Disabled People's Day
by M. Gatta
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities was celebrated on 3 December with the theme: "You are my friends". In his message, Pope Francis highlighted how discrimination is still strong and present at various levels in social life today. The Pope invites the ecclesial community to exercise inclusiveness and participation of all people.
"The Church is your home": these are Pope Francis' words addressed to people with disabilities in his message for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
In his analysis, Pope Francis notes that disability is considered "as the result of the interaction between social barriers and the limits of each one - as if it were an illness, which contributes to keeping your existences separate and fueling the stigma towards you" .
Entering into ecclesial dynamics, the Pope invites us to make a "mea culpa" since "the worst discrimination is the lack of spiritual attention, which has sometimes manifested itself in the denial of access to the sacraments, unfortunately experienced by some of you". Reiterating, that the magisterium is clear in this regard: "just recently, the Directory for Catechesis explicitly stated that no one can refuse the sacraments to people with disabilities".
«In the face of discrimination, it is precisely the friendship of Jesus, which we all receive as an undeserved gift, which redeems us and allows us to experience differences as wealth – explains Francis -. In fact, he does not call us servants, women and men with half their dignity, but friends: confidants worthy of knowing everything he has received from the Father."
In broad terms, Pope Francis focuses on the Covid-19 pandemic and its repercussions on the lives of many people and in particular disabled people: being closed for long periods at home, the difficulty of many students with disabilities in accessing distance learning tools, inconveniences due to the interruption of primary services in many countries, but above all he thinks « to those of you who live in residential facilities and to the suffering that forced separation from your loved ones has entailed."
«In these places the virus was very violent and, despite the dedication of the staff, it claimed too many victims. Know that the Pope and the Church are close to you in a particular way, with affection and tenderness!". «The Church stands alongside those among you who are still fighting against the Coronavirus». Francesco assures: «as always it reiterates the need to take care of everyone, without the condition of disability being an obstacle to access to the best care available».
The Pope's invitation to these people too is to become protagonists in this ecclesial phase, entirely aimed at learning to be "synodal": the Church is not «a community of perfect people, but of disciples on a journey, who follow the Lord, in need of his forgiveness. In this people, which advances through the events of history guided by the Word of God, everyone is a protagonist, no one can be considered a simple extra. For this reason, each of you is also called to make your own contribution to the synodal path."