While the Catholic Church no longer considers deafness an impediment to ordination, there are only 13 priests in the world who were ordained deaf, said officials of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry.Msgr. Jean-Marie Mpendawatu, undersecretary of the council, said eight of the 13 work in the United States, two minister in Great Britain and one each serve in Brazil, Congo and South Korea.
Father Savino Castiglione, a member of the Congregation of the Little Mission for the Deaf, said the problem is not one of barriers imposed by the church, but is a result of practical educational difficulties.
A deaf seminarian needs a sign language interpreter or tutor for his six years of philosophy and theology classes, something which is expensive, particularly because "it is difficult to use sign language to translate such abstract concepts" as those found in philosophy and theology, Father Castiglione said.
The lack of deaf priests was one of the topics discussed Nov. 17 when the pontifical council presented the program for its annual international conference. The theme of the gathering Nov. 19-21 is "The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church."
Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the council, said there are more than 278 million deaf people in the world, and at least 1.3 million of them are Catholic.
"That is a lot and the church must act," the archbishop said.
Without adequately prepared priests and other pastoral workers and trained sign language interpreters, he said, the church is making it difficult, if not impossible, for its deaf members to participate fully in parish life and liturgies, to learn about their faith and to contribute to the life of the church.
Msgr. Mpendawatu said he expected the conference to launch a strong call for seminaries to at least offer future priests training in sign language because the pastoral care of deaf Catholics requires it.
"Just think how hard it would be to go to confession" if one could not find a priest who would understand, he said.
Luca Lamano, who was born deaf and teaches deaf children, attended a Catholic school for the deaf in Rome where Mass was celebrated each week and the sacrament of penance was offered by a priest who knew sign language.
But his local parish did not have interpreters.
"My dad said it doesn't matter if you don't understand, it is important to participate, but I didn't like it," he said.
He stopped going to Mass until he met his wife, a committed Catholic who knows sign language.
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SIC: CNS