Religious Life and Disabilities

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If I can remember correctly I read somewhere in the Knights of Columbus News letter saying there was a priest that was hearing impaired. He could use sign language to communicate to others. He was a priest. I believe if a person has an impairement and they can do the job as a shephard, then they shouldn’t be denied that rightfully position. If some one has mental problems, and they prove that they can do the job, then so be it.
We should not turn away qualified people to the priesthood, or nunhood.
 
We had a priest in Brooklyn whose job it was to set up ministries for the deaf. Our parish was the pilot program. He and an interpreter arranged for the 12 noon Mass to be signed, and the interpreters were also the lectors and song leaders. It was a great program and there were deaf people from all over Brooklyn. So that particular disability WAS his ministry. And I too cannot understand why stuttering would prevent someone from joining a nun. I never knew a nun who had to give a speech. Not all nuns are teachers, there are other jobs for them to do.
 
Again, no one, even the fittest, have a right to a religious vocation. There are many ways and places to serve God. Even with physical and mental disabilities, we can serve God. But if we have a set plan and become angry or indignant when others don’t help us put it in place, we are trying to have OUR will be done rather than GOD’s.

Most religious communities live very simply lives with minimal physical comforts. If you need regular medications, treatments, physical accomodations, etc., it could be very hard for those to be provided. The order would then reject you not necessarily because they didn’t like you or think you didn’t have enough faith, but because they knew they could not provide for your physical or mental/emotional needs. There is no harm or shame in that.

There are also other avenues for us to serve the Church than as a vowed religious or even as a married person. We need to accept with humility and love the decisions of the proper authorities in issues of vocation and service.
 
Mrs_Sally said:
Again, no one, even the fittest, have a right to a religious vocation. There are many ways and places to serve God. Even with physical and mental disabilities, we can serve God. But if we have a set plan and become angry or indignant when others don’t help us put it in place, we are trying to have OUR will be done rather than GOD’s.

Most religious communities live very simply lives with minimal physical comforts. If you need regular medications, treatments, physical accomodations, etc., it could be very hard for those to be provided. The order would then reject you not necessarily because they didn’t like you or think you didn’t have enough faith, but because they knew they could not provide for your physical or mental/emotional needs. There is no harm or shame in that.

There are also other avenues for us to serve the Church than as a vowed religious or even as a married person. We need to accept with humility and love the decisions of the proper authorities in issues of vocation and service.
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This is not always true. Father Hampsh, a well-know priest, went to 7 seminaries before he was accepted in the last one. Why? Because he stuttered! He has a vocation for sure and is filled with God, no doubt, as he serves Him very well…

If he was humble and accepted the first seminary’s verdict, where would he be now? Sometimes, the person needs to persecere and possibly find, through prayer, the convent/seminary that one is called to…
 
Shoshana said:
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This is not always true. Father Hampsh, a well-know priest, went to 7 seminaries before he was accepted in the last one. Why? Because he stuttered! He has a vocation for sure and is filled with God, no doubt, as he serves Him very well…

If he was humble and accepted the first seminary’s verdict, where would he be now? Sometimes, the person needs to persecere and possibly find, through prayer, the convent/seminary that one is called to…
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I do not know that story, but there are others of people perservering in application to seminary or an order. However, in each of the cases I am familiar with the person was humble and accepting of the decision of each particular group. We do not hear about them grumbling, complaining, or stating that they have been denied something ‘rightfully’ their’s. Not on this thread, but in other discussions I have heard that and I caution against it.
 
Mrs_Sally said:
I do not know that story, but there are others of people perservering in application to seminary or an order. However, in each of the cases I am familiar with the person was humble and accepting of the decision of each particular group. We do not hear about them grumbling, complaining, or stating that they have been denied something ‘rightfully’ their’s. Not on this thread, but in other discussions I have heard that and I caution against it.
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Ok, you are spot on…👍
 
Mrs_Sally said:
Most religious communities live very simply lives with minimal physical comforts. If you need regular medications, treatments, physical accomodations, etc., it could be very hard for those to be provided. The order would then reject you not necessarily because they didn’t like you or think you didn’t have enough faith, but because they knew they could not provide for your physical or mental/emotional needs. There is no harm or shame in that.
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So, since I would obviously need regular hearing aid batteries (and hearing aids every other decade or so), most wouldn’t accept me if I wanted to join an order?
 
Jennifer G-
If you have interest in religious life your best tactic would be actually contacting communitites you have interest in and asking them your questions about whether they would be able to admit a person with your particular needs. Pray for God’s will to be done in all things and then start investigating- but you are much more likely to get accurate answers about your questions from the source, and those communities you speak to who are not able to admit someone with your needs may be able to offer some guidance to you none the less.
God bless you! He Whose Will is Always Good!
Elizabeth
 
Jennifer_G said:
So, since I would obviously need regular hearing aid batteries (and hearing aids every other decade or so), most wouldn’t accept me if I wanted to join an order?
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Not necessarily, but it would be the community’s decision as to whether they could accomodate that. We don’t think of modern hearing aids and batteries as being any big deal these days, but the order may have a different perspective. For example, if they have houses in 3rd world countries and they regularly transfer people between assignments, they might realize that you could possibly spend quite a bit of time in a place where they are hard to get. That is why you would need to speak to them directly about your needs as you discern whether to join. At the same time, they are discerning whether to admit you (or any other candidate), it is a two-way street. You may find you don’t want to join and they can decide not to admit you–and neither of you has to give much of an answer as to why.
 
In exploring any sense of vocation the most important thing is to keep praying, to keep raising your heart and mind up to our Saviour. I live with a fatiguing disability that affects my ability to think clearly, to concentrate and to remember things like appointments, deadlines, dates and times and etc. Without medication I would very easily fall into cycles of depression during those times when my energy levels are low and I’m experiencing fatigue symptoms. As a middle aged woman with a failed marriage behind her as well as a chronic illness who needs to walk with a stick I don’t see myself as being all that attractive to most religious congregations so led by the Spirit+ I have found a way by which I can serve.
Prayer is a source of grace and joy in my life and I have taken private vows of purity and simplicity. I dress old fashioned plain and simple, I wear a tiechel headscarf over a cap during all my waking hours and I live very much as a modern day hermit or anchoress. I make Rosaries which I freely give away. I am an Affliate of the Little Company of Mary and I pray their daily prayers, praying for those who are in despair or alone, or at the point of death. Just recently I have joined with the Contemplative Prayer group within our local parish and the joy and grace that flows from drawing near to Our Lord+ through such prayer is beyond words.
Perhaps in time I may make application to become a canonical hermit, but at present that doesn’t feel that important to me. And yes some folk in the parish gossip and talk together and criticise me and say I shouldn’t be doing what I do, but I just offer that up and take no notice.
 
I have read that people with disabilities can be empowered by giving them tools that would help them become more independent. I have a brother who is deaf and a friend with dyslexia. My brother is studying to become a priest, and thanks our parents for helping with his deafness. Aside from sign language, our parents never did abandon him in terms of support and love. They made ways to make it possible for him to finish school in an “normal” setting. He went to high school with “normal” kids.

My dyslexic friend uses his computer to “read things” to him. He also uses a speech recognition software so that he can “type” or record his thoughts. So far, he is doing okay with school.

I was wondering if you know of any other tools that could help people with disabilities live more normal lives?
 
I raised a kid with vision problems. And we had lots of magnifiers over the years. The last one we had was a nifty contraption that sort of enlarged the text and read it back to you. Unfortunately, my grandson is also suffering from ONH. So it’s like having the nightmare all over again. But he has it better now… magnifiers now are a lot easy to use. Check out EyePal and some other tools for the blind they have nowadays.

I guess the best tools, however, are patience, guidance, love and support. Without it, all technology will amount to nothing!
 
justicerandall said:
I raised a kid with vision problems. And we had lots of magnifiers over the years. The last one we had was a nifty contraption that sort of enlarged the text and read it back to you. Unfortunately, my grandson is also suffering from ONH. So it’s like having the nightmare all over again. But he has it better now… magnifiers now are a lot easy to use. Check out EyePal and some other tools for the blind they have nowadays.

I guess the best tools, however, are patience, guidance, love and support. Without it, all technology will amount to nothing!
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Thank you for this JusticeRandall. I was thinking that there might be some way to sort of preview these technologies before I buy them.
 
God’s ways are not always our ways. God works through superiors and vocation directors and gives them the graces to discern whether a person is suited to the religious life or not. My own life is a very good example of this. We may not always like what the decision is, but it is usually nevertheless the will of God. People who complain and get upset because they do not get accepted to religious community after religious community are not abandoning themselves to God’s will.

We can very easily be blinded by our own agendas. For example, about 10 years ago, I was obsessed with the idea that God was calling me to be a religious. I was a convert to the Faith and had no appreciation of the different states of life in the Church. I thought that I had to become a nun to share fully in the life of the Church. Several religious communities rejected me because of my history of depression and the fact that I was on numerous medications. Either the community said I was not suited or I decided I did not fit. A friend and I tried to start our own religious community, but that never got off the ground due to lack of interest. After the last community I visited said no, I was devastated, almost suicidal. I thought God was playing a cruel joke on me by making me desire the religious life but not allowing me to have it.

A few years ago, I met the man who would become my husband. We got married and had a beautiful daughter. God knew best! After I was married, he allowed me to find two wonderful groups, the Daughters of St Francis de Sales and the Lay Missionaries of Charity. I am now a consecrated lay person! This is what God was calling me to all along!!! I was just too blind to see it! The LMC’s and the Daughters are my family.They have fulfilled my desire of being consecrated to God while living a normal family life. I am very happy and fulfilled as a lay person. If I had become a nun, I would not have my daughter. God always, always knows best! Never stop believing that.
 
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