Having kept pages and pages of notes from the recent Conference at the Vatican, June 4-6, 2010, I will try to give what I hope is a fair summary of the days we were together. I will add my personal observations at the end.

Friday, June 4TH: approximately 70 people gathered for the Conference at the Pius X Auditorium. Forty deaf, almost all from Italy; thirty hearing: priests, religious, representatives from Vatican offices and the government of Italy. My talk was followed by a talk by PROFESSOR MASSIMO BARALDI. He chronicled the history of institutional schools for the deaf in Italy, with emphasis on religious formation. With the coming of mainstreaming, much of what the schools had been able to do in terms of religious formation has been lost. Many young deaf people have no clear religious affiliation or identity. His experience in Italy is similar to ours in the USA where the institutional schools are seeing more deaf young people with at least one other serious disability, and also young deaf people who have "failed" in mainstream settings who now are sent to the institutional schools with the label, "failure".

   However, it was DEACON JOSEF ROTHKOPF (deaf, Germany) whose talk started serious discussions among the participants. (Father Christian from Germany was his interpreter!) Deacon Josef addressed the issue of how do we proclaim God's Word(Scripture) in an effective way in the deaf community.   Josef talked about how the Bible has been translated over the years and that even now there are many different translations of the Bible in the same language. Can we develop translations of the Bible that are appropriate to the deaf without diminishing the content of the message? In Italy right now, the Jehovah's Witnesses are very active among the deaf, using the Bible "against" the Church. How do we respond?
  Later in the day(I will return to a talk that happened in between), FR. GERARD TYRRELL explained his work as a "Chaplain" for the deaf in Ireland. What caused quite a stir was when Fr. Gerard happened to show the "Lectionary for the Deaf" used in the British Isles.

BANG! Between Deacon Josef's presentation and Fr. Gerrard's, the deaf participants took over the proceedings.The questions and comments flew furiously! Who wrote these? Are there other "Deaf Lectionaries" in other countries? How do you develop them? Do the deaf have a part in this process? How do you evaluate he quality? Do these become so "deaf friendly" that they lose the power of God's Word?  At the same time, there was a general dissatisfaction among the deaf about simply having to sign the "hearing"translations of the Bible at Mass.

  This whole issue bled into another issue that was not on the agenda: sign-language interpreters and their role in the Liturgy. Again, there was a lot of response on this from the deaf. How do interpreters learn to do religious interpreting? Is there any way to evaluate their skills? Is there training for religious signing? Volunteer interpreters vs. paid, professional interpreters. Everyone agreed that this issue, tied into the former one on translations, was very important to deaf people in Italy.

  Earlier that same day, SR. VERONICA DONATELLO (Religious Sister, CODA, professional interpreter) gave a talk on developing Christian formation programs for deaf adults.She outlined several different programs in Italy (the ABC course; the "ZERO" course) that she and others have used.  The next day, FR. SAVINO CASTIGLIONE (Rome) gave a good talk on  celebrating the liturgy and sacraments in ways that deaf people can understand.  However, between the two presenters there was an obvious disagreement re: strategies.(Both people care very much about the Faith and deaf people.)  While Sr. Veronica opts for a more active outreach to the deaf, Fr. Savino would emphasize the importance of having a center, a place where the deaf can come for services. Sr. Veronica's push would be for going to the deaf wherever they are. Fr. Savino emphasizes establishing more Church centers where the deaf know they can receive whatever help they need.  Enter into this discussion, FR. JAIME GUTIERREZ VILLANUEVA(deaf priest, Spain). (Thanks a bunch to LORETO his interpreter.)  Fr. Jaime talked about his work with the deaf in Madrid, and the pastoral situation in Spain. (70 dioceses;17 with some sort of deaf ministry.) His description of pastoral work seemed to take in both approaches (discussed above), but with a huge emphasis on technology: web-sites, DVDs, twitter, texting, etc. Fr. Jaime's point was that you do need some sort of identifiable place where the deaf can come for worship (he has a parish for the deaf (Saint Mary of Silence in Madrid), but continue aggressive outreaches to the deaf, and in a special way using technology to reach deaf youth. For example: every Sunday, the readings and homily at his deaf Mass are taped and put on the web.

   Later, Fr. Jaime gave a presentation on World Youth Day in Spain 2011. www.madrid11.com (You can click on the "Disability" link for good info on their plans. Fr. Gerard and I spent three hours Sunday after the Conference discussing with Fr. J and Loreto just how the deaf piece of the WYD would be worked out.)

  There were other speakers, presenters, but the issues that continued to surface were the following:

1) GOD'S WORD: how do we proclaim the message of salvation that is both respectful of the message, yet appropriate for deaf people? What is the role of our bishops in all this?

2) INTERPRETERS: these are key people in the transmission of the truths of Faith. Training? Resources? On-going learning? Evaluation?

3) TECHNOLOGY: this is the world in which many deaf people now relate to one another and to the wider world. How do we use this in an effective way? How do we manage this in a responsible way? Who has the say in how this is to be used?

4) PASTORAL STRATEGIES: in a Church that still does not seem to recognize the unique pastoral challenges of deaf ministry, what strategies give us the best results. How do we measure "results"?

5) WORLD YOUTH DAY: how do we take advantage of this unique opportunity to bring deaf youth into greater participation in the Church's life?

  The Congregation did develop a set of "Conclusions" (in Italian), so we need to wait for their translation.

SOME PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS:

1 I felt honored to be involved in this Conference and to represent the ICF.

2 It is obvious that  the Pontifical Council on the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers feels it has done all it can to promote deaf ministry. Several times, the message was: "The Council has opened a "window" in the Church; YOU have to act, NOW! This is YOUR time to move!"

3 At the same time, we all need to be most grateful to Archbishop Zimowski and especially Archbishop Redrardo and the staff of the Council for its support.(Archbishop Redrardo gave a great homily at the Mass on Sunday re: deaf people in the Church!)

4 ICF performs a valuable function. It is really the only organization right now coordinating information on deaf ministries on an international level.

5 Deaf people are hungering for greater participation in the life of the Church. We need to create more opportunities for this.

   If there is some topic on which you need more info or clarification, feel free to contact me at :jmulcrone@archchicago.org