A few years back, there was some energy and zeal around something people called “the new evangelization.” I never quite knew what it meant, but I am in favor of evangelizing, so anything serving that goal seems good to me. But as long as people are thinking about new kinds of evangelization, I would like to suggest one.
Allow me to begin, however, if I may, with what should be for all devoted Catholics a very disturbing statistic. Multiple studies suggest that 96 percent of deaf people, including those who are baptized Catholics, do not go to any church due to very limited services available to them in their own language (in the United States, American Sign Language or ASL). Indeed, fewer than 5 percent of churches in the U.S. offer outreach to the deaf.
There is frequently a basic misunderstanding about deafness and sign language. Often people will say something like this: “Well, the deaf can read the readings, so why would we need an ASL interpreter?” The misunderstanding is based on the belief that ASL signs merely represent English, just like a written word. That’s not so. ASL is its own language with its own syntax, grammar, and vocabulary, which is visual, not written.
Consequently, people whose first language is ASL encounter specific challenges when learning to read English. For them, this is a second language, in a foreign medium. A friend of mine describes it this way. What if instead of A, somebody wrote a 1, and instead of an F, he wrote a 6, and so on. Then you would be looking at a line of numbers trying to decipher what they meant.
Oral language users distinguish “cat” from “cab” when we sound it out. Deaf people don’t learn to read that way. For them, the “t” is like the number 20 for you. If I write: “3, 1, 2” and then “3, 1, 20,” you know there’s a difference, but it you won’t know what it is until somebody makes clear to you that “3, 1, 2” signifies a car that takes you to the airport and “3, 1, 20” signifies a soft, fluffy thing that our dog hates. Now think about “reading” a “sentence” that looks like this: 1 312 54808 343 878 45, 215 3558. That’s what reading a written language can be like for the Deaf.
Reading English for a Deaf person whose native language is sign language is harder than if you tried to read a text in ancient Greek, not knowing any of the Greek letters. Granted, you could learn the Greek letters, and you could learn Greek, but anyone who has done it can tell you it’s not the easiest thing in the world. It’s not like learning your own language.
If hearing children never had anyone speak to them, they would never learn to talk. So too with deaf children. If parents learn to sign, many deaf children will start to sign before hearing children start to talk. But deaf children only learn when people communicate to them in their language.
Sadly, only a very small percentage of hearing parents of deaf children learn to sign. It is very rare, for example, for fathers to learn to sign. Without the support of family and the community, how many of those children do you suppose will end up in church at Mass?
Are we not warned in Leviticus 19:14: “You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD”? Do we not have a Savior who fulfills the promise of Isaiah 29:18: “In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness”?
When the imprisoned John the Baptist tells his disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” the Lord replies: “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Some people seem to think it is an “annoyance” to have sign language interpreters at Mass. Do they find ramps leading up to the church “annoying” as well? Would they consider a seeing-eye dog “out of place” in the church? How about a child with Down syndrome?
I’m sorry, but you really need to read the Gospels. These are the people with whom Christ constantly surrounds Himself. Do we welcome them into our Catholic schools and churches? Or insist that the government’s bureaucratic “care” industry should handle these things rather than us?
If our churches make it impossible for the blind or those in wheelchairs to get in, or for those who are deaf to encounter the word of God, would we be able to hear the passage from Matthew 11:28 where Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,” and not be ashamed? Could we still call ourselves disciples of Christ?
“But we don’t have any deaf people in our parish.” Of course, you don’t. You haven’t provided a translator into their language. You probably don’t have a lot of non-English speaking Vietnamese, Hungarians, and Indonesians there either. My archdiocese has churches with services in Spanish, Vietnamese, French, and even Tagalog. Masses in multiple languages are not uncommon elsewhere. Why, then, so few services (almost none) for the deaf?
Remember, they’re not signing English. ASL is its own language.
So, if you’re all hyped up on evangelization, I’ve got a group for you from one of those “disadvantaged minorities” people are always talking about. The deaf community. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
