Usually in our monthly Living Well with a Disability segment we highlight one person who is doing just that. But this story highlights an entire group of people, a church to be exact, that is working together to help so many right here in Central PA, live well.
Saint Patrick Cathedral, in Harrisburg, sits as it usually does on a Sunday morning.
From the inside, typical for a Sunday Mass.
But if you look very closely, what is different is the Priest, who is celebrating Mass using American Sign Language. "I never thought I was different because my whole family is Deaf," signs Father Mike Depcik.
Father Mike is one of 11 Deaf Priests in the U.S. He lives in Chicago, but was invited by the Harrisburg Diocese to sign Sunday Mass; a way to help make the Deaf Parishioners feel they belong. Father Mike signs, "There are a lot of Catholics who are Deaf and left out and who don't konw a lot about the faith."
But that isolation is slowly starting to change at Saint Patrick.
"My sign name is Father Rozman," says Father Thomas Rozman, pastor of St. Patrick Cathedral as he shows us how to sign his name in ASL. Father Rozman has been with the Harrisburg Diocese for 7 years and has tried his best to communicate with the Deaf Parishoners.
"I asked the interpreter, how do you say the body of Christ. That seemed like the easiest thing to begin with," explains Father Rozman. Today, Father Rozman is an American Sign Language student at Galluadet University in Washintong D.C. "Galluadet is the Vatican of Deaf Universities," Father Rozman tells us. Father Rozman is taking ASL in hopes one day he'll be fluent and able to celebrate Mass and perform all of his duties as Priest for everyone, including those who can't hear. Father Mike signs, "A lot of people say, well there are no Deaf people in our church. And we say, well there are no Deaf people in your church because there are no services available for them. If you provide the services, the Deaf people will come." Father Rozman adds, "They know we are interested in them as a church and as God loves them, so do we."
96% of Deaf people don't go to church because of that feeling of isolation.
Because of that, Father Depcik has created a V-Log, like a blog but with video, so that everyone can view a Mass in ASL. For more information on the V-Log and the Office of Ministry with People with Disabilities at the Harrisburg Diocese, check out my
blog.
