THURSDAY, JUNE 3rd: things did NOT get off to a great start. I arrived in Rome at 7:05am, but my bags (and all my clothes) had been left behind in Atlanta, GA.   I had to go out to buy a black suit and clergy shirt!    That evening, FR. GERARD TYRRELL(Ireland) & I went to join the Italian deaf for a Mass with the Pope to celebrate Corpus Christi (The Body of Christ) at St. John Lateran. We were outside and a terrible storm(the worst in Rome in two years!) hit us and we were drenched. The Mass was moved to the inside of the church. The Pope cmae; he looks so frail!  Yet, he celebrated the Mass with great energy and faith.

FRIDAY, JUNE 4th: The Conference on EPHPHETA! THE DEAF PERSON, ANNOUNCER OF THE GOSPEL, began at 9am in the Pius X Auditorium, Vatican City.   ARCHBISHOP ZYGMUNT ZIMOWSKI & ARCHBISHOP JOSE REDRARDO both greeted us to begin the Conference.   The Conference is all in Italian (voice and sign-language).  We have listening devices with a person to translate into English. The opening prayer was done with a beautiful video using the Italian language, music, and gorgeous images.  Everyone signed the prayer, along with the video, in Italian sign-language.  (Italian sign-language and American sign-language are not the same.)  We also have people interpreting the conference in german and Spanish(Spain) sign-language.

   I gave the opening talk, "SIGNS OF HEALING AND MERCY TO DEAF PEOPLE WHO ARE SICK AND SUFFERING."  I discussed the talk with the Italian interpreters.  One of my topics was "HOSPICE". Interestingly, "Hospice" is not a well-known idea in Europe. In fact, there is no sign for the word! A big emphasis in my talk was deaf people as Care Ministers of the Sick.  The deaf who attended the talk were very interested in this, because it is a new idea for them.   One of my other topics was the whole area of mental health care and the deaf. Again, several people expressed a concern that very little is done re: mental health and the deaf, outside of USA, England, Ireland.

  The next speaker was PROFESSOR MASSIMO BARALDI, the Director of one of the institutional schools for the deaf in Italy. He discussed the history of the institutional schools for the deaf, what is happening in deaf education in Italy now, and what is the future.   He told me later that in Italy there is a huge increase in the number of deaf children who have disabilities, and no one seems to know why.   He said that when the deaf attended the institutional schools, they learned the Catholic Faith. Now, with mainstreaming, many young deaf have no idea what the Catholic Faith means.

  After a break, DR. JOSEF ROTHKOPF,  deaf Permanent Deacon from Germany, gave a powerful presentation re: evangelization with deaf people. He emphasized the need to do a much better job using the Bible in evangelization.  However, he pointed out that we need to figure out how to take the Bible and "translate" it into a language deaf people can understand and use.

 There was a question and answer period, with a lot of discussion centering around Deacon Josef's topic.   It was 12:30pm. Following the Italian tradition, we broke for lunch to return at 4pm!

  The afternoon: SR. VERONICA DONATELLO, the hearing daughter of  Italian deaf parents and a religious Sister, gave her presentation on Spiritual Formation programs for adult deaf people.  She emphasized how more and more of these programs depend on being creative with technology, especially computers.   The deaf ARE hungry to learn about Jesus and what His message is.  However, technology can never replace human interaction.

  The final presentation was by FR. GERARD TYRRELL from Ireland. He described the program of  Chaplaincy for the Deaf in Ireland. Part of his talk explained the use of the "Lectionary (Bible readings at Mass) for the Deaf" used in Ireland."  Then the discussion...and what a discussion!!!!

   We spent well over an hour with all sorts of questions and comments from the deaf community re: how to develop a lectionary for deaf people; how do we take a written langauge(the Bible), translate it into our native languages (Italian, English, etc), then translate it again into sign-languages. This topic caused a lot of discussion(that continued into Saturday) re: the difference between "adapting" the Bible into sign-language without destroying the content of the Scriptures.   We finally ended at 8pm!

SATURDAY MORNING, JUNE 5TH: a glorious, beauitful day in Rome! Not a cloud in the sky. It is "tourist season" in Italy and the streets of Rome and the Vatican are jammed!  None of us want to go inside to the meeting, but.......

   The lead-off speaker this morning is FR. SAVINO CASTIGLIONE, the priest who works with the deaf community of Rome. He gave an excellent talk about the Liturgy, the sacraments, and deaf people.   He made a wonderful point:in the Mass we do not celebrate  "magic", but a "mystery", that Jesus Christ is present with us here and now. He emphasized that for many deaf people, they do not understand the Sacraments and how Christ is present in each Sacrament.

  Next FR. JAIME GUTIERREZ VILLANUEVA, young deaf priest from Spain(www.stamsilencio.com), gave his talk on celebrating the sacraments for and with deaf people. He uses websites in a very powerful way to do faith education with the deaf community.  In Spain there are three deaf priests.  There are 70 dioceses, but only 17 have any kind of deaf ministry.

Again, we had a very energetic, at times "heated", discussion about: sign-language interpreters(how do they get trained; how do they develop skills in religious signing; what is their role at Mass); Bible texts(don't dumb down the texts, this insults deaf people); what is a "deaf liturgy"; how do we proclaim the faith in a "deaf way";  how to attract deaf young people to the Faith.   Even though the topic is Italy, so many of the questions apply to deaf ministry throughout the world.

 Time for lunch, 12:30pm.  I head back to the place where we are staying, THE DOMUS SANTAE MARTHAE,  the hotel in the Vatican.   The weather is unbelievable: sunny, warm, not a single cloud in the sky. For lunch I stop at one of the food vans that are all over Rome. I get a pannini (salami & cheese sandwich), an ice tea, and walk back enjoying Rome on a gorgeous summer day.   The next set of Conferences begin at 4pm (more in my next report). By the way, my clothes finally arrived around 5pm on Friday!