October is officially recognized as National Disability Employment Awareness Month in the United States.
This year’s theme is “Celebrating value and talent.”
To that end, allow me to present a couple of exemplars.
Venerable Luigi Rocchi (1932-1979) suffered from muscular dystrophy and, despite his complete physical debilitation, became a widely known consoler, spiritual adviser, and friend.
Born in Rome and raised in northern Italy, Luigi lived with his father, a mechanic, and his mother, a homemaker, all his life. The first signs of his disability appeared in high school. By the age of 20, he was confined to a wheelchair. His dreams of marriage and family crushed, he entered into a long period of spiritual crisis. By 28, his hands and feet paralyzed, he was completely immobile.
Later, he would write of that time: “About eight years ago I found an old crucifix, broken and dirty. I had it repaired and cleaned up, the wood refreshed with oil. I hung it in my bedroom. One night … suddenly the crucifix set off an intense light that filled the room and penetrated my heart, giving me a deep peace and an unmatched serenity. From that day I seem to have been released from a dark forest.”
Luigi’s employer was the Lord. From his bed, he received an endless stream of visitors seeking spiritual direction. With the aid of a stick attached to his forehead, he pecked out over 1,700 letters of spiritual guidance on his trusty typewriter.
Accompanied by his mother, who served as nurse and attendant, he made two pilgrimages: one to Lourdes, to pray for his suffering friends around the world, and one to Loreto, to visit the home of the Blessed Mother.
He referred to the poor and oppressed of the Third World as “living crucifixes,” and joined his suffering to theirs.
Msgr. Ersilio Tonino, a former Italian archbishop, wrote of him: “I have known him very well and I have been immediately spellbound by him. Two aspects particularly struck me, Luigi’s serenity and his desire not to be pitied. … But there is another characteristic, the need to share his happiness, to encourage others in a deep relationship with God, for them to find happiness in pain. … I can say that Luigi was one of the most beautiful souls I have ever met in my life.”
“What is the secret of my joy?” he once remarked. “I am thirsty for God. So much thirst for God.”
Servant of God Father William E. Atkinson, OSA (1946-2006), our second exemplar, is the first quadriplegic ever to be ordained a Catholic priest.
As a youth, Bill served as an altar boy and excelled at athletics in his native Philadelphia. His brother Al went on to star in football at Villanova and signed with the New York Jets. Amid the social and spiritual turmoil of the mid-1960s, Bill took a different path, entering the novitiate of the Order of St. Augustine in New Hamburg, New York.
The seminarians were fond of sport. On Feb. 22, 1965, the toboggan on which Bill was sledding veered from the path and smashed into a tree. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie. The diagnosis: a broken neck and severely damaged spinal cord.
He was given the last rites. Master of Novices Father Krupa asked if Bill wished to take his temporary vows. Bill said yes.
After stabilizing, he came to grips with the fact that, paralyzed from the neck down, he would never walk again. As well, he had only limited use of his head, shoulders, neck, and arms.
Believing that God had called him to this new station in life, he underwent substantial rehabilitation, then re-entered the seminary as an act of obedience and faith.
Prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act, Villanova offered no special accommodation. Bill used a motorized wheelchair and typed papers one letter at a time, sometimes using a pencil held in his teeth to tap the keys. He considered his round-the-clock caregivers as sent directly from God.
The Code of Canon Law of 1917 provided that paralytics could not be ordained unless by special dispensation.
“From my physical condition, the Lord is obviously calling me to a very special vocation, closely conformed to his own Cross,” Bill wrote to Pope Paul VI. “It is my conviction that in this modern age, where the dignity of human life is measured by productivity alone, and where suffering should be eliminated at all costs, we must more than ever preach Christ crucified. I believe that my own witness to the world of mysterious love of God working in my weakness can be of tremendous assistance to those people who lack faith, who lack hope of a better tomorrow. … Let it not be my will, but His that is done.”
Never knowing whether the priesthood was within reach, he professed simple vows as an Augustinian friar on July 20, 1970, and solemn vows on July 20, 1973.
Less than two weeks later, a letter from the Vatican arrived, reading: “Atkinson dispensation granted.”
He took holy orders on Feb. 2, 1974, at his childhood parish, and celebrated his first Mass the next day.
Father Bill taught for almost 30 years at Monsignor Bonner High School in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, and as well performed weddings, baptisms, and funerals.
He died at 60, and his cause for canonization was officially opened in 2017. A half-hour documentary — “ExtraORDINARY: The Bill Atkinson Story” — is available on YouTube.
