A man with a disability came up to receive holy Communion from Bishop Efren V. Esmilla. After receiving the host, the man smiled, reached out, and gave a handshake to the bishop, grateful for genuine connection and welcome that too often is unexpressed to people with disabilities.
Those kinds of exchanges were the norm Sunday afternoon, April 19 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Center City Philadelphia where some 400 people encountered the risen Christ through the Eucharist and each other at the Mass Honoring the Gifts of Persons with Disabilities, the Deaf Community, Family, Friends and Caregivers.
The annual Mass has been celebrated at the cathedral for about three decades, organizers say.
“It’s important to me. We’ve been coming here for the last six or seven years,” said Bernadette Apiot. She, her mother and her daughter have all attended St. Lucy School for Children with Visual Impairments.
“My daughter is an altar server,” Apiot added. “She’ll be serving today for her fourth and final time.”
Natalie Morales, the director of the archdiocesan Office for Persons with Disabilities and the Deaf Apostolate, appreciates that people like Apiot’s daughter have the chance not only to take part in the Mass but to be honored for their gifts and examples of joyful inclusion in God.
“While we make accommodations for people, they’re the ones that are doing all the different parts in the Mass,” Morales said. “Our altar servers all had various kinds of disabilities, (as well as) our cantor, our lectors.
“We try to really make sure that they’re involved. It’s one thing for people with disabilities to be receiving (ministry), and we’re accommodating for them, but also keep in mind they also have gifts to give.”
Apiot’s daughter worked just feet from Graciela Cohen, an individual with autism who served as cantor for the Mass, along with a duo who offered the words of the Mass in American Sign Language to the deaf community. Numerous others served as liturgical ministers for the Mass.
The spirit of welcome became a key theme of Bishop Esmilla’s homily as well.
“God loves us. Jesus loves us. Now may I ask all of you to look at each other to your left and to your right, and appear to each other and say, ‘God loves you.’ (W)e say it together, ‘God loves you. Dios me ama,’” he said as the congregation exchanged those words.
“On this note, we are commanded to be a human being, not just an emotion, but a person for each other, for we are God’s people,” the bishop added.
Countless caregivers at the Mass included drivers operating rows of parked transport vans, students from Pope John Paul II and Roman Catholic high schools assisting at entrances to the Cathedral Basilica, plus helpful family and friends of the faithful.
If someone made an atypical sound during Mass, it was absolutely OK. If it took someone longer to recite the Our Father or Nicene Creed, that too presented no problem.
“The people that are here today would like this to be every Sunday where they could come and be themselves and no one would chastise them or criticize them. They know that they can be themselves, and that’s what I think the importance of today is,” said state Sen. Christine Tartaglione, who represents much of the City of Philadelphia.
A paraplegic herself, she has used a wheelchair since a 2003 boating accident.
“Look at all the joy of everybody leaving here,” she said. “There’s that smile on their face, and they know that God is with them and that they’re important, and they mean something.”
The Office for Persons with Disabilities and the Deaf Apostolate is embracing its mission of making openness and welcome to people with disabilities the norm in every Catholic parish.
“You’re in the Catholic community and you’re thinking about how things should be, but then unfortunately there’s some people that may not have the understanding,” Morales said. “They think if they hear a noise, it’s a problematic thing, or you’re not being reverent. We’re trying to spread the word that maybe that’s how that individual is praying instead.
“Just being open to others, knowing that everyone shows their love for God differently and even the way that He’s touching them in that moment may vary.”
Morales hopes this annual Mass helps jumpstart a sense of greater inclusiveness in how parishes welcome the faithful. She believes one’s own individual ability to extend genuine welcome and care can help people with disabilities encounter God’s love in the pews and through other encounters of faith.
“Before people write someone with a disability off, talk to them, see what their gifts are and what they can offer the Church as well,” Morales said.
“People with disabilities need to be brought front and center,” said Bryan Kugler, who attended the Mass. “They need to be cherished. They need to be loved.”
Maybe the quote by Pope Leo XIV, found on the programs for the Mass, spoke the message that God wanted to imprint upon the hearts of the hundreds who came on Sunday.
“The quality of human life is not dependent on achievement,” the pope said. “The quality of our lives is dependent on love.”
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