Of Deaf and Missions
(Pastoral reflection on the Ministerial Work with the Deaf in the Visayas Area)
by Peter Miles

"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

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.

"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 our 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 Deaf Catholics, however, gives a poor witness to the Gospel of Life.

Considering our Lord's Gospel of Life, it would be reasonable to assume that the Deaf would feel more welcomed within our parishes than within the world in general. However, in reality, we can see that Deaf Catholics are much more likely to be inactive Catholics than their non-Deaf 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 these Ministries and Missions in the local churches is 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 and advocacy; 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.

It is also imperative that the Church not only focus her training and preparation for herself for such mission only but also to prepare the Deaf community which she will give her life. It is not only that the Church should be strengthen but that the Deaf community themselves also will be empowered to help and collaborate in this effort of mainstreaming themselves in the greater society. We must help both sides i.e. the caregivers and those needing care. Helping the Deaf at this point is very crucial. Being sensitive to the sign of the times; today is the right time in helping the Deaf. Now is the time, where the Deaf community experiences the rising of consciousness about their rights and their “being”, a realization of their potentials, abilities, capabilities and talents. Now is the time, wherein they know they have a language to be called their “own”, the Filipino Sign Language (FSL). Now is also the time, they realized that they can do more not only for themselves but for the whole society, if and only if society will just give them that chance. That the Church, Government and primary service providers would give them the needed assistance and support to development themselves and equipped them with the needed abilities and capacities and prove themselves wise. The tide of opportunities is rising and now is the perfect time for us to ride the waves of development and venture out for more experience that would help us achieve these goals.

Indeed, now is the “right” time and the “ripe” time to give them all the best we have. Let us assist them realize their potentials, helping them discover their identity and personhood as Deaf, in advocating for their Deaf Rights, by giving them independence and Deaf liberation, by understanding their language and Culture, by having their voices (signs) be heard (seen), by letting them speak (sign) up, by letting them lead their group or become leaders themselves, letting them decide for themselves, in uplifting them from their oppressed and marginalized situation. These are the goals and much of my realizations in the work, which we (religious and volunteers alike) are very much involved in and in these, the Deaf and the volunteers were able to encounter the saving presence of God in the midst of our work and also in our lives! It is really a life changing experience working with/for these people! God is not in the heavens like an absentee landlord who just checks us every now and then, rather our God is a God who works in our midst as we struggle to fight for justice and liberation of the Deaf people in their oppression and marginalized situation.

Ultimately, 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.


[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.