Then, FR. JAIME GUTIERREZ VILLANUEVA, from madrid, presented a very detailed explanation of WORLD YOUTH DAY 2011 in Madrid, AUGUST 16-21, 2011. The committee in madrid has been very inclusive of the deaf and people with disabilities since the beginning of the planning.

  The basic website is www.madrid11.com.  To reach the deaf ministry directly by email: sordos@jmj2011madrid.com    Later, talking with Fr. Jaime and his interpreter Loreto, they are very anxious to have a good turnout of deaf youth in Spain.  At the same time, they want to know who will be bringing interpreters, how many, etc.   It raises an issue for me.   In Chicago, we hope to bring a deaf group and have already contacted several interpreters who know Spanish and ASL. (Knowing Spanish is NOT a requirement, but it certainly will help.)   However, for deaf Catholic groups around the USA who may only be sending a couple of deaf and who cannot afford to pay for an interpreter, we need to coordinate this.   That is, those dioceses who will send the deaf need to get the information to a central place.   I will discuss this with ICF to see how we might be able to handle this.

   There were several representatives from the Italian bishops' conference at the meeting who asked to speak for a few minutes.    We also had a liely session of exchanges between the presenters and people attending the gathering.  We finished around 7:30pm. Then, a group of us -hearing & deaf; American, Irish, Spanish, Italian -went out to eat.   The conversation at the table was fun, challenging(4 different sign-languages; three different spoken languages), and very confusing to the waiters in the restaurant.   We were in a part of Rome, Trevere, which was totally jammed with people on a beautiful Saturday evening in Rome.  

   I am writing this Sunday morning as we head off for Mass, then the last session of the Conference.