PILGRIMAGE TO ROME 2018

During 2016, the DCYIA Board asked itself a number of questions whether or not this would work.

 In 2017, again in Easter week,  three of us returned to Rome and tried to confirm places and times where we could in fact put on a Conference and, more importantly, have the Holy Father truly meet the deaf community. During that time in Rome, we put together a plan, a staffing list, and a proposed budget. The full Board of DCYIA agreed to make the commitment. During the rest of 2017, and all of 2018, DCYIA and its volunteers worked to put together a program, enlist speakers, raise money to make this all happen.    

 JUNE 18-24, 2018: a team of 27 people (including the DCYIA Board), hearing and deaf, men and women, lay and religious, arrived in Rome and went to work. (An entire group of volunteers in Mexico worked practically day and night for 6 months before to put together all our materials.)

Monday, JUNE 25: after a wonderful Mass at the chapel of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with Fr. Shawn Carey, participants from Germany (including a deaf Deacon and a deaf-blind Deacon); a priest who works with the deaf in Cambodia; deaf and hearing people from USA, Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, Ukraine, and Italy, all gathered for registration. In many cases it was a reunion of people who had not seen each other for years. 

  Tuesday, JUNE 26: an organized visit to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel with deaf tour guides; a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica celebrated by Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States for the Vatican. Despite admitting he had never celebrated a Mass with sign-language interpreters, the Archbishop gave a wonderful homily on the Mark 7 Gospel story of Jesus and the man who was deaf. The experience of having Mass interpreted in four (probably five) sign-languages was impressive and very inspiring to many people who had never attended a Mass like this.                                              

Wednesday, JUNE 27: at 7:30am, our entire group gathered with members of the Special Olympics who were in Rome to celebrate the organization’s’ 50th anniversary in the Paul VI Hall. Pope Francis arrived. He greeted both DCYIA and SPECIAL OLYMPICS and congratulated us for our work.  He went and spent time with every young disabled person with Special Olympics. Then, he came to our group. It is hard to put into any adequate words the feelings of our young people, many of them from poor situations, who were able to meet and greet the Pope, with sign-language interpreters on each side of him. People were stunned into tears of joy and amazement. Seeing the Pope SEE the deaf and CONVERSE with the deaf was something I will never forget. It took 13 years, but it was worth it. The Pope himself seemed very moved by the experience, especially in meeting two deaf priests, Fr. Shawn Carey and Fr. Chris Klusman and two deaf deacons, Pat Graybill (our president of the board) and Josef Rothkopf   from Germany.

That afternoon, we held an excellent Conference at the Augustinian College on the situation of Deaf people and the Catholic Church “A time to walk with Jesus”. Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the newly constituted Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, and a panel of deaf pastoral workers, Sr. Bonnie Mcmenamin SSJ prayer service, made this a day never to be forgotten. (The “witness” and testimony of those who participated in the deaf panel was particularly powerful.)  Cardinal Turkson referenced the Recommendations we had written in 2009 as a good blue-print for the Church to follow in its ministry with deaf persons.

Thursday, JUNE 28: a tour of the Coliseum, and a last meal together with everyone. EDUARDO ALVAREZ, a young deaf leader from Panama, invited us to attend the Catholic Youth week in Panama, January 2019. Later that evening, a two and half hour team evaluation took place. We all admitted we learned a lot, not just from the week, but from working together. What and where DCYIA will do its next project will be decided at its Board meeting in November, Chicago, IL.       

It is impossible to overestimate the contribution and work of the sign-language interpreters and team members during this entire time in Rome/Vatican.  Their work involved more than just interpreting. RAFAEL TREVINO & GERARDO CASTILLO had to schedule interpreting responsibilities for multiple settings, times, and places.  In addition, they had to coordinate whether interpreters were being asked to sign or voice or copy sign speakers, celebrants, and presenters. The entire group of interpreters and our TEAM worked extremely hard throughout all our days in Rome/Vatican.                                                                                             

 One interesting consequence of this trip was publicity, not only for DCYIA, but for deaf people in the Church. A reporter from “America” magazine, a large-circulation Catholic magazine in the USA, interviewed me and others for a story.  Pat Graybill’s interview on an Italian Publication called Servizio Informazione Religiosa (SIR) has been circulated throughout the deaf community.   L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, had a nice follow-up story about DCYIA and what happened at the audience.  There has been a great deal of news about our time in Rome on social media.  A good lesson for us re: the importance of media, social and otherwise.                                                                                                   

We had help! Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Archbishop Patrick Kelly, Archbishop Paul Tighe, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Msgr. Francesco Spinelli, Cardinal Peter Turkson, Msgr. John Kennedy, the Claretian Fathers, the cooperation of P. Amado Llorente Abanzas,OSA, Segretario Generale Patristic Institute Augustinianum, Sr. Veronica Donatello, the hospitality of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the staff at the Vatican Museum (“Dott.ssa Isabella Salandri Direzione Musei Vaticani, Ufficio Servizi e Rapporti con il Pubblico”) Cristina Cuccurullo  at Kiasso- Turismo Internazionale per Sordi ONLUS, Walter Hansen, Sr. Agnes Badura, the McCaskey Family, the generosity of many people especially Edward and Beatriz Schweitzer.  This is just some of the many people and organizations that contribute to DCYIA.

Our entire board (Pat Graybill, Ian Robertson, Maryann Barth, Laureen Lynch-Ryan, Joe Mulcrone, John Kennedy and Chelo Manero Soto) worked tirelessly and as a family with our DCYIA Team.  We are a family and we thank them always.

Long before we got to Rome, DCYIA entrusted itself into the hands of Our Lady of Guadalupe. As usual, she took care of us as only she can!