'Disabled people can participate in church life'

By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic

FORT LAUDERDALE | Joe Palano read confidently from the pulpit at St. Anthony Church, staring straight ahead as his fingers glided over the Braille Bible text. He belonged there, taking part in worship, he said � as do all disabled persons.

"It's an honor to praise God and proclaim his Word," said Palano, one of the lectors for the first-ever White Mass in Broward County. "It shows that disabled people can participate in church life, and not be segregated. That's important for me. I wouldn't want to sit on the sidelines."

Several of his sight-impaired friends from Lighthouse of Broward joined him at the Mass Nov. 22, which highlights the ways disabled people can take part in parish life.  They not only read scripture but sang, greeted, ushered, bore the gifts and held a reception afterward.

About 25 others simply sat among St. Anthony's regular Saturday worshipers of 200 or so � just the way Dolores Hanley McDiarmid wanted it.

"I felt proud, like a mother," said McDiarmid, public awareness specialist at Lighthouse, a Fort Lauderdale-based service agency for the blind and sight-impaired. "For able-bodied people and people with disabilities to be together at Mass and a communal meal, it should be like this all the time."

Singing "Ave Maria" at the Mass was one of Lighthouse's success stories: Maria Carla Rosales, who earned a music degree in April at Florida International University. Her light but strong first soprano voice caused more than one worshiper to turn and watch as well as listen.

"Humbling, scary, an honor, a lot of things," said Rosales after the Mass. She is an alumna of Lighthouse's transition program for college-bound people. She agreed with McDiarmid about the need to remind people not to overlook the disabled.

"It can be a cultural shock to see someone with a cane or a wheelchair," said Rosales, who is legally blind. "Masses like this get everyone together. You see that they're not really that different."

Father Michael Grady, pastor of St. Anthony, used the occasion to preach about compassion toward people who are less fortunate, and acceptance of those who live with disabilities.

"It could be on the outside, it could be on the inside, but we all have them," he said. "No matter what it is, it does not diminish our dignity as human beings."

Father Grady based his homily on the week's Gospel reading, Matthew 25, in which Jesus says that the way people treat the poor and unfortunate is the way they treat him. "It fit perfectly with the White Mass," he said in an interview later.

At the reception that followed the Mass, much of the dessert menu was baked by Joel Tepperberg � including rugelach, brownie cookies, mini-carrot cakes and oatmeal-raisin-nut cookies. The Weston resident has been learning baking at Lighthouse since his lost his sight in August.

He said he enjoyed the White Mass even though he's Jewish. "Being in a house of God is spiritual, whether it's Mass or the High Holy Days," he said.

The White Mass, traditionally celebrated on the feast of St. Luke the physician, is named after the white coats and uniforms worn by medical professionals. Meant originally for workers in the healthcare field, in South Florida it has also come to stand for serving and welcoming the disabled.

The first such local observance, formally called a Mass for those with special needs, was held last year at St. Patrick Church on Miami Beach, in partnership with Best Buddies International. Founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver of Miami Beach, Best Buddies fosters friendships between volunteers and the disabled, as well as developing work opportunities and other benefits.

Members of Lighthouse Broward attended that first White Mass at St. Patrick, and Joe Palano served as a lector there. McDiarmid got the idea to hold one for Broward residents at the same time.

That happened this year: As the White Mass was being celebrated Nov. 22 at St. Anthony, Auxiliary Bishop Peter Baldacchino celebrated the second annual event at St. Patrick. More than 400 attended the Miami Beach Mass, which was also broadcast live on EWTN.

"It's a tremendous witness to the gift of life," said Father Roberto Cid, St. Patrick's pastor, of the Mass for the disabled. "They are precious human beings, beloved children of God. They have needs, but they also bring blessings. The most fundamental is the gift of love. They are capable of loving and being loved."

With the White Mass in two counties, McDiarmid has set her next goal: a third in the Diocese of Palm Beach. That would establish the observance in both dioceses and all three counties of the Miami-West Palm Beach area. She hopes it will also establish the Sunday before Thanksgiving as White Mass Sunday.

Individual parishes, too, should replicate the White Mass experience, said Rachelle Arsenault, who proclaimed the first reading at St. Anthony on Nov. 22. She said disabled members could help not only as readers but greeters, choir members, extraordinary ministers of holy Communion and other volunteer workers.

"How many parishes encourage them to take part?" said Arsenault, who is learning computer skills at Lighthouse. "Parishes and parish councils have to recognize the gifts of all the people � and their ability to participate."