the people I serve. Ensuring that derly woman and was in disrepair. Interpreter for the Deaf/ Assistant to the beauty and eloquence of Our community went to the prop- the Director of the Ephpheta Centre, Catholic language is not lost in erty, trimmed trees, planted gar- the Catholic Ministry to the Deaf, translation is vital! But, at the dens, painted walls, cleared gutters Sydney, Australia same time, we must be sure that and over all gave the whole prop- the end message is clear and erty a huge overhaul. strong. I believe there is quite a lot After this, unexpectedly, we re- 70 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

IAN ROBERTSON 2.5 “Duc in altum:” A Model for Education in Ministry

I come to this conference today we “put out into the deep!” Over values that pertain to this educa- aware that I am present as some- the intervening years we have de- tional and pastoral issue.1 These what of an outsider. As you can veloped a graduate degree in Pas- core values are: language, ability see I am hearing, I come from a toral Ministry with the Deaf. The v. disability, education, family, and country with many resources and first of its kind in the world that community. Language involves gifts. Therefore what I claim is not seeks to provide such a degree in the importance and acceptance of from within the experience of a pastoral ministry that has sign lan- ASL as a language and as the lan- deaf person, but from within the guage (in this case American Sign guage of the deaf community here experience of one who has been language) as its first language op- in the United States. Ability v Dis- tremendously gifted and called to tion. One of the primary needs ability refers to the importance journey with the deaf community. within the Deaf Church is for the placed by those who form the deaf “Duc in altum” (Lk 5:2-6), why education of leaders within pas- community, that any discussions begin with this particular passage toral ministry, who are then able to are seen in terms of language and of Scripture? Firstly I have take up leadership roles within culture, not in terms of disability. learned that it is a metaphor for their communities. The majority of Though there are many who con- ministry within the deaf communi- the students and graduates are deaf tinue to insist that deaf people are ty. It is a call that may come after themselves. The partnership of St. disabled and in need of “fixing”, many years of seeming struggle Thomas University (Dr. Mercedes that is not the predominant reality and little gain, “put out into the Iannone), local Deaf Ministry (Dr within the deaf community. Third, deep.” It may come when some- Ian Robertson), in conjunction the immediate need for equal op- thing new seems possible in our with a team of national experts in portunity and access to education area of service and ministry, but deaf ministry has proved a suc- at all levels. The history of the deaf there are many doubts and uncer- cessful model for others to follow. community and education spans tainties: “put out into the deep.” It This degree has enabled our grad- the range of almost no education, may come at the end of a confer- uates to seek leadership roles with- to mainstreaming efforts, to use of ence when the questions arise of in their communities, possessing ASL in education. The fourth core “now what should we do?” Jesus an educational experience equiva- value is the influence of family: response and call is again “put out lent to many others engages in full deaf parents, the challenges of into the deep.” In his life and the time ministry within the Church. having hearing parents who have experience of his disciples it is at Underpinning this experience is never experienced the world of the these times that the biggest catch is what we learn from both the field deaf before, those who celebrate made! of theology and the social sci- deaf culture and those who resist It is precisely this sense of call ences. it. The fifth core value is commu- that came some fourteen years ago From within the field of social nity, with all the multiplicity of re- through those who are deaf and sciences some important insights lationships and commitments that hearing and minister with the deaf can be gleaned especially in under- the word implies.2 community in the United States. standing some core values of deaf From within the field of theolo- We have come this far, yet we see culture that enable us to determine gy one of the ways that cultural un- a real need for deaf people to re- some best practices for both the derstanding of deaf people enables ceive the same education for min- university based experience and us to both educate and minister istry that their hearing counterparts indeed for ministry within the deaf more effectively is to see deaf cul- have easy access to. Those in- community in general. In the re- ture as a way to access theology volved with the School of Theolo- search I have conducted within the from the margins. Many of the pa- gy and Ministry at St. Thomas last few years, using first a pers thus far have given us deep in- University in Miami, some of us methodology of in-depth qualita- sights into the ways in which deaf involved in ministry with the deaf tive interviews in a number of ur- people are in the world. It is a community were also to come to- ban Catholic dioceses in the Unit- world that is predominately hear- gether and “put out into the deep.” ed States, and secondly a review of ing and therefore different and at Many told us it would not be pos- literature in a number of fields, I times experienced by those who sible, there were many obstacles… have been able to identify five core are deaf as somewhat hostile or at DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 71

best uninformed. The question that reception of us as ‘other,’ is medi- 3 V. ELIZONDO, Galilean Journey; The Mexican American Promise, Orbis Books: arises is how best can the deaf ated by the face of the marginal- Maryknoll, NY, 2000. community exist and thrive as a ized, especially the socio-cultural- 4 M. DIAZ, On Being Human: U.S. Hispanic minority community within the ly marginalized. Goizueta grounds and Rahnerian Perspectives, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2001 hearing world and what in reality this preferential understanding of 5 Interviews by author, 2007. is a hearing church? The deaf nar- grace, not in the marginalized and rative can stand alongside other the poor, but rather in God’s very narratives of communities and self…. To be in the image of God Bibliography: peoples who face similar chal- is to overcome the exclusion of the 4 lenges and share experiences of marginalized.” S.B. BEVANS, SVD., Models of Contextual living and worshipping as minori- The above is indeed is the very Theology. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. 2000. ty communities living within a underpinning of what we seek to M. DIAZ, On Being Human: U.S. Hispanic dominant “other” community. It do within the program at St. and Rahnerian Perspectives. Maryknoll, New has experienced the oppression of Thomas University. To provide York: Orbis Books, 2001. V. ELIZONDO, Galilean Journey: The Mexi- colonization, of misunderstanding quality theological and ministerial can American Promise. Maryknoll, New and neglect similar to many other education that takes into account York, Orbis Books, 2000. marginalized groups and peoples. the culture, language and deep the- R. GOIZUETA, Caminemos Con Jesus: Toward a Hispanic / Latino Theology of Ac- One of the best comparative ways ological experience that abides companiment. New York, Orbis Books, 1995. of understanding this is through within the deaf community. In so C. HOLLYWOOD, (ed). Eye People: A Gift to the eyes of the Hispanic communi- doing what we have seen is a mod- the Church. Proceedings of the Second Sym- posium of the International Catholic Founda- ty within the United States. Vir- el that is not only valid for the deaf tion at the Service of Deaf People, Manche- gilio Elizondo,3 a Mexican-Ameri- community but one that finds reso- ster, 1989. can priest/theologian, searches for nance within the whole Church a relationship with Christ, and an community as well. In ending I image of Christ that comes from use the words of a deaf person in within the experience of the people describing the experience of being (Mexican). What had previously church. It is such a description as been given to the Mexican com- this that continues to provide in- munity was a relationship, an im- spiration for all that we do: ‘But age that did not come from their when the priest can sign, I am so own cultural experience; it was not much more connected than going true for them. Throughout the through an interpreter. But if it’s a book Elizondo seeks ways to dis- full deaf church, like here at our cover within the culture, context, church, it’s everyone. It’s 100% language and religious expression satisfactory. You know that Jesus of the people the relationship, im- is there. Jesus is signing, the read- age and presence of Christ. One of ers are signing, the Eucharist is in- the areas that he focuses on is an side. Church, God, together… understanding of marginalization everybody is signing. I feel much W. KEY, (ed.) Eye Centered: A Study on the both for the Mexican-American more a part of the Church. The Spirituality of Deaf People with Pastoral Im- experience and also for Jesus him- communication happens here. It’s plications. Washington, DC. Sauls, 1992. 5 P. LADD, Deaf Culture, Finding It and Nur- self. He recounts that Galilee was real.” turing It, in C. J. ERTING, (ed.) Deaf Way, 2nd a place of cultural mix, Mestizaje. edition, Washington D.C.: Gallaudet Univer- It was a sign of impurity in terms Dr. IAN ROBERTSON sity Press, 1996. P. LADD, Understanding Deaf Culture: In of culture, language, and religious Penbroke Pines, Search of Deafhood, Clevedon: Multilingual expression. It was indeed distant Florida, USA Matters, 2003. from Jerusalem, the dominant H. LANE, A Journey into Deaf-World San Diego: Dawn Sign Press, 1996. force in these areas for the Jewish H. LANE, When the Mind Hears: A History people. Yet for Elizondo it is pre- of the Deaf. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, cisely in and through this experi- 1988. H. LANE, The Mask of Benevolence: Disa- ence that the in-breaking of the bling the Deaf Community, New York 1st grace of God comes in the person Notes Vintage Books edition: Vintage Books, 1993. of Jesus. It is through this Mesti- H. LEWIS, A Critical Examination of the 1 I. ROBERTSON, “The Sacred Narratives of Church and Deaf People: Toward a Deaf Li- zaje that Christ is able to transform Deaf People with Implications for Renewed beration Theology. PhD Dissertation, Univer- the marginalized into inclusive Pastoral Practice”, Doctor of Ministry Thesis, sity of Birmingham, England, 2002. members of God’s family. It is this Barry University, Miami Shores Fl. 2007. P. MCDONOUGH, Collaborative Ministry in 2 P. LADD, Understanding Deaf Culture: In the Deaf Vineyard. Paper presented at ICF, In- inside/outside experience that I al- Search of Deafhood, Clevedon: Multilingual ternational Conference, Mexico City, Mexico, so believe is true of the deaf com- Matters, 2003. H. LANE, A Journey into Deaf- 2003. C. PADDEN,T.HUMPHRIES, Deaf in Ame- munity and the Church. The sec- World, San Diego: Dawn Sign Press, 1996. H. rica: Voices From a Culture Cambridge, MA: LEWIS, “A Critical Examination of the Church Harvard University Press 1988. ond point that directly impacts our and Deaf People: Toward a Deaf Liberation C. PADDEN,T.HUMPHRIES, Inside Deaf discussion here is summed up by Theology”, PhD Dissertation, University of Culture. Cambridge MA. Harvard University Miguel Diaz when he writes: Birmingham, England, 2002. P. MCDONOU- Press. 2005. GH, “Collaborative Ministry in the Deaf Vi- M. SHERIDAN, Inner Lives of Deaf Chil- “God’s accompaniment of human- neyard”, Paper presented at ICF, International dren: Interviews and Analysis. Washington ity, God’s love of feeling for, and Conference, Mexico City, Mexico, 2003 DC., Galludet University Press 2001. 72 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

VITTORINA CARLI 2.6 A Deaf Sister Involved in Catechesis

Since 2003, my Congregation, year passed what was offered grew How? 1. I begin with news the ‘Teaching Sisters of St. and grew because their requests in- about current events and together Dorothy Daughters of the Sacred creased, especially those of the we look at the world: 2. Then there Hearts in Vicenza’, has created a most sensitive of them, who then is the kerugmatik moment: ‘listen, small community dedicated solely gradually joined us at our side at look!’, we discover the Bible; 3. a to pastoral care for the deaf that the level of organisation. Indeed, moment follows for internalisation has the same school buildings of to immediately begin a pathway of with what is called the ‘catequiz’ the Centro Effetà di Marola di Tor- catechesis for adults could have moment; 4. a pause is taken, then ri di Quartesolo (VI). At the outset appeared a risk and a utopia. But I there is the liturgical and celebra- it was an educational structure threw myself into my new mis- tory moment: the ‘thanks to the specifically for deaf people. Today sion, reassured, as well, by what Lord!’ with the Eucharist which at it is an integrated school. my Founder had written: ‘God the end says: ‘now it’s up to me’. This community is in line with called you to a wonderful mission, ‘Go you as well to your deaf the thinking of our Founder, Gio- go true apostles of the cross, I will friends!’; vanni Antonio Farina,1 who in accompany you!’.3 I looked for In our pastoral mission we take 1840 said to his sisters: ‘bring the and consulted books, handbooks advantage of the modern tech- deaf and dumb to the Lord so that on catechesis, and my sisters who niques of telecommunications in they too, when the inviolable seal were experts in pastoral care for order to create a network between of their tongues has been broken, the deaf, and in a serene way I be- deaf people and to transmit with can learn to sing the song of praise gan the re-evangelisation of my the velocity of e-mails a very large and offer the incense of hearts’2 friends and brethren. The diocesan number of compact disk religious Personally I have been very hap- ecclesiastical assistant for deaf messages of Christian educational py because I have seen that this people stimulated me to make cou- interest to the centres of the Na- sign gave concrete form, and in- ples of engaged people aware that tional Association for the Blind tensified my timid but burning de- they should prepare themselves for (ENS) or to parishes. sire, to dedicate my life to my deaf the sacrament of marriage. Since My first great satisfaction of an brethren. This dream was born in then courses for engaged people apostolic character took place 1986. and for couples have continued, when in the year 2005 I experi- Everything began with a clear, and there has been a good atten- enced with a very large number of deep and suffered call which end- dance at these. Italian deaf people the ‘World ed with my personal and decisive Now, my degree in religious sci- Youth Day’ in Cologne in Ger- answer. Ever since I said to the ences gave me a clearer and deep- many. That crowd of young people Lord “Here I am, send me’(Is 6:8), er vision of the needs of man as re- gave enthusiasm to me and to my my life has been totally changed. gards God. I feel that the Holy friends. We met deaf people from a After my religious profession of Spirit is guiding me in putting into very large number of countries! 1986, led by the Holy Spirit but al- practice the words of Jesus: ‘Once Then there was: Loreto, Rome, so helped by my catechistic sisters there was a man who went out to Poland, Lourdes, and the Holy and by the diocesan ecclesiastical sow corn’ (Lk 8:5), ‘he sleeps at Land. assistant of Vincenza, I planned night, is up and about during the The more the word of the Lord with them the first catechistic day, and all the while the seeds are travels, the more one can attain the meetings with all our deaf friends. sprouting and growing. Yet he real purpose of pastoral care, The majority of them who began does not know how it happens’ namely having Christians live in to attend, fortunately, I knew per- (Mk 4:27). an increasingly experiential way sonally, because they had been my This mystery is constantly grow- with Christ.4 classmates and friends at my ele- ing in me and comforts me because The meetings of formation at the mentary, secondary and higher I understand that this pastoral activ- level of catechesis that we offer are schools. ity ‘corresponds to and imple- planned in communion with the At the beginning of this pastoral ments’ the essential goal of the cat- Apostolic Movement for Deaf activity I was fearful but the yearn- echesis, namely to make the Gospel People (MAS) and they take place ing of deaf people to be re-evange- known about in order to lead every once a month, normally on a Sun- lised as regards the message of Je- Christian to celebrate, live and day, from October to June. The sus encouraged me and as each preach the Kingdom of Jesus. participants comes from Triveneto DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 73 and from other regions of Italy. self or herself so as to be an effec- Bibliography Many deaf young people still tive ‘worker in the vineyard’ of Je- BASSANI,ALBAROSA INES (ed.), Dentro have a true religious sensitivity, sus? l’ampiezza del suo cuore. Lezioni e discorsi even though some of them only By attending diocesan and na- del Fondatore Mons. G. A. Fa rina alle sue take part in Holy Mass or partici- tional courses for catechists or in- Suore (Tipografia G. Rumor, Vicenza, 1981). BOLLIN ,ANTONIO, L’annuncio del Vangelo pate out of a fellow feeling or be- stitutes of the ’religious sciences’. ieri e oggi, Note di storia dell’evangelizzazio- cause they want to spend time to- It is hoped that the Italian Bish- ne, dellacatechesi e dei catechismi, lecture gether. These meetings take place ops’ Conferences will begin to notes, Vicenza, academic year 2002-2003. CORTESI,GINO, Effatà: piena comunione e at the Centro “Effetà” di Marola make a ‘contribution’ for inter- valorizzazione delle persone sorde nella chie- in Vicenza and include: in the preters of sign language, at least as sa aperta al terzo millennio. Metodologia e li- morning: welcoming, catechesis, regards difficult subjects. There nee operative,inPer un salto di qualità nella pastorale delle persone sorde all’alba del ter- group work or a catequiz; in the af- have already been various national zo millennio, Convegno di studio, Assisi, 2-4 ternoon: cultural and recreational meetings on the re-evangelisation luglio 2001, no year, no place of publication, activity organised by spazio MAS of the deaf and progress has been pp. 18-29. ZATINI,FRANCO, Di tutto e di tutti circa il with various techniques of forma- made; small but comforting lights mondo della sordità (Florence, 1994). tion together with the National As- have already been lit in some sociation for the Deaf (ENS) as Church communities. well. This year, 2009/2010, on the Hope is always placed in the Notes occasion of the year for priests, we work of ‘the few’ who are active in will address the subject ‘John the field of pastoral care for the 1 Giovanni Antonio Farina, a bishop first in Mary Vianney, priest and cate- deaf (priests, religious, members Treviso and then Vicenza, the founder of the chist’. These meetings help people of the laity) but they are like those Teaching Sisters of St. Dorothy Daughters of to reflect together on the word of ‘that remain of Israel’, convinced, the Sacred Hearts in Vicenza, was proclaimed Blessed on 4 November 2001 by Pope John God, to engage in dialogue about however, that God never forgets Paul II because of his extraordinary spirituali- the difficulties connected with the the ‘least’ and that He continues to ty and great apostolic generosity. He was born experiences of the life of faith, intervene so that in the end Grace, in Gambellara (VI) on 11 January 1803 to a profoundly Christian family and one that was which, indeed, is today charged silent and invisible, will win. well-off. On 14 January he received his priest- with so many ‘pros and cons’. I will finish with an expression ly ordination. In 1883 he agreed to engage in My reality as a ‘deaf sister’, an of great thanks to the Lord who the reorganisation of the School of Charity of the parish of St. Peter and thereby began the apostle among so many ‘workers this year gave me another deaf sis- first school for working-class children in Vi- of the vineyard’, generates won- ter. I will now introduce her to cenza. In 1836 he founded an institute for der, amazement and joy in people you: she is Sister Tina Tarantino. ‘women teachers of proven vocation, conse- crated to the Lord and dedicated entirely to the with hearing as well. Every con- education of poor girls’’: the Teaching Sisters cept, in fact, passes by way of ‘a Sr. VITTORINA CARLI of St. Dorothy Daughters of the Sacred language that can be well under- (a deaf person) Hearts. Don Giovanni Antonio wanted his The Teaching Sisters of St. Dorothy women religious to concern themselves with stood by the deaf’’, as a result of girls from good families as well, with the deaf which the words of Jesus that are Daughters of the Sacred Hearts and dumb and the blind, but also with care for sown have a meaning of greater Vicenza, Italy. the sick and the elderly in hospitals, in rest homes and at home. The last years of his life clarity, credibility and efficacy. were marked by full recognitions of his apos- During the year the following tolic activity and charity, but also by great suf- are offered: a course on the Bible, fering and unjust accusations to which he re- acted with silence, inner calm and forgive- a course for engaged couples, and ness. After his first illness of 1886 he lost his days for couples. physical strength until he was struck by At the national meeting of 2001 apoplexy which led to his dearth on 14 March 1888. the following ‘valuable challenge’ 2 FARINA, Dentro l’ampiezza del suo cuore. of Don Gino Cortesi5 was pro- Lezioni e discorsi del Fondatore Mons. G.A. posed: ‘with all my heart I say to Farina alle sue Suore (Tip. Rumor, Vicenza, 1981), p. 100. you: “Jesus, now, needs you! Jesus 3 FARINA, Dentro l’ampiezza, p. 273, calls on you, Jesus calls you. Yes, 4 Cf. A. BOLLIN, L’annuncio del Vangelo you, you yourselves must be ieri e oggi. Note di storia dell’evangeliz-za- zione, della catechesi e dei catechismi, lecture ‘workers in the vineyard’, which is notes, Vicenza, academic year 2002-2003. wonderful but which today not 5 Don Gino Cortesi, a diocesan priest and greatly looked after. And yet there famous educator of the deaf and dumb, direc- ted the Pio Istituto of Bergamo from 1964 to are thousands of deaf people who 1973. ZATINI, Di tutto e di tutti circa il mondo live in Italy (in the world they della sordità (Florence, 1994), p. 136. number millions…). Jesus loves 6 G. CORTESI, ‘Effatà: piena comunione e valorizzazione delle persone sorde nella chie- you in particular and Jesus has sa aperta al terzo millennio. Metodologia e li- confidence in you. I beseech you: nee operative’, in Per un salto di qualità, pp. do not be a disappointment for Je- 18-29. sus or for the Church, which is led today by the great heart and secure hand of Pope John Paul II.”’6 We now ask ourselves: how can a deaf person today prepare him- 74 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

TERRY O’MEARA 3. The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church

The International Catholic As the need for global collabo- Table all the people of God as full Foundation for the Service of Deaf ration of Deaf Ministry efforts ex- members in the Body of Christ. Persons (ICF) is a movement of pands, ICF stands at the ready to As was stated by the American communion among persons from be the clearing house and central National Directory for Catechesis various countries brought together service entity facilitating this publish by the US Bishops’ Confe- by the Holy Spirit out of a com- work. Since its inception in 1986, rence: mon conviction that Deaf people ICF has worked to: “All persons... have the capa- are called to the fullness of a life in – Raise awareness of Deaf peo- city to proclaim the Gospel and to Christ’s Body, which is the Chur- ples’ presence in the Church and be living witnesses to its truth ch. the gifts they have to offer; within the community of faith and The mission of ICF is to support – Serve as a resource for the de- off valuable gifts…They are not and promote the religious forma- velopment of religious formation just the recipients of catechesis – tion and pastoral care, of, with and and pastoral care, the formation of they are also its agents.” by Deaf people within the Catholic Chaplains, Pastoral Workers and It is the Mission of the ICF, with Community. Support Chaplains, Catechists, both Deaf and Hearing. the help, support and combined pastoral workers and catechists – Promote appropriate interna- effort of the Pontifical Council to and seeks ways to bring the riches tional gatherings ensure this statement become a of their vocation with others in the – Collaborate with other organi- reality for all Deaf Catholics wi- Church and society so as to achie- zations having the same mission. shing to not only be welcomed in- ve a fuller expression of Euchari- to the Church, but be agents of stic communion. their faith, allowing deaf persons ICF supports deaf ministry. We leadership roles in the work of wish to collaborate, share, as well evangelization. as function as a clearing house for I would also like to take this op- Deaf Ministry networking, support portunity to convey the profound services and resources. thanks of the Board of the ICF for ICF collaborates with the St. allowing the ICF to collaborate Thomas University Institute of Pa- with the Pontifical Council in ar- storal Ministry, Master Program in ranging this first ever Conference Pastoral Ministry with the Deaf. on Deafness in the Vatican. ICF Dr. Ian Robertson (a Board Mem- wishes to thank Archbishop Zi- ber of ICF) is one of the Presenters mowski and Bishop Redrado for at this Conference and teaches their leadership and vision. May with the program. we also take this opportunity to ICF funds the Chair of Pastoral thank Archbishop Kelly and Bi- Ministry and Research with the It is the desire and hope of the shop Holley for their fervent and Deaf at Leuven University, Bel- ICF to help the Pontifical Council sustained support of the Founda- gium; the Chair is one of the Pre- in any future conscription of a tion. senters at the Conference, Dr. Mar- Committee or other body to conti- ICF was established to serve cel Broesterhuizen. nue exploring the gifts, talents, as you. We look forward with great ICF will move forward in our well as offer networking support excitement to continuing the faci- global Ministry efforts through our services with and for Deaf Catho- litation of global Deaf ministry upcoming planned events of: lics. ICF stands ready to work in efforts ensuring that indeed the – July 2010- Encuentro Youth alliance with the Pontifical Coun- Church is ALL the people of God. Conference; Valle de Bravo, cil to identify Deaf persons to be a México part of any future committee/body, Mr. TERRY O’MEARA – August 2011- World Youth as well as offer the services of ICF Executive Director Day/ Deaf Ministry Track; Ma- Staff and Board members. International Catholic Foundation drid, Spain It is through continued conjoi- for the Service of Deaf Persons – August 2012- Eucharistic ned efforts that our Church will USA. Congress/Deaf Ministry Track; fulfill its longing to be truly OPEN Dublin, Ireland (Ephphatha) to welcoming to the DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 73-2010 75

ZYGMUNT ZIMOWSKI Ending of the Conference by H.E. Msgr. Zigmunt Zimowski

I would like at the end of this in- down this ‘wall of silence’which is sion of the 2000 Jubilee for the dis- ternational conference on a subject not produced by a hearing deficit abled: “In the name of Christ, the of particular importance and inter- but built around non-hearing peo- Church commits herself to making est, namely pastoral care for non- ple by the bricks of indifference herself for you increasingly a hearing people, to thank everyone and lack of interest. ‘home of welcome’”. And this is and each individual. In a special Indeed, we have to ensure that the message that we ask you to way I thank His Eminence Cardi- deafness is not a reason for exclu- take, all of you who are present, to nal Fiorenzo Angelini who has ho- sion from the life of the communi- your respective countries at the end noured us today with his presence. ty – whether ecclesial, civic or po- of this twenty-fourth international Then I would like to thank all the litical – in any part of the globe. We conference, which has seen us unit- speakers for their contributions, must thus knock down all the ob- ed and motivated to make our just which have been appreciated by all stacles that still hinder the progress contribution to the noble cause of of us, on the various questions and of integration so that this disability our brothers and sisters who suffer issues that go to make up the sub- receives all the attention that is from deafness. ject of our conference. These three days of study have without doubt been illuminating both because of the scientific pa- pers and contributions and because of the concrete comments and in- depth analyses at the level of pas- toral care in the life of the Church. The testimonies, in particular, have been truly moving and have demonstrated once again how the exclusion or marginalisation of people afflicted by disability, in this case the non-hearing, is first of all a loss for ‘the others’, that is to say for the community, both at a civil level and at a social and eccle- sial level. It has also emerged how the Church, on her centuries-old jour- ney, has protected and supported non-hearing people and thus com- needed, in all countries, from au- This is an invitation that is also menced a great and just ecclesial thorities and institutions. extended to you non-hearing peo- work of integration which has en- In addition, from an ecclesial ple, remembering the words that riched her and has enriched all of point of view, it is necessary to were addressed to us yesterday by us, and calls on us to continue in multiply our efforts so that in each His Holiness Benedict XVI during this direction looking for and find- bishops’ conference, ecclesiastical the audience: ‘You are not only the ing new pathways and means for a province, diocese and parish there recipients of the proclaiming of the pastoral care which is increasingly are reference points and referents message of the Gospel, you are al- attentive in responding to the needs for deaf people and so that these so, to the full, also its proclaimers, and requests of these children of people themselves can become because of your baptism. Thus live the Church. witnesses and bridges for other every day as witnesses to the Lord This conference, at its end, people with hearing deficits in the in the contexts of your existence, marks a new achievement which catechesis and ordinary pastoral making Christ and his Gospel will be a point of departure. All of care. known about. In this Year for us, now, have the task of knocking As John Paul II said on the occa- Priests pray also for vocations so 76 EPHPHATHA! THE DEAF PERSON IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH that the Lord creates numerous and health care, it is our intention to such a demanding event and in par- good ministers for the growth of send these recommendations to the ticular the Secretariat of the Pontif- ecclesial communities’. Minister of Health of Italy as well, ical Council for Health Care Work- I would like to outline the three thanking him for his paper and ex- ers which has worked with exper- levels of strategy that have pressing our readiness to take part tise and dedication for the success emerged for the future develop- in the round table envisaged at his of this conference. ment of recommendations: Ministry to study questions con- Let us now say the supplication 1. The creation within the Pon- nected with the subject of hearing. and the act of praise to God and en- tifical Council for Health Care trust deaf people in the world to the Workers of a permanent study I would like here to already pre- protection of Our Lady of Silence. group on pastoral care for non- sent the subject of the twenty-fifth With these prayers I declare end- hearing people. international conference of the ed the proceedings of the twenty- 2. The organisation of a pilgrim- Pontifical Council for Health Care fourth international conference and age to Czestocova near the end of Workers which will take place next I invoke on all of you, with the help June in which volunteers can take year in the Vatican on ‘Towards of Our Lady of Silence, the graces part, above all else from Europe, as Fairer and More Human Health and blessings that you need in your a continuation of this international Care’ and which will centre around ministries and your lives. conference. the inalienable dignity of the per- 3. Given that our Pontifical son, in the light of the encyclical H.E. Msgr. ZYGMUNT ZIMOWSKI, Council also has the task of follow- Caritas in Veritate. President of the Pontifical Council for ing the policies of countries on Allow me to thank all those who Health Care Workers, subjects and issues connected with have made possible the holding of the Holy See.