It’s a strange world we live in. As Church, we say that we are all family. As Church, we say abortion is wrong. As Church, we say that children with disabilities are our brothers and sisters. As Church, we say that we are members of the Body of Christ. As Church, we say that we belong to each other.
As Church, we say everyone is welcome. As Church, we say we want to bring back those alienated from the Church. But have we lost some of our fire, some of our energy, some of our creativity? Have we lost the compassion and caring children with disabilities and their families so desperately need?
In the 1800s, without any on-going assistance from Governments, Catholic men and women together with Religious Sisters, Brothers and priests worked tirelessly and creatively to provide a Catholic education for Catholic children.
Much of the focus of that effort related to ensuring that disadvantaged children were provided with educational opportunities.
Lack of funding could not stop Catholic education from happening.
Those pioneers placed a very strong value on Catholic education and made it happen.
The Catholic education of Catholic children was seen as a whole of Church issue.
It was not left to a central body to find a solution. The need was addressed at the local level by the whole Catholic community.
Is our answer today to deny our responsibility as a community and consider it an education issue, a government funding issue, a schools issue or can we generate a Catholic community response?
Have we taken the easy road; put the problem in the too hard basket; passed the issue to “them” and left parents out on their own?
A recent statement in the press indicated that unless Governments, Federal and State, contributed more money to Catholic schools for the education of Catholic children with disabilities, then more children could not be offered places.
So what happens to these Catholic children and their families? Do we abandon them?
It is true education does not come cheaply but if we, as a whole Church, believe Catholic education is so important, are we not responsible for seeing that Catholic education is offered to all Catholic children, including the gifted and the disadvantaged regardless of what Federal and State Governments are doing? When parents have a child who is different, the parents don’t think “unless the Government gives me more money, I won’t have this child or I am not going to bother caring for it.”
No, the parents adjust to what is happening in their family. They adjust their financial circumstances, they adjust their whole lives and work with what they’ve got with open hearts.
There is never a question of “the financial cost is too great” because that would lead to a suggestion that “the child was not worth it.”
The value of the child is what makes the family work at seeking solutions.
Parents of children with disabilities face many challenges on a daily basis.
They do not need to be further weighed down with the criticism and guilt that they are a burden to our Church, to our schools.
Parents should not have to live with the uncertainty of where their child is going to school or even if their child will be accepted at their local Catholic school. Nor do they need the constant anxiety of wondering whether the funding support their child needs will be there from year to year, which is the basis on which much of the funding is allocated.
Parents should not have to lobby for acceptance, for finding funds so that their child can be accepted at the local Catholic school and the local Catholic school should not have to scrounge around looking and hoping for funding support either.
It stands to reason that something is not right. This is a whole of Church issue and must be addressed by the whole Church.
We are talking about “my brothers and sisters”, “your brothers and sisters”. The answers are not easy but if the issue is not raised, we will never even begin to seek solutions.
I can no longer sit at my desk while families are under stress. Families are breaking up and people are going under.