Week
of
May 8, 2002
Inside the Register
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Special religious education: faith for the journey
Developmentally
disabled learn about faith in catechetical program
By Alwen Bledsoe
Once the developmentally disabled were so misunderstood that the occasional priest would bar them from the sacraments. Days have changed, and thanks largely to Sister Mary Catherine Widger, S.L., the late Father Larry Freeman and his identical twin Father Roland Freeman, a vibrant Church community welcomes the developmentally disabled through the archdiocese's special religious education program.
"They (made) us aware of how special the special needs people are," said Jeannie Hatridge, whose 34-year-old son Curt attends a special religious education program at Immaculate Heart of Mary, Northglenn. It was from Sister Widger and Father Larry that Hatridge first learned her son could indeed participate in the Church's sacraments. And that moment is still vivid for her.
"It was the most powerful thing I could have ever experienced to know that he could experience that same great closeness to the living Lord in such an intimate way," Hatridge remembered.
Sister Widger and Father Larry began the archdiocese's program in 1976 because, said Sister Widger, "they have a right to education on a level they can comprehend."
According to Sister Widger, around 300 special religious education students currently participate in the archdiocese's program.
Sister Widger has her master's degree in special education. Father Roland, who stepped in as the program's full-time priest after his brother's death, is a clinical psychologist.
Once it was thought that those who were incapable of fully comprehending the confirmation classes should not receive communion. But Sister Widger scoffs at the idea, asking how people could believe that Jesus desires relationship only with those possessing an IQ above 80.
The essence of religion — and of the program — really has little to do with how much can be intellectually absorbed, Sister Widger said.
Instead, "It has to do with how we help this person so Jesus can do what he wants to do in this child's life."
Confirmation and religious education courses are catered to the needs of the developmentally disabled, she added.
"If a child is not ready for first communion until 12 and it takes three years, that's fine," she said.
Similarly, if a child's development is degenerating or if the child is incapable of further learning, the sacraments can be extended on the basis of the family's faith and efforts to catechize the child, Sister Widger added.
Special religious education Masses and classes use many tangible expressions of faith like song and crafts and simplified versions of the "Our Father" and "Gloria," Father Roland added.
The greatest lesson of the program, though, is love.
"Primarily (the purpose of the program) is to allow them to experience themselves as being loved, affirmed, and of value," he said.
The weekly courses are taught nine months out of the year by volunteers in individual parishes to which the priest and nun pair travel on a regular basis. Father Roland frequently celebrates Masses for the parish programs.
Along with the annual weekend camp experience at Camp Santa Maria at the end of May, another great hit with the students is the Special Religious Education Mass, which the archbishop of Denver always celebrates. The Mass this year was celebrated April 28 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
This year's theme "Shoes for the Journey" emphasized the spiritual journey Christians make as a community towards God. Special religious education students crafted huge, colorful shoes made of flexible cardboard in honor of the Mass and presented Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., with a gift certificate to the shoe store Dardano's, Sister Widger said.
Joan Jurann, 33, has been in the special religious education program at St. Jude Parish in Lakewood for many years, she said.
"I did the reading for the bishop Mass," she said, referring to the April 28 Mass. "It was a little scary right in front of the whole people in the cathedral."
She's enthusiastic about the program and is especially enthusiastic in her affection for Sister Widger and Father Roland.
"I learn a lot from special religious education," she said.
One of the things she's learned, Jurann added, is that "I have a spiritual life."
In fact, Jurann receives communion about three times a week. And her love for Jesus is evident.
"I sympathize with him a little bit," she said. "When he bends his knees on the cross and when he has nails on the cross, I know how he feels."
The faith and love with which her students approach life is something Sister Widger wishes more people exhibited, she said.
"Religion is a very easy concept for them," she said, later adding, "They very much live out of the heart rather than out of the intellect that gets the rest of us in so much trouble."
Pat Jurann, Joan Jurann's mother, said the program gives her adult children an accepting place they often struggle to find in the rest of society. Her son Jeff is also a part of the program.
"They always feel welcome and important," she said.
Sister Widger, though, said she also learns a great deal from her students who value friendship above all else.
"I would say they are a constant reminder that people are more important than anything else," she said.