Exhort the people to be faithful to the assembly of the Church. Let them not fail to attend, but let them gather faithfully together. Let no one deprive the Church by staying away; if they do, they deprive the Body of Christ of one of its members! (Didascalia, chapter 13)
The Didascalia is an early Church manuscript, probably from the third century, based on the teachings of the twelve apostles. The author is unknown.
Continuing on the topic from last week’s article, how do we as parish leaders reach out to those who have stayed away from Mass because their particular physical, sensory, mental or emotional disability is too great a challenge to handle alone?
The United States Catholic Bishops recently revised their Guidelines for the Celebration of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilities. Here is a sampling of the general principles outlined in that guideline:
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Here are some ideas on how to reach out to persons with disabilities in your parish:
1. Run weekly notices in the bulletin, and regular Sunday announcements, encouraging families with members who have special needs, and who do not yet feel connected with the community and the liturgy, to contact the parish office and identify themselves.
2. Develop a parish outreach ministry to persons with special needs. The pastor/pastoral staff would identify community members with the confidence and sensitivity needed to conduct interviews with the people with disabilities.
3. Extend an invitation to these community members to be a part of this outreach ministry, and offer some kind of training to help them fulfill their new task. The pastor should be sure to maintain regular contact with these ministers.
4. Once these individuals have agreed to participate, the pastor/pastoral staff would meet with them and develop sets of interview questions, adaptable to all the various circumstances they will encounter.
5. These Outreach Ministers would then be given names of persons with disabilities from the information collected by the parish office, and make appointments with those people
6. Persons with special needs are most often on the peripheries of a parish community. The goal of these home visits would be to provide a connection for them with the community at large, invite them into the center of parish liturgical life, and, through the interview questions, determine their liturgical needs and how the parish could make adaptations to accommodate those needs.
7. Any information about needed liturgical adaptations would be given to the parish pastoral council/liturgy committee to determine how to fulfill those needs.
8. The Outreach minister would continue to maintain regular communication with their assigned individuals, and help to provide whatever pastoral care is needed.
May we be a church where all are truly welcome and equal in dignity!