A HISTORICAL SURVEY OF DEAF MINISTRIES IN THE VISAYAS AREA

by Peter Miles Sollesta, PMS

I. Introduction: Ephphatha! Be Open! Are you?

"He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak"
- Mark 7:37

The task of proclaiming the Good News to men was entrusted to the Church. As he had been sent by the Father, the Son himself sent the apostles (cf. Jn. 20:21) saying, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold I am with you all days even unto the consummation of the world" (Mt. 28:18-20). Jesus’ whole life and ministry was center in the proclamation of the good news of the Kingdom of God. As Jesus himself would say, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God for I was sent for this purpose” (Luke 4:42). With these words, the Church is for all intents and purposes missionary. As the universal sacrament of salvation, she is sent to the entire world to bring the good news of the Kingdom of God to all men being obedience to the command of its founder, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). Lumen Gentium 17 clearly states the missionary activity of the Church. The Church has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles, and she must fulfill it to the very ends of the earth (cf. Acts 1:8).

With this, the church is facing a great challenge of spreading the gospel to all creatures, (and at this point I would say) …including the Deaf. When Jesus gave “The Great Commission,” the Church defined this to mean delivery of the Gospel in other languages to other lands. Numerous churches are expending vast amounts of resources in foreign missions, while overlooking uncharted territories or "home mission groups" within their own area of influence. The Deaf[1] community is such a group that needs to receive the Gospel in its own language. There are now a large number of Deaf people that society and the Church does not know of. The Network for Strategic Missions reported that out of the 278 million individuals in the United States today over 16.6 million are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing, whereas globally their numbers exceed 364 million.[2] The National Statistic Office during the 1995 census of population reported that there are 115,000 Deaf and Hard or Hearing individuals in the 68.6 million populations in the Philippines.[3] A study conducted by the Congregation of the Mission for the Deaf resulted to a ratio of two deaf people per 1000 population (2:1000) here in the province of Cebu. The demographical result of deafness is much higher compared to the epidemiological ratio of 1:1000 in the whole world.

In the gospel of Mark, we can see that Jesus heals a deaf person. With this great miracle, Jesus was able to impart to the Deaf person the gospel of salvation by opening his ear and loosening his tongue. "Ephphatha, be opened!" (Mk 7:34). The words spoken by Jesus at the healing of the deaf-mute ring out once more for us today, they are stimulating words of great intensity, which call us to open ourselves to listening and to bearing witness to the gospel. The challenge for us is whether or not we heeded the missionary call of Jesus of letting the Deaf hear his gospel. This would go back again to my question of how well is the church in fulfilling her missionary task and responsibility towards the evangelization of our Deaf brethren. As St. Paul would say, “faith comes from hearing” (Romans 10:17). How could our deaf brethren develop a sense of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and a sense of belongingness in the body of Christ if the church lacks in the fulfillment of her duty to these kinds of people with special needs.

This paper hopes to accomplish its task by making a survey the different Deaf Ministries in the Archdiocese of Cebu and its Suffragan Dioceses, examining the historical development of these ministries with a hope that it would shed light to the queries whether the church has heeded enough to the call of Christ to bring his gospel to all creatures including the Deaf.

II. Who are open?: A Survey of Deaf Ministries in the Archdiocese of Cebu

To limit the scope of this paper, I decided to pursue this historical survey on the Archdiocese of Cebu. The Archdiocese of Cebu is composed of four Suffragans namely the Dioceses of Maasin, Dumaguete, Tagbilaran, and Talibon. After gathering some information through the office of each of these Dioceses, I found out that not all of them have diocesan or parochial programs for their Deaf faithful.

The Archdiocese of Cebu has the largest Deaf Ministry Program in the Visayas Region. This is due to the presence of the Gualandi of the Mission for the Deaf, a Religious Congregation of Priest, Brothers, and Sisters working solely for the socio-educational and religious welfare of the Deaf. The Congregation started in Bologna, Italy in 1872 and came here to the Philippines last October 1988. The Mission was responsible for many programs for the Deaf not only in Cebu but also to the neighboring islands. Though, it is not an archdiocesan program in the strict sense of the word, it has help in the pastoral care of the Deaf in the archdiocese. The Deaf Ministry program involves Sunday Masses for the Deaf, retreats, recollection, Deaf camps, and other religious activities. As of now, four parishes have Sunday masses for the Deaf and the Congregation is taking care of the religious/catechetical instructions of twelve SpEd Centers for the Deaf.

Rev. Fr. Raul Ragay, one of the priests of the Mission for the Deaf, started the Dumaguete Effata Association of the Deaf in the Dumaguete City last 2002. This association is considered a Deaf Ministry under the guidance of Bishop John Du of the Diocese of Dumaguete. As a Catholic Deaf organization, it volunteers and officers are responsible for the pastoral program and activities of the Deaf in Dumaguete City and neighboring towns.

The St. Joseph Foundation for the Deaf, Inc. chaired by Rev. Fr. Victor Bompat, is the organization that serves as the Deaf Ministry in the Diocese of Tagbilaran. This organization that started four years ago, was the initiative of the SpEd teachers for the Deaf at Tagbilaran Elementary school. This Foundation is taking care of the pastoral programs and activities of the Deaf in Tagbilaran City like a regular Sunday mass at Cogon Church with Fr. Bompat as their signing priest. On the other hand, the Diocese of Talibon have neither an existing parochial nor diocesan program for Catholic Deaf Community in their Diocese. The same also with the Diocese of Maasin and their main reason is that there are no individuals or sectors interested to start such Ministry. There are no interested priest or other religious people knowledgeable with sign language and courageous enough to cater the needs of the Deaf in the Diocese.

III. Historical Background of Deaf Ministry in Archdioceses of Cebu

The development of the pastoral work for the Deaf in the above-mentioned Dioceses are closely linked to the existence of the organizations having this pastoral work is done in their Dioceses. On this portion of the paper, I will try to elucidate the historical beginning of the three organizations that are doing pastoral work with and for the Deaf in their respective Dioceses.

The first would be the Congregation of the Mission for the Deaf, located at St. Michael Village, Banilad, Cebu City. It is an Italian religious congregation of priest, brothers, and sisters founded in Bologna, Italy by Venerable Giuseppe Gualandi in 1872 with the charism of educating the Deaf sequentially to evangelize them. In the year 1988, the General council decided to start a Mission House in the Asian and African Regions, hence they choose Philippines and Zaire as their missionary focus. Fr. Antonio Loreti and Mother Severina, then Superior Generals of the Congregation, came to Manila early of 1988, looking for vocations and a place where the Mission can begin its missionary work. In the middle of the year, Fr. Antonio Loreti received the letter of invitation by Cardinal Vidal and from the parents of some Deaf kids here in Cebu, after knowing the presence of the congregation in the Philippines. Fr. Loreti went to Cebu heeding the invitation of Cardinal Vidal and on October of 1988, Fr. Loreti with Fr. Savino Castiglione came to Cebu to establish a mission house. They were accommodated first by the Onglatco Family then later transferred to Sepulveda Street renting a house own by Paul Pelaez.

The work for the Deaf started during this year. Around this time there are 12 seminarians living with Fr. Savino at the House in Sepulveda. Br. Antonio was the first Filipino to be sent to Italy for his formative years. However, during the span of 13 years, the congregation has only produced two Filipino religious: a brother and a priest. Fr. Raul Ragay was the first Filipino priest of the congregation ordained last November 1994 and Br. Antonio Rodrigo was the also the first religious brother who made his perpetual vow last may 1992. In the span of these years, though many young men enter the congregation they were not able to persevere in their vocations. It was only in 1999 that Peter Miles Sollesta made his first temporary profession making now three Filipino religious. At the present, the religious community of the Mission for the Deaf is composed of the three together with six young men undergoing religious formation.

During the first years of Fr. Savino, he went around the different SpEd Centers all-over Cebu, extending his help to Deaf schools like providing religious instructions to the Deaf and scholarship to the Deaf. Sunday Mass in sign language was celebrated in the house wherein the Deaf gathers. The Deaf there were given free lunch after which they are activities and catechism classes organized for them. Due to persistent cases of robberies in Sepulveda, in 1990 the congregation bought a piece of land at St. Michael Village, Banilad owned by Juan Rafols. The construction of the formation House and Social Center for the Deaf was started that year and two years later was finished and blessed by his eminence Cardinal Vidal. This Center serves as the focal point of the pastoral work and ministry with, to, and for the Deaf here in Cebu. It was an instrument for the education and evangelization of the Cebuano Deaf. Every Sunday the Deaf comes here for their Sunday Mass, have lunch and have programs of activities in the afternoon life, non-formal classes, sports activities, and catechism classes. It is in this Center that the Mission held yearly retreats and recollections for the Deaf. They are also served as the medium for giving livelihood training and facilitating job placements to numerous unemployed Deaf individuals. One of the major programs of the Congregation is sponsoring deserving Deaf students to school by giving transportation, uniform and monthly allowance to sponsored kinds. As of now, the Congregation is sponsoring 573 Deaf kids in school. In addition, the Mission is giving free medical and dental services to those indigent Deaf.

Last September 2000, the religious community met together to discuss why are there only few Deaf who attends in the Sunday Mass held at the Center. It was later realized that the Center is not accessible to many of the Deaf here in Cebu. Therefore, the decision was to extend the ministerial of the Deaf in the parishes. The decision was to have Masses in sign language to strategic Parish Churches that would be accessible to the Deaf. So without any delay arrangement was done and that month Holy Mass in the parish of Minglanilla, Fatima Basak in Mandaue, Redemptorist Church, Sto. Rosario Parish and Our Lady of Lourdes in Labangon are interpreted wherein around three hundred Deaf people flock the church every Sunday to attend the Mass. However, since the number of Deaf people attending in Redemptorist Church declined, it was decided to discontinue interpreting in the Sunday Mass and has the Deaf transferred to the nearest parish. Currently, the Deaf are still served by the mission not only on their spiritual life but also in the socio-economic and educational needs.

On the other hand, the Deaf ministry in the Diocese of Dumaguete is still young. Even since the arrival of the Mission for the Deaf in the Philippines in 1988, the Deaf in the neighboring provinces have been also the recipient of the many kinds of assistance offered for their social, educational, and spiritual welfare. The Deaf in Dumaguete, in particular, have received financial assistance in their study through the Mission scholarship program. A social center for the Deaf was constructed in Junob, Dumaguete in March 1994 with the support of Bishop Lagdameo. It has been used during summertime as a dressmaking training facility for the deaf occasionally other social activities with the Deaf have been held there.

During the holy week retreat for the Deaf in 2002 held in Bacong, Negros Oriental; the DEAF (Dumaguete Effata Association of the deaF) was established through the initiative of the Mission for the Deaf, through Fr. Raul Ragay and the Apostolic Movement of the Deaf (MAS) in Cebu City. Since then the DEAF has been instrumental in the realization of the many religious and social activities for the Deaf in Diocese of Dumaguete, like catechism classes, first communion and confirmation celebration, retreats and camps and festive gatherings.

In July 16, 1999, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the St. Joseph Foundation of the Deaf, Incorporated chaired by Rev. Fr. Victor Bompat, a signing priest who is currently assigned in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, of the Diocese of Tagbilaran, Tagbilaran City, Bohol. Before the existence of the Foundation, there are no Catholic Deaf Ministries existing in Bohol. Upon the arrival of the Baptist mission brought by an American Peace Corp volunteer, in the person of Dennis Drake, the Deaf spiritual needs are catered by them. Since there are no religious activities in the Catholic Church that is accessible to the Deaf, most of them started to join in the Baptist group.

Teachers for the Deaf in Tagbilaran City SpEd Center observed that their mostly catholic Deaf students are now attending bible classes, religious services of these non-catholic religions. The teachers concerns grew bigger when they discovered that their Deaf students started to be baptized into the Protestantism and Baptist Churches. They were more alarmed when those Deaf coming from catholic families starts to criticize Mother Mary, the priesthood, the Catholic Church, and its practices. The teachers started to contemplate on the need to remedy the situation and win back the faith of the catholic Deaf. The teachers headed by Mrs. Diosy Ramos, a high school teacher for the Deaf started to organize themselves to interpret the Sunday Mass for the Deaf. But, there was a felt need to do more effort because the Baptist groups are very strong. Religion instruction was needed but since regular religion teachers, due to lack of sign language skills, exclude the Deaf in their classes and the schoolteachers cannot handle religious instruction, nobody would do it. With this situation at hand, the teachers discussed to Fr. Victor Bompat the urgent need to address this situation. Fr. Bompat responded by organizing themselves of which they call, St. Joseph Deaf Foundation, Inc. in honor of Tagbilaran’s Patron Saint. This foundation serves as the Deaf Ministry in the Diocese of Tagbilaran having their office at the Bishop’s Residence.

The Foundation is instrumental for catering the spiritual needs of the Catholic Deaf in the Diocese by having Sunday Masses in Cogon Church officiated by Fr. Bombat in sign language. They also give Sunday catechism classes, sponsors retreat, recollections, and camping for the Deaf. They give financial support or scholarship for education, vocational and skills training of deserving Deaf, facilitate in job placement to graduates and qualified out of school deaf youth.

IV. Why have we not opened enough?: Implications and significance of the Church’s Deaf Ministries in the Philippines today.

"I came, I saw, but I heard absolutely nothing"

- Theme of the 10th Congress of the International Federation for

Pastoral Care to Hearing Impaired Persons at Samaritterhjemmet
17th - 18th March 1999

"Go into all the world… and pronounce the good news to all people." That is the task Jesus gives us. This "all people" means not only people of various nations and continents but also the fellow human being who, due to a disability, is more or less prevented from participating in the life of our parishes and church activities. As church, as sisters and brothers of Jesus, we must pay heed so that nobody is excluded from the Kingdom of God or is in any way discriminated against. This applies especially to disabled persons. Deafness is a disability (though Deaf people would not call themselves as disabled), which is often concealed by the afflicted person and thus easily ignored by the surrounding society. In the Gospel, we repeatedly hear that Deaf persons are healed. Jesus took this disability seriously. He knows that it can reduce the quality of life. Therefore, he was particularly close to those persons.

In out own local set-up, the urgent need and the constant call on the Philippine Church to be the “Church of the Poor” is very much concrete and real nowadays (PCP II 122). PCP II hopes that the Philippine Church is a Church in solidarity with the poor. This task of communion with the poor does not only mean to those people who are materially poor but also with those who are afflicted by human misery, suffering and destitution (PCP II 130). With this, we can say that people who are suffering from disability and are handicapped belong also to this category of “poor” that PCP II is reiterating. Given such perspective, we can say that PCP II is calling the Philippine Church to be also in solidarity with these unfortunate and disabled brothers and sisters of ours. Considering Deaf people as the poorest among the “poor”, I would say that there is also an urgent call in the Church to take care of the needs of the Deaf and of other people with disabilities. The Church has taken great care to announce the Good News that the life of each person with a disability is sacred and precious notably in Pope John Paul II's 1995 letter, Evangelium Vitae. The response of many of our dioceses and parishes in the Philippines Church to Catholics with disabilities, however, gives a poor witness to the Gospel of Life.

Considering our Lord's Gospel of Life, it would be reasonable to assume that people with disabilities would feel more welcomed within our parishes than within the world in general. However, in reality, we can see that Catholics with disabilities are much more likely to be inactive Catholics than their non-disabled counterparts in our dioceses and parishes, because our church is not ready for them. One good reason is that there are no personnel, which means that there are no priest, religious or lay church workers competent enough in these field of pastoral work. Such was a majority comment of the person I talked to in the Dioceses of Talibon and Maasin, which do not have a Deaf Ministry. This also holds true in the parishes here in the Archdiocese of Cebu in which we are encouraging them to start a Deaf Ministry in their respective parishes wherein there is a big number of Deaf in their area.

The absence of Deaf ministries in the local churches in very detrimental to the faith of the Deaf, since how can they call to Him for help, if they have not believed? Moreover, how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed? And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? As the Scripture says, "the foot step of those who bring the good news is a welcome sound" (Rom. 10: 14-15). Like their handicap, the Deaf people are hidden. They are not visible in a crowd or stand out as the blind or those with orthopedic handicap do, except when they begin to communicate. We should not forget the fact that they are not only equal in all respects but also normal in all aspects, just like any other member of the community. The difference is that they do not hear. There is still the need to bring them into the mainstream of our parish community and address their special needs.

Significantly, I notice that many of the parishes here in the Archdiocese and its Suffragan are hesitant to the reach out to these Deaf individuals or communities. It is because that they themselves are either not competent in their skills nor they have sufficient staffs and personnel ready and willing to work for these people with a special need in their parish and try to mainstream them in the congregation. What is the implication of such realistic comments coming from the people working in the Church? What we have here are people looking for training and skills in special ministries. Since Deaf people are people with special needs, people that will be working with and for them should be properly trained. Priest, seminarians, nuns, and church lay leaders are at least informed and knowledgeable to some degree about Deaf Ministry and other special ministries.

The challenge here is education; we have to teach our servant-leaders the proper skills and expertise needed for such special ministry. This initiative should start from the Diocese itself by creating a diocesan office that would look after the needs of special people. This office will be responsible for encouraging parish priest to start special ministries in their parish and implementing diocesan-wide programs for the disabled with the support, of course, of the Bishop. The Diocese would see to it that its seminaries must have pastoral programs that would expose seminarians to special centers, schools, and organization of disabled people. The St. Joseph Regional Seminary in Jaro, Iloilo City has this similar program, wherein, seminarians that chose to work with special kids like the Deaf and blind are being expose every week as part of their pastoral formation. Seminaries, as part of their pastoral programs, should have their seminarians taught sign language (as what the seminarians in Tagbilaran are undergoing) and braille writing as part of the training in special ministries and be expose to deaf, blind or other disable groups and teach them catechism (like in Jaro). A seminarian, well trained and well informed about the needs of these special people would later become a priest who is pastorally aware of the significance of special ministries in his parish.

In the parish level, the parish priest should create programs in his parishes such as awareness seminars and programs to help the parishioners realized that disable people are also members of the mystical body of Christ, letting them aware of their special needs and challenge them to do something about it. There should be programs that would tap existing agencies that are involved with these special groups to help the parish in facilitating their activities for deaf and other disabled people. Furthermore, though catechetical instructions are provided by the parish to nearby public schools ironically, catechist disregard the special centers in the public schools since they are not equipped with proper skills and training to deal with this kind of people in the first place. Such nonattendance should be always be keep in mind or else without proper people teaching the Deaf around the truths of our faith, we will have Deaf who are either infidels or non-Catholics. An important more would be to create a group of catechist set aside and trained for giving catechetical instructions to people with special needs. The parish could sponsor a basic sign language course for its catechists who are interested to teach Deaf kids.

One important aspect in Deaf Ministry also is to cater the needs of the Deaf in their sacramental life! Our parishes and local churches should provide sacraments readily available and accessible to their Deaf parishioners. There should be Sunday Masses in the parish wherein the priest signs or if not should have sign language interpreters for the Deaf parishioners going to their church. While blindness as a disability cuts blind people from things, it does not cut them from people, while deafness do. Blind and orthopedically handicapped people can be easily mainstream to the parishes with minimal adjustment like accessibility and the likes, the Deaf community, however, is complicated when it comes through mainstreaming into our local church because of the language. Deaf persons feel a strong identification with the sign language as their language. A mastery of sign language with its subtle nuances and graceful fluency is a must for any person wishing to do meaningful pastoral service for the Deaf. Voltaire says that the ear is the road to the heart. Sign Language is more visual but it is taken to the heart by the Deaf. The moment the Deaf know that we are able to converse in their language, the sign language, we will be able to win their respect and confidence.

Exclusion of persons with deafness or other disabilities from church activities and church ministries in most cases are not intentional, but it occurs because people are either unaware of the needs and their means to meet these needs. It is our job to enthusiastically take a role in initiating the inclusion of children and adults with disabilities, and their families into the mainstream of our local church.

There are many implications for priest, nuns, and other church workers regarding those families whose children with disabilities are living at home, hidden from the mainstream of the church. The challenge of the local church is to locate these families, welcome them into the parish community, and then enable them to participate in the life of the church especially in the celebration of the Eucharist. It is said that a child with a handicap makes a handicapped family. The disability not only affects the child but also the whole family. So it becomes imperative that the Catholics of a parish under the initiative and leadership of their priest goes in search of those persons who are most in need of pastoral care.

V. Conclusion
Our care for the Deaf should not be confined or limited to just advocating their rights of health services and accessibility but should permeate through the fabric of our Church community. We read in the gospels that every time Christ touched those with disabilities and healed those with illness, he was setting a model to be followed in our pastoral care for the handicapped. Justice and love will triumph only when the segregating walls are knocked down, the communication barriers removed, our churches and altars become more accessible to the handicapped, and the Good News is heard by all including the deaf. In accordance with the call of the Holy Father and the call of the PCP II, it is not enough merely to affirm the rights of the Deaf, but we as the people of God must actively work to realize these rights in the fabric of our parish community, and society.

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[1] The word Deaf (with the capital letter D) referred here is a politically correct term denoting to those individuals that are born with hearing impairment, or deafened at a very early age which has sign language as his/her first language. These Deaf are considered belonging to an ethno-cultural linguistic group. Late and adventitious deafened people are not considered in this category.
[2] http://www.tfwm.com/twm/articles/general/0501_Kogelschatz.html
[3] Source of data taken from the Philippine Federation of the Deaf Office.