[L’INCONTRO] Disability and reception in the parish: Don Mauro Santoro with the catechists

First meeting between the catechists of our Diocese and Don Mauro Santoro of the Diocese of Milan and president of the Ambrosian diocesan council “Christian community and disability – Either all or none”. The meeting took place via videoconference and was organized by the diocesan commission for evangelization and catechesis in the field of disability. The theme covered was “The promise of love of God the Father is for everyone, disability belongs to the beholder”. Don Mauro urged the participants in the meeting to listen to each other internally, giving vent to the conflicting feelings that can sometimes emerge when we find ourselves welcoming young people or people with disabilities into parishes. From this passage we are led to better understand and listen to the emotions experienced as a harbinger of a proactive attitude towards pragmatic action in welcoming siblings with disabilities.

The speaker illustrated the essential characteristics for training of an inclusive Christian community not concerned with doing everything but in which everyone can take part. Don Mauro, taking up the thoughts of the Archbishop of Milan Monsignor Mario Delpini, drew attention to one of the most recurring risks that our communities can run into, namely the betrayal of the promise of love and election that God makes for everyone and therefore the fear that the words will not materialize into concrete facts, creating a scandal. “To overcome this scandal we must become aware of the prejudices and walls that are still being erected and which fuel unhealthy ideas about the meaning of normality”, said Don Mauro who quoted the statement of a disabled boy: “Disability belongs to those who look ».

Therefore it is necessary to break down those mental barriers and those stereotypes that give rise to incorrect definitions of the concept of normality, fleeing from the temptation to affirm that there are models of life that are more normal than others or lives that are worth more than others. Don Mauro concluded his reflection by recalling the principle of Christian community expressed by Saint Paul in the letter to the Ephesians in which the apostle writes that all the members are essential to the body and that the weakest are the most important.

Ignazio Grillo for Share