Saturday, June 7, 1997

Special sacraments help make place for people with disabilities

By Richard C. Dujardin / Providence Journal-Bulletin

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - It was hard to say who among them was the happiest - 16-year-old Jason Boutiette or his parents, Michael and Jeannine.

The scene was St. Aidan Church in Cumberland, R.I., where Jason and 43 other teenagers and adults had come Tuesday night to receive the anointing with sacred oils that the Catholic Church calls Confirmation.

As candidates moved forward to receive the laying-on-of-hands from visiting Archbishop George Pearce, Jason sat waiting his turn in his wheelchair, adding his own sounds and noises to the sounds of the organ, much as he does every week when his parents take him to Mass.

Before the ceremony, Jason's parents confessed that they hadn't always held out hope that their son would be receiving his First Communion or Confirmation.

Born 16 years ago today, Jason suffered a cerebral hemorrhage as an infant that not only left him profoundly retarded but blind.

"If you would have asked us back then years ago if we thought Jason would be receiving any sacraments, we would have said no," said his father, Michael. "His mental development is still of the level of a 1-year-old. He sits up, with assistance, but he still doesn't walk."

The turnabout, at least as far as Jason's participation in the sacraments was concerned, came when the parents were invited to enroll their son in a Special Religious Education for Disabled Persons program (SPRED) that had been started at St. Joan of Arc Church in Cumberland and then in other parishes in Rhode Island. Six years ago, coordinators suggested to Jason's parents that he was ready to receive his First Communion.

They were hesitant at first, wondering if Jason could truly understand what was going on, or if he might end up choking on the host.

But all those fears disappeared when they saw Jason receive communion for the first time.

Says his mother, Jeannine: "His First Communion was a miracle. You could tell just looking at his face that he knew what was going on. His smile was unbelievable."

And it was from that moment on, says Jeannine Boutiette, that she began looking forward to the day when he would become further strengthened by Confirmation, which Catholics believe seals the soul with an indelible mark and fills it with the Holy Spirit's gifts, including wisdom, understanding and fortitude.

"So, as you can see," she says, "this is an emotional time for me." For Jason's father, too. He believes his son can be a role model for the church. Disabled as he is, says Michael Boutiette, Jason "pretty much follows the Mass, and knows when to keep quiet and when to sing in his own little way. ... He knows certain things. For example when, 'Lamb of God' is played, he gets very excited about it. To be truthful, I think he gets more out of Mass than most kids do."

Indeed, says the father, he is having a positive effect on others. "People in church are always going over to rub his head or shoulder. He has a funny way of touching people. He can't say much, but he's touching other people's lives."

Now consider yet another event, also involving mentally handicapped adults, that took place on a recent Sunday at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Woonsocket, - the annual closing liturgy for the SPRED program in northern Rhode Island.

In addition to the regular Sunday morning worshipers, the Mass brought out some 60 or so "special friends" - mentally disabled teen-agers and adults - and an equal number of catechists who have been involved during the last year in their religious training.

They included Michael Parmenter, 29, of Cumberland, who has been cross-bearer for several other year-end processions, and candle bearers Robert King, 13, of Lincoln and Mary Palazzi, 27, of Cumberland. Dawn Burke, 17, a high school freshman, relatively new to the SPRED program, was honorary altar server.

Burke said she regularly attends Mass at "St. Something parish" in Woonsocket, St. Agatha's. "It's hard for me to remember the name. I know it begins with an A."

This had been her first year in the SPRED program, and as with other participants she liked what she found. "It's fun," she said. "We learn about God ... and how much He loves us and cares for us."

Mary Gagnon, who has been Jason Boutiette's helper and a SPRED catechist for six years, said she's always impressed by the way participants come away from the sessions with a sense of peace. In the more than 30 centers where the program is given, there is more the mood of an exotic tea room, with soft music playing in the background.

During this "quiet" time, the participants get in touch with their feelings in a variety of ways, be it running fingers through a box of sand or making a picture with a felt-tip marker. This is time for calming down, of emptying themselves of the distractions of the day in order to be better prepared to meet God.

After more "quiet time," in which participants sit in a circle, with lights dimmed, and greet one another, they go one by one to another room to meditate and reflect on something that has been placed there for their consideration.

Gagnon recalls how at one recent session the leader catechist had the participants reflect on all the different flowers in the room, all of them different, but all beautiful. It was a lesson on "being yourself" and not being afraid to be different.

So simple, she said, but profound. Sessions would usually end with a reading from Scripture, a message, some praying with gestures (since not everyone is able to speak) and an "agape" meal.

Gagnon said the program has shown her that these "special friends" are able to sense the presence of God, even if it is not possible for them to express it. "I often think that maybe God has given our special friends a special gift to sense and feel."

In the Mass, the pastor of Our Lady of Martyrs, Rev. Joseph Schenick, spoke along the same lines, telling the guests, "We are overwhelmed by your presence, touched by your presence and warmed by your love" and that "we have seen in you a whole new dimension of the Church."

The priest noted that there was "a time in the Church when it was thought that it was not necessary to develop the faith of those with special disabilities, that for these 'special people' baptism alone was sufficient."

This, he said, had been the "ultimate discrimination," one that finally began to be rectified as church leaders began to realize that other sacraments too could be given to mentally handicapped people, as underscored by the United States Catholic bishops in a pastoral statement issued in 1978.

Developed by the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1967, and introduced here in 1980, SPRED has always had an emphasis on not keeping people with mental disabilities isolated but rather on integrating them into regular parish life. Rather than receive the sacraments as a separate group, they receive them along with other young people in their parish.

It has not been an entirely smooth ride. Vincent Genovese, who came to a recent Sunday's Mass with his daughter Selena, 13, said it had taken him and his wife nine months to finally convince the pastor of the church, St. Jude's in Lincoln, R.I., that their daughter was ready to receive First Communion with her peers. They eventually prevailed.

According to Colleen Touchette, the diocesan SPRED administrator, more than 50 of the diocese's 156 parishes are involved with SPRED one way or another. The number of SPRED centers is now more than 30. (A typical SPRED community includes 14 people - six "special friends" in the same age group, six catechists from the friend's same parish to relate one-on-one, a lead catechist and an activities catechist. But the community could be smaller, depending on the numbers of disabled.)

The extent to which the disabled have been integrated into the sacramental life of Rhode Island parishes is reflected in the numbers: since 1980, when the program began, there have been 81 First Communions, 12 this year; 59 confirmations, including 15 this year, and 50 baptisms.

In his sermon Sunday, Father Schenick told parishioners that he was frequently advised by religious order sisters who worked with developmentally disabled children from Burrillville to Newport that they found in these "special people" gifts that other children and adult people do not have.

"These sisters have told me that in teaching the religious teachings about Jesus and the love of God, they found these special people have a greater alacrity and understanding and desire to learn about Jesus, more than the ordinary child. More than any of us, they have a greater capacity to learn about Christ Jesus in their hearts."

It has been found, the priest said, that people who minister often discover that they themselves become nourished by the strength of those to whom they minister. And so it is, he said, with "these special people." "By their very presence this morning, they are ministering to us. They are performing and giving the most eloquent sermon I have ever heard in this church."

(c) 1997, The Providence Journal-Bulletin.

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