Physically handicapped Catholics

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There are some religious orders that cannot accommodate some handicaps due to the nature of their work, but many more who do accept candidates with disabilities.

Can you name some orders that will accept the handicapped? Perhaps there are older religious in wheelchairs but were they handicapped when they entered the order, or did it happen afterward? I’m really curious as to where these orders are. thank you.
 
lwest said:
I’ve written to bishops, posted question on the EWTN forum and tried to speak to priests individually about it. I’ve yet to find someone who will discuss this topic with me so I’m trying here: Why is the Church so against the physically handicapped? Catholic schools want nothing to do with them, they can’t marry and they can’t join religious orders. Will someone please explain the logic behind this? Thank you.
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Being from Illinois you should know better. What about cardinal George?
 
I’ve heard that there was hope when Cardinal George first became cardinal. He even had a meeting of special needs’ parents to see what needs to be improved regarding the handicapped. They have an office for disabled affairs or soemting like that but to my knowledge there hasn’t been any changes. If I’m wrong, someone please correct me. (being from Illinois doesn’t mean I know things that others don’t)
 
lwest said:
I’ve heard that there was hope when Cardinal George first became cardinal. He even had a meeting of special needs’ parents to see what needs to be improved regarding the handicapped. They have an office for disabled affairs or soemting like that but to my knowledge there hasn’t been any changes. If I’m wrong, someone please correct me. (being from Illinois doesn’t mean I know things that others don’t)
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Cardinal George has a physical disability. He walks with a very deffinate limp from his childhood polio. I did not check you profile to see if you are Catholic but most Catholics are aware of this and I heard him speak about how he was turned away from a seminary because of it. We have made great advances in the past several years and are advancing further every day.
 
yes, I’m Catholic and, yes, I know that Cardinal George had polio as a child and was told he couldn’t attend a certain school that he is now in charge of (because it’s in his diocese). he’s even laughed about it saying htat it proves God has a sense of humor. However, I know of no improvements in catholic schools because of his personal experience. I haven’t checked your profile, either, so I don’t know if you’re disabled/handicapped or not or have any personal experiences in this matter.
 
lwest said:
yes, I’m Catholic and, yes, I know that Cardinal George had polio as a child and was told he couldn’t attend a certain school that he is now in charge of (because it’s in his diocese). he’s even laughed about it saying htat it proves God has a sense of humor. However, I know of no improvements in catholic schools because of his personal experience. I haven’t checked your profile, either, so I don’t know if you’re disabled/handicapped or not or have any personal experiences in this matter.
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I am an active member of the Knights of Columbus, who are very active in our support of our brothers/sisters who have mental disabilities. I have a neice who has Downs Syndrome, all of her brothers and sisters received a Catholic education, she went to a public school because only a public school system could afford to meet her special needs not because of any prejudice against her for her disability. She went to a special needs CCD class. IMO if Catholic schools are not educating kids with disabilities it is because of the cost involved not because of any lack of concern or prejudice.
 
Mental disabilities are different than physical disabilities. Catholic schools could easily make accommodations such as seating in a classroom, extra time to walk down halls, ramps, etc. But, as I’ve said that I’ve heard, they don’t have to, so they don’t. And I’ve heard from several people who are physically disabed that the kids in the catholic schools were the meanest and most condescending they’ve met in their lives. I just think it’s a shame that people are driven away like htat. You’d think Catholics would be nicer, and more compassionate. It’s the only point I’m tryng to make.
 
[IMO if Catholic schools are not educating kids with disabilities it is because of the cost involved not because of any lack of concern or prejudice.
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But that opens up the question as to why Catholic schools employ teachers who can’t or won’t teach the mentally handicapped. No additional equipment is needed to teach someone with Downs…special skills are but shouldn’t Catholic schools who charge thousands and thousands of dollars per student/per year employ only the highest qualifed?

I think it’s shameful to promote the attidue of hiding away the handicapped. It just feeds the elitist attitude of so many Catholic schools.
 
lwest said:
Mental disabilities are different than physical disabilities. Catholic schools could easily make accommodations such as seating in a classroom, extra time to walk down halls, ramps, etc. But, as I’ve said that I’ve heard, they don’t have to, so they don’t. And I’ve heard from several people who are physically disabed that the** kids in the catholic schools were the meanest and most condescending they’ve met in their lives. I just think it’s a shame that people are driven away like htat. You’d think Catholics would be nicer**, and more compassionate. It’s the only point I’m tryng to make.
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Give me a break. Do you really think that kids in Catholic schools are meaner and more condescending than those in public schools? That is just silly.
  1. Kids are kids and often mean. They have to be taught to accept other’s disabilities in any school. Some are better than others.
  2. We have moved a lot, so I can attest that kids aren’t the same from public school to public school, so making a grand comparison of Catholic school kids to others is insulting.
  3. You seem to make a false assumption that Catholic school kids are majority Catholic. It depends on the school, but, as a rule, they don’t discriminate based on religion. How do you know the “mean kids” the disabled experienced were Catholic mean kids?
 
That’s just what I’ve heard in my little corner of the world. of course it’s not the same everywhere and yes kids have to learn to be accepting. I know most of the kids in Catholic schools aren’t Catholic and those that are ‘Catholic’ often come from cafeteria Catholics. But the experiences I’ve relayed are all true. It’s not meant to be insulting but to be an eye-opener. I think we, as Catholics, need to be more accepting and more compasionate than society because it’s driving people away from teh faith. You can’t see any of this as possibly being true???
 
lwest said:
That’s just what I’ve heard in my little corner of the world. of course it’s not the same everywhere and yes kids have to learn to be accepting. I know most of the kids in Catholic schools aren’t Catholic and those that are ‘Catholic’ often come from cafeteria Catholics. But the experiences I’ve relayed are all true. It’s not meant to be insulting but to be an eye-opener. I think we, as Catholics, need to be more accepting and more compasionate than society because it’s driving people away from teh faith. You can’t see any of this as possibly being true???
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No, I’m totally against Catholics being more accepting and compassionate. 😉 😃

Of course, it is important for us to work towards improving our Cathollic schools in this regard. However, IMHO your very negative method of denigrating everyone involved won’t be as effective. Try approaching things from a positive stance, and you will get more results.

One of the things I noticed from the kid’s standpoint is a matter of exposure and school attitude. For some reason, we have a lot of mentally handicapped kids at my daughter’s public school. They have a great program there, so perhaps the families were drawn to our community.

Anyway, my daughter and other students are set up as mentors to their “special friends.” The result is that she has a better familiarity and acceptance of her special friends than even I do. I am still uncomfortable around those with mental handicaps, because I am self-conscious about how to act. In my experience growing up with a physically handicapped brother, I would say the same is true there. Once kids spent time with him and got to know him, his physical handicap was “less noticable” to them.
 
robert…was that little symbol supposed to convey some kind of message or do you just want us to pat you on the back for being on a swim team?
 
lwest said:
robert…was that little symbol supposed to convey some kind of message or do you just want us to pat you on the back for being on a swim team?
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It is called - accidently hitting “enter.” I’ve since edited the post with what I had to say, so you can now pat yourself on the back for being on the uncharitable posters team. :mad:

BTW…for your education, in case you don’t know what it means, “swimming the Tiber” means that I converted to Catholicism in 1990. Another poster encouraged me to put that on my signature as part of the “swim team” because other converts have done it on this forum. The “little symbol” is the Medal of St. Benedict, because I am drawn to The Rule.
 
Hi Robert,

Thanks for the clarification about the symbol thing and I apologize for being uncharitable. I’m venting so yes it appears negative. My daughter has experienced such negative experiences lately that I need to vent. I’ll pick myself up and carry on. Maybe that is her cross at the moment. It breaks my heart that it is such an effort to ‘educate’ people about being kind to the handicapped. When I mention things that have happened, i’m not being negative…it’s simply what happened. If I mention a priest that molests a child, am I being ‘negative’ or simply relaying something bad that happened, that shouldn’t happen, that needs to be fixed?

Yes, mentoring can work…some public schools do that.
 
lwest said:
There are some religious orders that cannot accommodate some handicaps due to the nature of their work, but many more who do accept candidates with disabilities.

Can you name some orders that will accept the handicapped? Perhaps there are older religious in wheelchairs but were they handicapped when they entered the order, or did it happen afterward? I’m really curious as to where these orders are. thank you.
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I think it would have to be a monastery that is inclusive of handicapped persons. A monastery is looking for someone who can handle monastic life and carry their own weight Handicapped persons would call for many needs that would put stresses on a community not equipped for it. Even if they have wheel chair access the individual has other needs that monasteries are just ill equipped for.

Prayers going out for you and your daughter.
 
Thank you for the prayers. At the risk of sounding argumentative…and believe it or not that’s not my intent…but what do relifious communities do when a healthy member becomes sick or disabed? Are they kicked out or tended to? If they can provide the resources then, why not at the onset? And don’t we have nursing orders? If outsiders can be medically accommodated, why not one of their own? It still seems like a way to shove aside the handicapped.

Remember the story of Stt. Margaret of Costello? She was disabled and her family locked her in a closet. A priest came to visit her (according to teh movie, anyway) and counselled her but the movie never showed him addressing the family about any mistreatment, as if to say that locking her in a closet was acceptable. I know it was just a movie and things may not have happened that way but it made me incredibly angry that such treatment could be entertained as acceptable. How can a Church who claims to be pro-life treat others with such indignity?
 
lwest said:
Mental disabilities are different than physical disabilities. Catholic schools could easily make accommodations such as seating in a classroom, extra time to walk down halls, ramps, etc. But, as I’ve said that I’ve heard, they don’t have to, so they don’t. And I’ve heard from several people who are physically disabed that the kids in the catholic schools were the meanest and most condescending they’ve met in their lives. I just think it’s a shame that people are driven away like htat. You’d think Catholics would be nicer, and more compassionate. It’s the only point I’m tryng to make.
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Not really. Wheel chair ramps, special seating, special hearing devices for the hearing impared, accomodations for the blind, someone to insure that a wheel chair bound or otherwise physically impared person is not accidently harmed in the rush between classes all cost money and Catholic schools are woefully short of money. If they were to try to accomodate everyone like the public schools do we sould see the tuition go even higher. I think it varies by school. Our school has an elementry student who is blind. His parents pay for his special needs such as Braille books and his computer for writing.
 
But they allow him in the school and that in and of itself is tremendous! We offered to pay for an extra set of books, for a ramp, etc,but they wanted nothing of it. It also doesn’t cost any money to be nice…like not knocking down a kid in the hallway or at least having a policy that’s across the board…‘we can make these accommodations but not those’ instead of letting each teacher decide what they’re willing to do. that’s not a money issue, that’s a compassion, fairness issue.

It all worked out for the best…we homeschool now…my able-bodied son, too, and things will be fine… it’s a lot cheaper and they’re learning more about their faith than they ever would in a Catholic school. Stilll think it’s sad, though, for reasons stated previously.
 
lwest said:
But they allow him in the school and that in and of itself is tremendous! We offered to pay for an extra set of books, for a ramp, etc,but they wanted nothing of it. It also doesn’t cost any money to be nice…like not knocking down a kid in the hallway or at least having a policy that’s across the board…‘we can make these accommodations but not those’ instead of letting each teacher decide what they’re willing to do. that’s not a money issue, that’s a compassion, fairness issue.

It all worked out for the best…we homeschool now…my able-bodied son, too, and things will be fine… it’s a lot cheaper and they’re learning more about their faith than they ever would in a Catholic school. Stilll think it’s sad, though, for reasons stated previously.
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Good for you. I will keep you and your family in my prayers but try to remember not to paint with too broad a brush. Just because one Catholic school does something does not mean they all do it. If you ever need extra assistance please contact your local Knights of Columbus. We donate to all kinds of good causes other than mentally handicapped.
 
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