By Anthony Barich
TWO of St Charles Seminary’s first year students have embarked on a ground breaking 10-week pastoral placement course at self-help Emmanuel Centre run for and by people with disabilities.
The programme, which started on 8 April, involved seminarians Thomas Zureich and Mariusz Grzech learning foundational theology about disability in Scripture and Church documents and the underpinning philosophy on which Emmanuel Centre bases its services.
The seminarians also met with some of the centre’s volunteers, who have a wide range of disabilities, and their parents.
The seminarians gained a basic understanding and skill in using sign language, through which many deaf and hard of hearing people communicate.
They also did some hands-on interactions and activities involved in the running of Emmanuel.
The students, both in their first year at the seminary, told The Record that they had their eyes opened about the reality of the world of people with a disability.
They especially were interested in relation to their involvement with the Church, in parishes, schools and other communities.
Mariusz, who did not have prior experience with people with disabilities, said the experiences of the volunteers he met at Emmanuel made him acutely aware that the basic needs of people with disabilities are too often ignored in parish communities.
“We are not even aware that people with disabilities are no different from others in the Church and have a need and a want to receive the Sacraments and participate in the liturgy”.
This year’s programme is a dramatic break with the past, when seminary pastoral placement involved a one-off visit, and the students rarely, if ever, had any contact with the Emmanuel Centre again.
Both Mariusz and Thomas discovered that an awareness of the daily struggles faced by people with disabilities is essential to their ministries as future priests of the Archdiocese.
“I had experience with people with disabilities before but this time I got information on Emmanuel’s work and service and how it helps people with communication skills to work together by empowering them,” Thomas said.
One volunteer, Rachel (not her real name) broke down in tears as she shared how she did not have contact with her family. She was born with a disability.
This was complicated by a car accident she had when she was a child. Family breakdown meant that Rachel lost contact with her family. She came to Emmanuel Centre 20 years ago.
Emmanuel helped Rachel to reconnect with her family. For Mariusz, Rachel’s story was a good illustration of how Emmanuel helps people with disabilities to maintain their dignity in spite of their all too often negative experiences.
“Too often,” Mariusz said, “people with disabilities are not given any dignity simply because people don’t understand them or their issues.
“It awakened something in us, the realisation that people with disabilities are people first. That’s the main thing we learned from our time with Emmanuel Centre.
“People with disabilities think, feel and go through challenges in life just as we do.
“The difference is that people with disabilities are ostracised because we don’t understand, we don’t integrate them into our communities.”
The students were also at Emmanuel Centre after its chaplain Fr Paul Pitzen suffered multiple injuries in a scooter accident and wound up in a wheelchair and rehabilitation for quite some time.
It brought home to the students that Fr Paul’s injuries, as serious as they were, were only temporary.
For many others, it’s for life.
One of the greatest challenges for the students was engaging a deaf person in conversation.
“We quickly learned the boundaries of conversation and it took us a while to develop fluency,” Mariusz said.
“I found it very important to take the time and effort to understand; to go outside my comfort zone.
“Patience had to be present because the conversation was very ‘stop-start’.”
Emmanuel coordinator Mrs Barbara Harris encouraged the students to see how their experience related to talking to someone with Alzheimer’s.
“The whole dynamic of conversation needs to be re-thought,” she said.
Geoff, a deaf volunteer at Emmanuel who is an artist, often interacts with hearing people. Mariusz said he felt he struggled to give Geoff the dignity of understanding, appreciating and absorbing what he was trying to say.
“I felt I wasn’t doing him justice,” Mariusz said. “Geoff told us how some people are just dismissive and don’t even try to read his expressions as he tries to tell of his passions like his work and his life in the Church.
Both Thomas and Mariusz appreciated the great lengths Geoff went to just to communicate with them. Geoff was happy to show them one of his favourite paintings, a quilt pattern, which reflected his life experience, including the joy and sadness.
Thomas mused, “If we reciprocated the effort that Geoff put into communicating with us, our lives would be enriched and people with disabilities would be better integrated into Catholic community life.”
The seminarians also were allowed into the story of a parent of a young woman with a disability.
The mother told the two seminarians how difficult it was for her to let her daughter have more independence – an understandable reaction for any parent, the students said, but the emotion was especially strong for this parent.
After many years of being a protective mum, it was Emmanuel who taught her how to let go more so that her daughter can experience more freedom.
When asked how their experiences at Emmanuel Centre would help them as priests, both seminarians said that they will need to make sure that people with disabilities are more than tolerated in the parish.
As parish priests, they can be a role model for inclusion.
Mariusz said, “Support groups for people with various disabilities are an integral part of parish life and an outlet of support”.
Thomas said of his time at Emmanuel Centre, “I became very aware of the important role of the Catholic school in providing parents of children with disabilities the welcoming face of Church.”