2018 Disability Awareness Magazine

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DISABILITY AWARENESS MAGAZINE “There is a plan and a purpose, a value to every life, no matter what its location, age, gender or disability.”

– Sharron Angle

Special Olympics celebrates 50 years | Learning at your own pace w w w. p i ttsb urghcatho l i c.org

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4 | Getting it right: As Mass schedules change, now is the time to make sure church buildings are accessible to all.

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6 | House of mercy: Mass aims for inclusion of sensorychallenged people.

8 | In the loop: It’s a new day for parishioners of St. Louise de Marillac Parish due to innovative technology.

10 | Historic milestone: Special Olympics turns 50 this year.

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12 | Grateful Kansan: A miracle cure leads a man back to Sydney, Australia.

16 | Papal message: Francis looks to the Gospel for a special teaching moment.

17 | Making the right choice: It was St. Anthony School Programs for a local family.

On the cover...

Don’t call me “brave.”

I do cringe when people marvel at me, saying I must be “brave” or “inspiring” – just because I am out shopping on my own. “You must be so brave.” I find this phrase very patronizing. Don’t say this to me unless I have wrestled a tiger or a crocodile or done something extraordinary like fly to the moon and back. I don’t see how I can be inspiring by getting on with life.

— Paralympic wheelchair racer Anne Wafula Strike

VISIT: WWW.PITTSBURGHCATHOLIC.ORG

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Vol. 10, No. 4 Publisher | Bishop David A. Zubik General Manager | Ann Rodgers Editor | William Cone Operations Manager | Carmella Weismantle Disability Awareness Magazine Project Editors William Cone | Phil Taylor Associate Editors Phil Taylor (Special Projects) Matthew Peaslee (News) Staff Writer | John W. Franko Graphic Designer E. Denise Shean Advertising Director Carmella Weismantle Account Executives Michael A. Check | Paul Crowe Michael Wire Circulation Mgr./Parish News Coord.

Peggy Zezza Administrative Assistant | Karen Hanlin Office Assistant | Jean DeCarlo

� Advertising: ads@pittsburghcatholic.org Editorial: editor@pittsburghcatholic.org Marketplace: www.pittsburghcatholic.org Pittsburgh Catholic Disability Awareness Magazine is a complimentary publication available at all 188 Catholic parishes in the Diocese of Pittsburgh from the Pittsburgh Catholic Publishing Associates, Inc. Paid first-class delivered subscriptions are available.

~

Acceptance of an advertisement in the Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine, while based on an assumption of integrity on the part of the advertiser, does not imply endorsement by the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Cover design by E. Denise Shean.

Disability Awareness 2018

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 3

The time is right Parishes can correct oversights of inclusion for people with disabilities

By DEACON TIM KILLMEYER As we begin the good work of bringing together people of multiple parishes, we have a wonderful opportunity to fix some things that may have been lacking in regard to ministry to and with people in those groupings who live with a disability.

Statistics provided by the National Catholic Partnership on Disability show that 20 percent of the people within any parish’s boundaries live with a disabling condition, and one family in three includes someone who has significant limitations. Approximately 58 percent of those with disabilities have a physical limitation; slightly less than 9 percent have a sensory disability; about 5 percent have a cognitive disability involving either mental retardation or mental illness; with the remaining 28 percent having a serious medical condition.

These statistics suggest that a parish with 1,000 members needs to give consideration to the special needs of approximately 200 parishioners.

For various reasons, parishes in the past often placed the needs of some of our most faithful sisters and brothers on the back burner. Now is the perfect opportunity to correct those oversights.

I’ll offer one obvious example: If you are combining four parishes down to two campuses, how many handicapped parking spaces are there total on all four campuses?

How many in your “main” campus alone?

How many more spaces will you need to add when you close those other campuses?

The physical design of our church buildings speaks first and strongest about the value the parish community places on the inclusion of people with disabilities. This was forcefully described in detail in paragraphs 20 through 23 of the “Pastoral Statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops on Persons with Disabilities,” which will mark its 40th anniversary in November.

“The most obvious obstacle to participation in parish activities faced by many people with disabilities is the physical design of parish

4 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

buildings. Structurally inaccessible buildings are at once a sign and a guarantee of their isolation from the community ... Mere cost must never be the exclusive consideration, however, since the provisions of free access to religious functions for all interested people is a pastoral duty” (my emphasis).

“It is essential that all forms of the liturgy be completely accessible to people with disabilities, since these forms are the essence of the spiritual tie that binds the Christian community together. To exclude members of the parish from these celebrations of the life of the church, even by passive omission, is to deny the reality of that community.”

(The complete text of the bishops’ statement can be found at www.ncpd.org/views-newspolicy/policy/church/bishops/pastoral.)

For things beyond parking spaces, groupings might want to use this list to help choose campuses if they have not done so already. Include these in your considerations, and if they do not currently exist put them in your initial plans. As was noted, if they are not done now they probably won’t get done five years from now: • Access to the buildings. Ramps? Wide enough doors? Automatic doors?

• Handicap-accessible restrooms? Are there changing tables? Put some assist bars next to the commodes in the non-handicap

bathrooms as well. You’d be surprised how many people need them!

• Where will people in wheelchairs sit? Pew cuts at various places throughout the church allow people to sit with their families. Remove a pew or two near the front as well.

• Are there listening-assist devices available for people who are hard of hearing? I even know of priests who use them! Add a listenassist transmitter and put signs up letting people know they are available. (And let the ushers know where to get them.)

• Is your sound system loud enough?

• Do you have large-print worship aids? Do people know about them?

• Is your sanctuary accessible? If not, can you add a ramp somewhere? (Even our priests, as they age, might appreciate this.)

Do you need railings to help people get up steps to the ambo?

• Do you keep low-gluten hosts on hand?

Do people know they are available? Do you have a system for distributing them? (Even something as simple as the ushers letting the priest know they will need one — in a separate pyx — and telling the person to go to the priest to receive Communion.)

• Are there people on the autism spectrum or with other cognitive disorders in your parish grouping who would benefit from a Mass with minimal sensory overloads like loud music and incense. Can you include one in your schedule? Once a week? Twice a month?

These are the minimum things to consider.

See Time, Page 9

The physical design of our church buildings speaks first and strongest about the value the parish community places on the inclusion of people with disabilities.

Disability Awareness 2018

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Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 7/9/18 5:165 PM

Trinidad Mass aims for inclusion of sensory-challenged people

By LAURA ANN PHILLIPS Catholic News Service AROUCA, Trinidad — More than four years ago, Saira Joseph-La Foucade stopped attending Mass.

She used to be quite regular, with her husband, daughter and son, until, one Sunday, a parishioner asked, “Please take him outside.”

“Him” was her son, Matheaus, a toddler at the time, who had been diagnosed as moderate to severe on the autism spectrum.

The family had already cut down on outings, “because I would take him out,” said La Foucade, “and people would be not nice.”

She said she thought church was the one place at which they would be welcome or, at least, politely tolerated.

“Not being able to go to the mall or

movies was nothing, but the missing Mass was too much for me,” said La Foucade.

“Because, I always felt he, as a baptized Roman Catholic, had a place in church just like everybody else!”

So, in 2014, she visited then-Archbishop Joseph Harris of Port-of-Spain. He had been a parish priest back in her home parish of the Holy Trinity in Arouca for 15 years.

“When he became archbishop, I felt God calling me to go and talk with him. Even if nothing would happen, I knew he would, at least, have given me an ear.”

He gave her more than that: permission to find a sympathetic priest to celebrate sensory-friendly Sunday Masses, and his private chapel in which to conduct the liturgies.

“It took a long while to get a priest to say yes!” she laughed. “But, Father Dexter, when I asked him, he said yes immediately.”

Spiritan Father Dexter Brereton is a lecturer at the Seminary of St. John Vianney and the Uganda Martyrs in Trinidad. He is also currently parish priest of Holy Trinity, Arouca, a semi-rural parish 12 miles east of the capital.

When he was assigned there in September 2015, the sensory-friendly liturgies moved, too.

And La Foucade formed the Bethesda Catholic Community, which celebrated its third anniversary July 8. The name “Bethesda” means “house of mercy” or “house of grace” and is the place Christ where healed a paralyzed man beside the Pool of Siloam.

Bethesda promotes the inclusion of special-needs people into church life, while providing moral support and advice to their families. The community prepared eight young people to receive first Communion at a June 2017 ceremony and is in the process of assembling a second

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6 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

CNS PHOTO/LAURA ANN PHILLIPS

A volunteer, top right, looks on as a family with an autistic child, left, attends Mass July 8 at Holy Trinity Church in Arouca, Trinidad.

Disability Awareness 2018

The multi-sensory nature of the traditional Mass can mean sensory overload to someone with neurological challenges. And, for the uninitiated, sensory-friendly liturgies can be a test of mindfulness. group, as well as a confirmation class., The multi-sensory nature of the traditional Mass can mean sensory overload to someone with neurological challenges.

And, for the uninitiated, sensory-friendly liturgies can be a test of mindfulness.

For example, the congregation sits for the entire Mass. At Communion, the celebrant or extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist go to the pews, and those wishing to receive Communion so indicate.

“For an autistic child, to stand signals it’s time to leave,” said Tamitra Williams, mother of 6-year-old Salim, who has cerebral palsy and global development delay. “It can be difficult to get an autistic child to sit back down.”

People are asked not to wear perfume or brightly colored clothing, since this can trigger negative reactions for sthose hypersensitive to scent or color. There is normally one musical instrument, and singing is at a minimum. No microphones or sound systems are used out of consideration for those who find loud noises intolerable. The homily is brief; the entire liturgy normally lasts no more than 45 minutes. And, should someone be inclined to wander about humming during the entire Mass, well, that’s normal.

“There is a void in church where the persons with disabilities cannot cope with the Mass and, usually, those persons who cannot cope (here) cannot cope with other social things,” said La Foucade.

A high-functioning autistic associate opened her eyes to the impact of sensory processing disorder.

“He told me: ‘When I walk into a church and closed environments, I can smell every single person in there. Like if it’s a hundred perfumes! I get a hundred scents and it greets me like a wall by the door!’”

La Foucade said, adding, “He is able to express how he feels.”

That moved her to pay attention to her son and others unable to express how they

Disability Awareness 2018

were being affected by the stimuli in their environments.

“I realized, with my son ... and other persons with disabilities, when they walk into a room, they always pause by the door,” she mused. “And, I realize it’s because it impacts them before they go in.”

The solution? She takes Matheaus to Mass early, “so people can walk in to him, rather than him walking in to everybody at one time.”

Over the years, the number and variety of people attending the liturgy has grown.

“Disability has no bias. Initially, we thought it would have been children; we have adults with disabilities and a range of disabilities that come.”

Consequently, Bethesda trains volunteers to assist those who need support, including occupying distracted

children and, even adults, leaving caregivers free to focus on the liturgy. A sign language interpreter is also present and will sit beside a deaf person or in common view should there be more than one person needing the service.

Anything for inclusivity. And visibility.

Now sensory-friendly Masses are held monthly at two locations in east and south Trinidad.

“I am so tired of hearing the word ‘awareness’!” said La Foucade. “People keep saying we have to raise awareness, but how can we raise awareness unless the persons with disabilities are there for you to understand their needs?”

For, as retired Archbishop Harris noted in his July 8 homily, “The most unlikely person can teach us something. May the Lord give eyes to see that the most unlikely people can give us messages.”

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Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 7

St. Louise parishioners can hear more with hearing loop system First Catholic church in Pittsburgh area to install one

By TERRY KISH Reprinted with permission of THE ALMANAC Advances in technology have significantly improved the lives of those with hearing disabilities, but even with some of the best hearing aids and cochlear implants, it can still be difficult to hear clearly — especially in places like churches and auditoriums.

In Upper St. Clair, St. Louise de Marillac Catholic Church recently installed a hearing loop system to improve the experience hearingdisabled persons have during services.

Parishioner Rob Beaver said it’s great listening to Mass when using the new loop system.

“It’s totally clear,” he said. “It’s like the mic is right inside your ear.”

A hearing loop is an assistive-listening system that takes a sound source, such as a microphone, and transmits it directly to a user’s hearing aid or cochlear implant without ambient room noise or reverberation.

With the loop system, sound is captured using a microphone or other audio device.

The audio signal is connected to a hearing loop amplifier, which generates a current to an induction loop surrounding the area where the audience is located and produces a magnetic field. The magnetic field is picked up by a t-coil (or telecoil) inside the hearing aid. Sound is delivered directly into the ear canal with the full spectrum of sound frequencies required for intelligibility.

Anyone within the “looped” areas of the church can use the system without headsets or receivers, provided their t-coil has been activated.

A t-coil is a small copper coil that is an option on most hearing aids and all cochlear implants and can be activated by a t-switch on the device. While it is estimated that about 80 percent of hearing aids in use have t-coils, device users need to contact their audiologist to make sure the t-coil is programmed correctly for the user’s individual needs.

For those without hearing aids, or for those

8 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

PHOTO BY CHUCK AUSTIN

From left are Samuel Trentadue (hearing impaired), Robert Beaver (also hearing impaired who volunteered to set up and test the system), Patricia Maxwell, parish disabilities committee member, and Father Joseph Sioli, pastor of St. Louise de Marillac.

who have hearing aids that do not have a t-coil, St. Louise also has four portable receivers that can be used with headsets to help the hearing impaired.

St. Louise has been educating parishioners about the new system since mid-January and is already receiving positive feedback.

Long-time parishioner Sam Trentadue was skeptical when he first learned about the hearing loop system but decided to give it a try.

“I have been using hearing aids for about five years and had a hard time understanding everything being said at Mass” said Trentadue, “so I decided to go to my audiologist to have the t-coil in my hearing aid programmed.”

The next day during Mass, Trentadue could not believe the sound. “I could hear perfectly,” he said. “It was fantastic.”

“For the first time in five years I was able to understand every word read or said.”

Warren Brown, owner of Brown Audio Service, the company that installed the system at the church, said that while hearing loops have been used for some time in Europe, they are just starting to gain popularity in the U.S. To Brown’s knowledge, St. Louise is the first Catholic church in the Pittsburgh area to install one.

In Mount Lebanon, St. Winifred Church

offers neck loops for the hearing impaired where users wear a device around their neck to pick up sound from the receiver.

With the neck loop, the number of people able to use the system is limited by the number of devices available, while with the loop system, the number is limited by the number of people who can fit inside the looped area.

The installation of St. Louise’s hearing loop system was an initiative of the parish’s disabilities awareness committee.

Committee member Pat Maxwell explained that they had been getting feedback that people were having a hard time hearing during Mass and other services. Another committee member, Barb Breier, had some knowledge of hearing loop systems and thought it might work at St. Louise.

Father Joseph Sioli, pastor, said he was grateful to the parish committee for bringing attention to the technology and for being involved with educating parishioners about the hearing loop.

“Our committee tries to address the needs of people with disabilities,” said Maxwell. “It’s rewarding when you hear from a parishioner that they can now fully participate in the Mass.”

Disability Awareness 2018

TIME

Continued from Page 4 Attitudes are often shaped by the concept that including people with disabilities will cost money for renovations and additional services or create more work for parishioners. Some also are reticent to create barrier-free spaces for fear that architecture or art will be compromised by ramps, railings or other devices.

Involving Catholics with disabilities in the development of short- and long-term planning may change attitudes and help address fears and concerns. Enlisting the help of professionals from the parish may also keep costs to a minimum and help educate more parishioners.

Based on the statistics above and many examples, we know that virtually every

community includes people with disabilities.

However, they may not attend a particular parish (or any parish) because they do not feel welcome and do not wish to be singled out, as if they are “causing trouble.” People with disabilities desire to worship God as an equal in the community, not as an outsider who disrupts simply by being present.

Parishioners’ attitudes can be strongly influenced by the positive attitude of the administrator (pastor) and other parish leaders. For example, if a person with a mental illness has minor outbursts during Mass, the priest can tactfully assure people that this is not in any way “bothersome” to him, thus dispelling any notion that this is an “interruption” to Mass or that it is “distracting Father.” If the disruption becomes more severe, he can address the individual’s needs with family members or a caregiver.

An administrator or parish leader who is welcoming of altar servers with cognitive disabilities, a reader who is in a wheelchair or a greeter who is blind will go a long way toward emphasizing that God calls all people to use their gifts for the good of the community.

Speaking of which, it’s one thing to get people IN to the Mass, but the final step is to consider how we can help them share their individual gifts and talents in the celebration of the Mass. Not just to do things FOR them but WITH them. Greeting and welcoming.

Ushering. Serving. Music/cantoring/choir.

Readers. Extraordinary ministers of holy Communion.

Killmeyer is deacon assistant for persons with disabilities. He assists at the Holy Trinity, St. Malachy and St. John of God parish grouping.

Books on Shriver family Book Review

By EUGENE J. FISHER Catholic News Service “Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World” by Eileen McNamara. Simon & Schuster (New York, 2018). 416 pp., $28.

“I’ve Been Thinking: Reflections, Prayers and Meditations for a Meaningful Life”

by Maria Shriver. Pamela Dorman Books/ Viking (New York, 2018). 225 pp., $20.

These two excellent books are best read together, starting with McNamara’s insightful page-turner history of the struggles and accomplishments of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, which also includes the achievements of her husband, Sarge Shriver.

Full disclosure: I was a friend of Sarge, and had dinner a number of times at the Shrivers’ home, meeting other Kennedys and Shrivers in the process. These family meals interlaced humor and serious discussion

See Shriver, Page 19

Disability Awareness 2018

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 9

Special Olympics celebrates 50 years More than 4,000 athletes competed this year in Seattle

By MARK PATTISON Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — The Special Olympics, founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, turned 50 this year, with this year’s games held in Seattle.

The Catholic community had joined in a winning pitch four years ago to host the Special Olympics for 2018 and were rewarded with the games.

Not only were the games, held in July, a success, Seattle Catholics are focusing now on how to leverage that success for its pastoral initiatives for Catholics with developmental disabilities.

“Even though we’ve done a lot of great things, we’re just at the beginning,” said Erica Cohen Moore, director of the Archdiocese of Seattle’s Office of Discipleship. “This has given us the traction to move forward quickly with mental health issues. I feel, like the rest of the country, that we’re in a mental health epidemic” with rising suicide rates.

“We’re also really, really trying to work on trying better to connect with our multicultural communities,” she added.

This year’s Special Olympics USA Games had more than 4,000 athletes from around the U.S. competing in 14 Olympic-type team and individual sports.

The youngest competitor of them all was 9-year-old Frannie Ronan of Kirkland, Washington, a Seattle suburb, who competed in gymnastics. Her father, Michael, is chairman of the Special Olympics board for Western Washington.

Understanding that Frannie would likely be born with Down syndrome, “we went into learning mode,” Ronan told Catholic News Service. “We already had a 9-year-old at the time, so we thought we knew what parenting was all about.” Not so, they found out.

But the Ronans dived in deep with the Special Olympics. “This has been a labor of love for me and a lot of other people,” he said. “As a business leader, seeing the other businesses, state and local government, law enforcement, the archdiocese coming together. It became easy to see how SO became a unifying function for the state of Washington.”

10 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

CNS PHOTO/SPECIAL OLYMPICS

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, is pictured with Special Olympic athletes in an undated photo.

CNS PHOTO/KATIE NIEMAR PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SEATTLE

Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, second from left, holds hands with 9-year-old athlete Frannie Ronan during a Mass celebrated on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle for athletes at the Special Olympics. Founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the Special Olympics turned 50 this year with the games held in Seattle in July.

Moore and Sandra Barton Smith, assistant superintendent for Catholic identity and essential services for the Seattle Archdiocese’s Office for Catholic Schools, said inclusion has been a key part of the ministry of Archbishop J. Peter Sartain since his arrival in 2010.

“Archbishop Sartain is absolutely phenomenal. He agreed there should be a

ministry. He’s helped us with our inclusion ministry. When the USA games came to Seattle, he embraced that,” said Lucinda Soha, the mother of Stephanie Soha, 38, who has competed in the Special Olympics since age 9. “It just couldn’t be better.”

After winning a gold medal in the 2014 Special Olympics, Stephanie attended a Mass for Special Olympics athletes and their families celebrated by Archbishop Sartain.

Disability Awareness 2018

During the Mass that year, Stephanie gave the archbishop her gold medal, a unique gesture.

“Things are never ordinary,” Lucinda Soha said. “But there’s a blessing because it takes you out of your everyday boring.”

She noted it was through Special Olympics that she learned of the existence of an adapted catechism for those with intellectual disabilities.

The catechism was developed by Deacon

Disability Awareness 2018

Larry Sutton of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, who comes to Seattle twice a year to train teachers.

“I focus on special needs ministry, especially children and teens with autism. I used some typical teens wherever possible as my teachers or mentors when I’m working on specific skill sets. In Seattle, it’s teaching about religion, teaching about God,” Deacon Sutton said. “Sometimes, kids will learn better from these teens rather than from adults.”

Cohen recalled one boy with autism who was having a hard time connecting with a catechism lesson. But the kid “really liked ‘Star Wars,’” she said. Taking a page from Deacon Sutton’s program, “we used light sabers of different colors” to connote the different seasons of the liturgical year. “It was hilarious,” Cohen added. “And it worked! The boy was just confirmed this year.”

The idea behind the Special Olympics got its start when Eunice Shriver, who had been advocating throughout much of the 1960s on behalf of those with intellectual disabilities, teamed up with Canadian physical education professor Frank Hayden on the need for those with disabilities to participate in athletic

events. The first Special Olympics were held at Soldier Field in Chicago in July 1968 — just one month after the assassination of Eunice’s brother, Bobby Kennedy, who was seeking the Democratic nomination for president.

The concept caught on, and by 1993, other nations were hosting the Special Olympics World Games, with thousands of athletes participating in 32 summer and winter sports.

Shriver’s son, Timothy, is now chair of the Special Olympics board of directors.

“We’re working really hard to open our schools more intentionally to serve all learns.

That’s the spectrum of learners,” from those deemed gifted and talented to those with profound disabilities, Smith said.

“Special Olympics is looking into broadening its services to go beyond academics and get into robotics. We’re excited about that, because that’s the mission of church — ­ bringing us all together as one,” Smith said.

“How can we be a part of the next 50 (years)?

That’s exciting. We had over a thousand participate as volunteers. That was exciting. It was a great way to bring together the ministries of the church It was a win! In all ways.”

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 11

Kansan returns to Australia saint’s tomb in thanks for Parkinson’s cure

By CATHERINE SHEEHAN Catholic News Service SYDNEY — Exactly 10 years to the day — July 18, 2018 — Ricky Peterson of Kansas City, Kansas, knelt once more at the tomb of St. Mary MacKillop in suburban North Sydney, Australia, this time with a prayer of thanksgiving for the seemingly miraculous event that had changed his life a decade earlier.

Peterson, 57, first knelt at the tomb as a pilgrim during World Youth Day in 2008 and offered a prayer he will never forget: that through the intercession of Australia’s first saint, God would heal him of the Parkinson’s disease he had endured for nine long years.

“I said, ‘Mary, I’m asking you to pray with me again tonight. Lord, I would love nothing more than to leave this Parkinson’s and tremor buried beside Mary, if it’s your will.

I’m going to go out and praise your name,’” Peterson recalled.

It was only 10 minutes later when the father of five was on the train, traveling with his youngest daughter back to their host family that he first noticed that the tremor in his right arm had disappeared.

“I kept checking every 30 seconds and I was like, ‘It’s still gone, it’s still gone,’” he said.

Despite his amazement and certainty that he’d been healed, he didn’t say a word to anyone.

It was during the final Mass at Randwick Racecourse, celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, that while holding hands with her father, Jessica noticed the tremor was gone.

“She looked at me and said, ‘Your hand didn’t shake at all.’ I said, ‘Yeah, it hasn’t since Friday night.’ We both started crying.”

Peterson’s wife Maura said when he phoned from Australia to tell her the news,

she was filled with gratitude and “pure joy.”

The couple spoke to The Catholic Weekly, newspaper of the Sydney Archdiocese, at Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney on their return visit of gratitude. It was Maura’s first visit to Australia.

“It was thanksgiving for a new future that we had given up on,” she said. “A month before, we had been talking about whether I should quit my job to care for him and whether we could afford financially to do that. So we had the future we had dreamed of back. So it was thanksgiving and just pure joy.”

Peterson said the Sisters of St Joseph, the saint’s order, documented what had happened to him and told him that if the second miracle being investigated for the canonization was not approved, then his case was one of two they would “start moving forward.” It proved unnecessary,

Look for many fascinating stories in the Tribute to Veterans Magazine Coming soon to your parish just in time for Veteran’s Day 12 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

Disability Awareness 2018

however, as the second miracle — the healing from lung and brain cancer of Australian Kathleen Evans — eventually was approved.

When Peterson returned to the U.S., several doctors assessed him without knowing what had happened in Sydney and found he no longer had Parkinson’s.

When Maura, a nurse, asked her husband’s neurologist whether the original diagnosis nine years earlier had been correct, he showed her the massive file documenting the illness and said, “He had Parkinson’s.”

Peterson, an electrician, had watched his father die from complications of Parkinson’s, a disorder of the central nervous system that often causes tremors. He said that if he had not been healed, he would now be retired because of disability. “I may not even be still alive,” he said.

When he had arrived in Sydney in 2008, he was suffering from a severe right arm tremor around the clock and was exacerbated by tiredness and stress.

He now believes that the healing occurred at the very moment he prayed at St. Mary MacKillop’s tomb.

“My hand was shaking when I knelt at the tomb. ... There were 50 or 60 people in the chapel at the time and when I started that prayer I heard no one,” Peterson recalled.

There was just quiet. I don’t remember hearing anything. When I stood and walked out, I didn’t even consider if it (the tremor) was gone, ... but I believe it happened right then.”

The Petersons were invited by the Sisters of St. Joseph to attend the saint’s canonization at the Vatican in 2010. They sat with the sisters near the front.

Over the past 10 years, Peterson has not had even the slightest sign of Parkinson’s returning. Maura believes her husband was healed because he asked God in a loving way.

“I had been to Lourdes before and prayed for Rick’s healing,” she said. “And it was always, ‘Please heal Rick.’ His prayer at Mary’s tomb, however, was ‘No matter what happens, give me the strength to continue to carry your word to others.’ It wasn’t ‘give me.’”

Peterson now shares his story with anyone who will listen, believers and unbelievers alike. He carries with him a stack of holy cards bearing one of the saint’s wellknown quotes: “Never see a need without doing something about it.” He gives them to anyone who will take one.

Peterson said it was a dream come true to

Disability Awareness 2018

Ricky Peterson of Kansas City, Kan., prays July 18 at the tomb of St. Mary MacKillop in Sydney in thanks, 10 years to the day after his seemingly miraculous cure from Parkinson’s disease.

Peterson is convinced he was cured through the intercession of Australia’s first saint when he prayed at her tomb in North Sydney during World Youth Day 2008.

CNS PHOTO/GIOVANNI PORTELLI, THE CATHOLIC WEEKLY

be able to return to Sydney with Maura for the 10-year anniversary of his healing. “The city is as beautiful as I remember,” he said.

And he has maintained a close relationship

with the Australian saint who changed his life.

“She hears from me daily. It’s like, Mary, here we go again, we’ve got a bunch of people to pray for.”

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Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 13

Woman climbs Mt. Kilimanjaro to aid hearing foundation The Miracle-Ear Foundation is proud to announce that Julie McKelvey, a MiracleEar franchise owner with 33 offices across Pennsylvania, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, to raise money to help underprivileged children and adults with hearing loss receive free hearing aids through the Miracle-Ear Foundation.

Her successful summit of the tallest freestanding mountain in the world sitting at 19,341 feet, was accomplished on Aug.19, dedicating her efforts as the Summit for Sound.

McKelvey has been actively supporting the Miracle-Ear Foundation since 1993, giving the gift of sound to those in need and now serves as a member of the board of the nonprofit organization.

McKelvey’s impressive and selfless efforts resulted in more than $56,045 raised for the charity to give the gift of sound.

“This was the most difficult thing I have ever done and also the most rewarding — truly a life-changing experience

“This was the most difficult thing I have ever done and also the most rewarding — truly a lifechanging experience with a lot of money and awareness raised for the Miracle-Ear Foundation, which is so close to my heart.”

— Julie McKelvey with a lot of money and awareness raised for the Miracle-Ear Foundation, which is so close to my heart,” said McKelvey.

The Miracle-Ear Foundation is designed to support underserved Americans with a limited income and no other resources for hearing aids, such as insurance, Medicaid,

Julie McKelvey displays a sign at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

VA, or other state or federal programs.

For more information about the Miracle-Ear Foundation visit www.miracleearfoundation.org.

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Disability Awareness 2018

Fear leads to silence amid suffering of sick, needy, pope says

By JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Fear often causes people to remain silent in the face of other’s suffering and marginalize the sick and those most in need, Pope Francis said.

Instead of being viewed as “an occasion to manifest care and solidarity,” the sick and the suffering are often seen as a problem, the pope said Sept. 9 during his Sunday Angelus address.

After praying the Angelus prayer with an estimated 15,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, the pope led them in applauding the beatification of Blessed Alphonse Marie Eppinger, a 19th-century nun who founded the Sisters of the Divine Redeemer.

“Let us give thanks to God for this courageous and wise woman who, while

CNS PHOTO/FAVIO FRUSTACI, EPA

Pilgrims listen as Pope Francis leads the Angelus Sept. 9 from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

suffering in silence and prayer, gave witness to God’s love, especially to those who were sick in body and spirit,” the pope said.

In his main address, Pope Francis reflected

on the Sunday Gospel reading from St. Mark, which recalled Jesus’ healing of a deaf man who had a speech impediment.

See Pope, Page 16

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Disability Awareness 2018

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 15

POPE

Continued from Page 15 According to the Gospel, Jesus healed the man as he placed his “finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue” as he looked up to heaven and said, “Ephphatha” (”Be opened”).

Pope Francis explained that the Gospel story emphasizes a “two-fold healing” that not only involves restoring the “physical health of the body” but also the “healing of fear” that “drives us to marginalize the sick, to marginalize the suffering, the disabled.”

“There are many ways of marginalizing, also with pseudo-compassion or by removing the problem; one remains deaf and dumb in the face of the suffering of people marked by illness, anguish and difficulties,” he said.

Jesus’ command that the man’s ears and tongue “be opened” is also a calling for Christians to be open to “our suffering brothers and sisters in need of

In his main address, Pope Francis reflected on the Sunday Gospel reading from St. Mark, which recalled Jesus’ healing of a deaf man who had a speech impediment. help” and to reject selfishness and the closure of one’s heart, the pope said.

The heart, he added, is what Jesus came to “liberate, to make us capable of living fully our relationship with God and with others.”

Jesus became human so that human beings, “rendered interiorly deaf and dumb by sin, can listen to the voice of God, the voice of love that speaks to the heart and thus learn to speak, in turn, the language of love, translating it into gestures of generosity and self-giving,” Pope Francis said.

CNS PHOTO/FAVIO FRUSTACI, EPA.

Pope Francis waves as he leads the Angelus Sept.

9 from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

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Disability Awareness 2018

Learning at your own pace with St. Anthony When Robbie Anitori started his educational career at Mary of Nazareth School in White Oak, his parents, Michael and MaryAnn, noticed him falling behind.

The Anitori family was already familiar with the St. Anthony program at Mary of Nazareth, but they didn’t realize it could be a fit for their own child. When Robbie’s frustration levels reached their peak, Michael and MaryAnn made the decision to reach out for advice.

“It was our initial impression St. Anthony was just for kids with Down

See St. Anthony, Page 19

PHOTO COURTESY OF ST. ANTHONY SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Robbie Anitori, a seventh-grader from Mary of Nazareth School in White Oak, with his parents, Michael and MaryAnn.

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Disability Awareness 2018

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 17

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18 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

Disability Awareness 2018

ST. ANTHONY Continued from Page 17

syndrome, but we realized that was not the case,” Michael said. “We had Robbie tested for learning disabilities and realized he could really benefit from the program.

And since it was at Mary of Nazareth already, it was a great fit. Moving to an entirely new building or program would have been traumatic for Robbie.”

Now, Robbie is feeling much more confident and learning at his own pace.

“We don’t hear him say ‘I’m stupid’ anymore. His frustration levels have considerably dropped, and he’s working at his own pace on his own level. It’s not everyone else’s level, and that’s OK,” Michael said.

SHRIVER Continued from Page 9

of the health and social issues facing our country and how they could, individually and together with others, help those in need.

In short, they did not just pay lip service to the social teachings of the Catholic faith, they worked to make the vision of a better world a reality for all.

The biography of Eunice begins with her birth in 1921, the “middle child” of eight. It tells of the Kennedy family’s wealth and her youth, part of it spent in London when her father was U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. It shows the development of the Kennedys’ sense of responsibility to use their wealth and political power for others, including carving out a place for women in what was, when Eunice was born, “a man’s world.”

A number of photographs bring the vitality of the Kennedy clan into focus for the reader. McNamara uses Eunice’s personal notes and diaries to bring the story to life.

Underlying Eunice’s efforts to help those with mental disabilities was the tragic life of her sister Rosemary.

The Special Olympics originated in the fact that the Kennedys and later the Shrivers would often invite those with special needs

Disability Awareness 2018

With the St. Anthony School Programs team behind them, MaryAnn and Michael feel much more confident in their child’s education.

“I like how dedicated the entire staff is,” MaryAnn said. “In the two years he’s been in the program, he’s had two different teachers in the resource room, and both of them were very easy to stay in contact with if we had any questions.”

Like most 12-year-olds, Robbie’s favorite activities are outside of the classroom. He plays the flute and took private lessons throughout the summer.

He has set goals for himself through this hobby. “I want to play in the high school band and church band,” Robbie said.

The entire family has had the opportunity to expand their networks and make new friends through St.

to their home to swim and to play, at a time when many such children were kept hidden away in overcrowded facilities.

From the family’s travels around the world came the realization that people all over were consigned to poverty and without decent health care. So the Peace Corps was born, a version of which was instituted within the United States as well.

Maria Shriver’s personal reflections are best understood within this larger family context, to which she often returns.

Shriver reflects on topics such as motherhood, laughter, forgiveness and, at the end, hope and the need to re-evaluate our lives, both internally and in terms of what we are doing to help those in need, always encouraging the readers can make a difference. She emphasizes the need to listen to others and to be open to the help we can give one another.

Each chapter ends with a prayer written by Maria that we can make our own.

Both books can be summarized by the quote from Dorothy Day (whom I also knew and worked with, and who should, now, be canonized) at the beginning of the book on Eunice: “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.”

Anthony School Programs events, like the annual fall dinner, Inclusive Games and breakfast.

“Robbie has made really good friends with his St. Anthony classmates, and we’ve gotten to know some of the other parents at our school and other schools, which is nice,” MaryAnn said.

Robbie looks forward to attending the St. Anthony School Programs 2018 Annual Dinner and Auction, set for Friday, Oct. 26, at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown. For information on the dinner or St. Anthony School Programs, contact Jerry Gaughan at 724-940-9020, ext. 103, or visit www. stanthonykids.org.

Submitted by St. Anthony School Programs.

Have you HEARD? We speak miracles at

Learn more or make a gift at www.DePaulHearingAndSpeech.org

Fisher is a professor of theology at St. Leo University in Florida.

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 19

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20 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

Disability Awareness 2018