Today, the Holy See Press Centre published the text of the Holy Father's Message, sent to the National Association for the Deaf on the occasion of the World Day of the Deaf which is celebrated today.
Dear brothers and sisters!
I wanted to be with you today, but unfortunately it was not possible; therefore I am making myself present with this message in order to express my closeness to all of you, in anticipation of being able to meet you the next time.
On this observance of the 60h World Day of the Deaf - the first was celebrated in Rome on 28 September 1958 - I want first of all to thank the Lord for the witness that your Association, the National Association for the Deaf, provides for many men and women of good will, who for many years have been committed to fighting against exclusion and the throw-away culture, in order to protect and to promote, in every area, the value of the life of every human being and, in particular, the dignity of deaf people.
The history of the National Association for the Deaf is a story made up of people who believed in unity, solidarity, sharing common goals, in the strength of being a community on a long journey studded with progress, sacrifice and daily battles. A story made by those who did not give up and instead continued to believe in the self-determination of deaf people. This is a great result if I think of the many deaf people and their family members who, faced with the challenge of disability, no longer feel alone.
In recent decades, great progress has been made in various fields: scientific, social and cultural; but at the same time the dangerous and unacceptable culture of waste has also spread, as a consequence of the anthropological crisis that no longer puts man at the centre, but rather seeks economic interest, power and unbridled consumption (cf. Evangelii gaudium, 52-53). Among the victims of this culture are the most vulnerable people, the children who have difficulty participating in school life, the elderly who experience loneliness and abandonment, young people who lose their sense of life and see themselves steal the future and better dreams.
Thinking of you, I would like to remember that being and making association is in itself a value. You are not a sum of people, but you have joined in order to live and transmit the will to accompany and support those, like you, who are in difficulty but are first of all a priceless human wealth. Today there is a great need to live the associative dimension with joy and commitment: being united, meeting, sharing experiences, successes and failures, pooling resources, all of this contributes to increasing the human, social and cultural heritage of a people. Associations like yours - thank God in Italy are not few - encourage everyone to create community, indeed, to be a community, to welcome each other with our limits and our efforts, but also with our joys and our smiles. Because we all have capacities and limits!
We are called together to go against the current, struggling above all so that the right of every man and every woman to a dignified life is always protected. It is not just a matter of satisfying certain needs, but even more of recognizing one's own desire to be welcomed and to be able to live independently. The challenge is that inclusion becomes a mentality and a culture, and ensures that legislators and rulers do not lack this consistent and concrete support for this cause. Among the rights to be guaranteed, we should not forget those of study, work, home and accessibility to communication. For this reason, while the dutiful fight against architectural barriers is being pursued with tenacity, efforts must be made to break down all the barriers that prevent the possibility of relationships and meeting in autonomy in order to reach an authentic culture and practice of inclusion. This applies to both civil society and the ecclesial community.
Many of you have reached your social and professional positions, even at high levels, with great difficulty because of deafness, and this is a great human and civil conquest. But how happy I am when I see that you, as well as other people with disabilities, by virtue of your Baptism achieve these goals even within the Church, especially in the field of evangelization! This becomes an example and stimulus for Christian communities in their daily lives.
I hope that in every diocese all of you who are deaf, together with the pastoral agents prepared in sign language, lip reading and subtitling, cooperate so that deaf people are fully integrated into the Christian community and that the sense of belonging may grow within them. This requires an inclusive pastoral care in parishes, associations and schools.
The first place of inclusion is, however, as always, the family. Therefore, even in this case, families with deaf people are protagonists of the renewal of mentality and lifestyle. They are both recipients of services, who dutifully claim from the competent institutions as subjects of promotional action in the civil, social and ecclesial sphere.
Dear friends, much has been done - thanks also to you - to increase acceptance, inclusion, meetings and solidarity. However, much remains to be done for the promotion of deaf people, overcoming the isolation of many families and redeeming those who are still the subject of unacceptable discrimination. May my prayer and my blessing accompany you in this renewed effort. But you too, please, do not forget to pray for me and for the whole Church, so that it may become ever more a fraternal and hospitable community.
From the Vatican
28 September 2018
Francis
(Original text in Italian)
Message of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the World Day of the Deaf
Dear brothers and sisters!
I wanted to be with you today, but unfortunately it was not possible; therefore I am making myself present with this message in order to express my closeness to all of you, in anticipation of being able to meet you the next time.
On this observance of the 60h World Day of the Deaf - the first was celebrated in Rome on 28 September 1958 - I want first of all to thank the Lord for the witness that your Association, the National Association for the Deaf, provides for many men and women of good will, who for many years have been committed to fighting against exclusion and the throw-away culture, in order to protect and to promote, in every area, the value of the life of every human being and, in particular, the dignity of deaf people.
The history of the National Association for the Deaf is a story made up of people who believed in unity, solidarity, sharing common goals, in the strength of being a community on a long journey studded with progress, sacrifice and daily battles. A story made by those who did not give up and instead continued to believe in the self-determination of deaf people. This is a great result if I think of the many deaf people and their family members who, faced with the challenge of disability, no longer feel alone.
In recent decades, great progress has been made in various fields: scientific, social and cultural; but at the same time the dangerous and unacceptable culture of waste has also spread, as a consequence of the anthropological crisis that no longer puts man at the centre, but rather seeks economic interest, power and unbridled consumption (cf. Evangelii gaudium, 52-53). Among the victims of this culture are the most vulnerable people, the children who have difficulty participating in school life, the elderly who experience loneliness and abandonment, young people who lose their sense of life and see themselves steal the future and better dreams.
Thinking of you, I would like to remember that being and making association is in itself a value. You are not a sum of people, but you have joined in order to live and transmit the will to accompany and support those, like you, who are in difficulty but are first of all a priceless human wealth. Today there is a great need to live the associative dimension with joy and commitment: being united, meeting, sharing experiences, successes and failures, pooling resources, all of this contributes to increasing the human, social and cultural heritage of a people. Associations like yours - thank God in Italy are not few - encourage everyone to create community, indeed, to be a community, to welcome each other with our limits and our efforts, but also with our joys and our smiles. Because we all have capacities and limits!
We are called together to go against the current, struggling above all so that the right of every man and every woman to a dignified life is always protected. It is not just a matter of satisfying certain needs, but even more of recognizing one's own desire to be welcomed and to be able to live independently. The challenge is that inclusion becomes a mentality and a culture, and ensures that legislators and rulers do not lack this consistent and concrete support for this cause. Among the rights to be guaranteed, we should not forget those of study, work, home and accessibility to communication. For this reason, while the dutiful fight against architectural barriers is being pursued with tenacity, efforts must be made to break down all the barriers that prevent the possibility of relationships and meeting in autonomy in order to reach an authentic culture and practice of inclusion. This applies to both civil society and the ecclesial community.
Many of you have reached your social and professional positions, even at high levels, with great difficulty because of deafness, and this is a great human and civil conquest. But how happy I am when I see that you, as well as other people with disabilities, by virtue of your Baptism achieve these goals even within the Church, especially in the field of evangelization! This becomes an example and stimulus for Christian communities in their daily lives.
I hope that in every diocese all of you who are deaf, together with the pastoral agents prepared in sign language, lip reading and subtitling, cooperate so that deaf people are fully integrated into the Christian community and that the sense of belonging may grow within them. This requires an inclusive pastoral care in parishes, associations and schools.
The first place of inclusion is, however, as always, the family. Therefore, even in this case, families with deaf people are protagonists of the renewal of mentality and lifestyle. They are both recipients of services, who dutifully claim from the competent institutions as subjects of promotional action in the civil, social and ecclesial sphere.
Dear friends, much has been done - thanks also to you - to increase acceptance, inclusion, meetings and solidarity. However, much remains to be done for the promotion of deaf people, overcoming the isolation of many families and redeeming those who are still the subject of unacceptable discrimination. May my prayer and my blessing accompany you in this renewed effort. But you too, please, do not forget to pray for me and for the whole Church, so that it may become ever more a fraternal and hospitable community.
From the Vatican
28 September 2018
Francis
(Original text in Italian)
No comments:
Post a Comment