Never again without them” “

In Italy, one diocese in three has a sector specifically dedicated to the pastoral care of the disabled and the attention of local Churches in this field “is in continuous growth”, according to the catechistical office (department for catechesis to the disabled) of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI). The presence of disabled people in the Church (in Italy there are some three million) was, moreover, one of the principal subjects of the 51ª General Assembly of the CEI which was held over the last few days in Rome. A document on the disabled. The year 2003 is the “European Year of Disabled People”, and it is this year – says Msgr. Walther Ruspi, director of the catechistical office of the Italian Episcopal Conference – that a document will be published in Italy on the presence of disabled people in the Church, a document discussed by the bishops during their recent assembly. It is a “pronouncement” that aims “to testify how the Church lives its ‘catholicity’ in welcoming everyone irrespective of different circumstances of communicative difficulty due to various forms of ‘differing ability’. Disabled people in the Church are a gift of life and love and the ecclesial community would be the poorer without them”. The document which is in the process of being published aims to “gather all those pastoral guidelines that, following indications by bishops, have arisen from concrete experiences with disabled people, both at a national level and in dioceses. Do not “marginalise”, but “welcome”. A “stand” on disability, which on the one hand would “draw attention” to the European Year of the disabled, and on the other permit the Church to speak directly not only with pastoral workers in the sectors, but also with the disabled themselves, through “a person-to-person communication capable of going well beyond words”. This, anticipates Walther Ruspi, director of the catechetical Office of the Italian Episcopal Conference, speaking to SirEurope, is the main “innovation” of the next national Conference of directors of the diocesan catechetical offices, to be held in Rocca di Papa (Rome), from 16 to 19 June, on the theme “First evangelization in the parish”. “Affirming the centrality of the disabled within the Church”, explains the national co-ordinator in this sector, “means not ‘marginalising’ such people, but making them feel ever more fully a part of their own communities”. It means “concentrating on the formation of operators capable of soliciting a ‘response’ from the disabled within the diocese, not only in specialised groups or sectors”. The centrality of the parish. “Presenting a positive image of disabled people in all activities of formation, liturgy and solidarity; vigilance in defending integral Christian health-care, along with a commitment to investing in the field of prevention in such a way as to respect the rights of the disabled; encouraging those responsible for public rehabilitation services, forcefully upholding the need to assign adequate resources to this sector”. These are some of the “pastoral duties” given to parishes, which are also called “to promote a wide-ranging social movement aimed at breaking down all the physical and psychological barriers that deny access to communication”, beginning with themselves. “Evaluate the resources of each individual and sensitise the ecclesial community to the idea of acceptance”; for Scarcella, these are the “watchwords” for the future development of the pastoral care of the disabled, in harmony with activities already underway (or being developed) in parishes, local groups and associations, that all go to make dioceses true “workshops” of reflection and integration.