Disability Issues, Challenges, and Advocacy

Profiles in Catholicism
2 hours ago
22 min read

A man in traditional Middle Eastern clothing sits with his hand covering part of his face beside a woman in a wheelchair wearing a patterned dress and headscarf, both appearing somber.

A Massage from the Editor

Disability challenges encompass societal barriers like stigma, discrimination, and lack of accessibility in built environments and information, which significantly impact education, employment, and healthcare access for people with disabilities. Financial burdens from medical costs and assistive devices, coupled with social isolation and difficulties in community participation, also present significant challenges.

People with disabilities often experience barriers to inclusion that negatively affect their daily lives. Barriers to inclusion are physical and nonphysical factors in a person's environment that limit functioning and create disability.

Stereotyping, stigma, and discrimination are challenges people with disability face every day. Much of the disabled community faces exclusion from parts of society other people take for granted.

Disability exclusion has stemmed from the belief that having a disability makes you ‘less than.’ In recent years, people with disability have also been silenced by the popularised positivity movement that believes ‘the only disability is a bad attitude.’ Some might think this statement sounds encouraging! These attitudes have the problematic underlying message that it is up to the person to change if they want to be part of society.

Disability activist Stella Young explained brilliantly the barriers that people with disability face are societal and that no amount of positivity will be able to break these barriers down.

To become an all-inclusive and accessible society we need to change the way we view disability and collaborate with the disabled community to break down barriers.

For many religious individuals, disabilities can i serve as a path to a deeper connection with God by highlighting vulnerability, fostering resilience, and revealing God's power through limitations, which transforms perspectives on grace, suffering, and human value within various faiths. This perspective aligns with concepts of spiritual dependence, the manifestation of divine strength, and the idea of God using all individuals, including those with disabilities, for God's purposes.

Some biblical passages, such as 2 Corinthians 12:9, are interpreted to show that God's power is made more evident through human weakness. A disability can serve as a "thorn in the flesh" that allows God's strength to be more clearly revealed, rather than diminish a person's worth.

Vulnerability and dependence:

Disabilities can foster a sense of dependence on God, which can lead to a more profound and intimate relationship with the divine, as seen in the example of Jesus and the blind man in John 9.

God's Purposeful Design:

Developmental disabilities are a group of conditions due to an impairment in physical, learning, language, or behavior areas.

These conditions begin during the child's developmental period, may impact day-to-day functioning, and usually last throughout a person's lifetime.

Most developmental disabilities begin before a baby is born, but some can happen after birth because of injury, infection, or other factors.

Most developmental disabilities are thought to be caused by a complex mix of factors. These factors include genetics; parental health and behaviors (such as smoking and drinking) during pregnancy; complications during birth; infections the mother might have during pregnancy or the baby might have very early in life; and exposure of the mother or child to high levels of environmental toxins, such as lead. For some developmental disabilities, such as fetal alcohol syndrome, which is caused by drinking alcohol during pregnancy, we know the cause. But for most, we don’t. jaundice can prevent kernicterus.

Spirituality and disability intersect in diverse ways; while some religious traditions historically viewed disability as punishment, modern spiritual understanding emphasizes the inherent dignity, spiritual gifts, and potential for growth within people with disabilities, promoting inclusion and recognizing spirituality as a vital part of a person's life and well-being, regardless of physical or cognitive ability.

Vaccines News

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that vaccines prevent 4 million deaths worldwide each year, primarily among children. These deaths often occur in low- and middle- income countries where access to vaccines is limited.

Unvaccinated people who contract an infectious disease are also a risk to those who cannot be immunized, such as the very young, the elderly, or those with compromised immune systems.

RFK Jr. announcement that free vaccines in the United Sates will end free vaccines for most people. Unfortunately many poor people will not be able to afford them and will be ill or die.

Bernie Sanders demands that RFK Jr step down as health secretary

by Maya Yang The Guardian

When vaccination rates drop, a community loses its herd immunity. This allows diseases to re-emerge and spread, threatening populations who were previously protected. Misinformation about vaccines and declining vaccination rates have already led to an increase in preventable diseases

In 2023, about 4.8 million children less than 5 years of age died, and another 2.1 million deaths occurred in individuals 5 to 24 years of age, many of which were due to lack of vaccines We ask all of our readers to pray for them.

Politics

According to a recent survey, most political scientists agree that President Donald Trump is turning the United States government into an autocracy, all too quickly.

As political scholars Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way explain, a competitive-authoritarian country is one where elections are held and election results carry, but incumbents alter the game so as to tilt the odds of winning heavily in their favor. This effectively makes it an autocratic regime, with one person holding the lion’s share of power.

Politicians tilt these odds by doing exactly the sorts of things Trump is doing. He is replacing civil servants with loyalists, and then repurposing the long-standing institutions they serve. This is so he can use those institutions for political gain — to punish dissenters and reward allies. All to support his staying in power.

As just one recent example, Levistky and Way predicted in February that the Internal Revenue Service would become one of the many departments that Trump would weaponize. On April 15, Trump called for the IRS to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status in response to the university’s refusal to acquiesce. Trump had previously withheld billions of dollars in grant funding.

Portuguese President Calls Trump a Soviet Asset: What It Means
by Maya Maddox The National Circus
Donald Trump and fascism by Wikipedia
Link to Fascism

A Quote to Remember

I was slightly brain-damaged at birth, and I want people like me to see that they shouldn’t let a disability get in the way. I want to raise awareness – I want to turn my disability into ability.

by Susan Boyle

Prayers

A prayer for people with disabilities :

« Freezing or Thawing »

Entering into time, Lord, you came among us to heal, to cure, to

Transform, to inspire in us the belief that you are the Son of God

And that the power of your word is a power which enters the heart

To answer our deepest questions: questions which address who we

Are and who you, through Mary, came to reveal about yourself.

So we discover through Mary’s dialogue with the angel Gabriel that

You, Lord, are the Son of the Most High and that the Holy Spirit has

The power to ‘overshadow’ her and bring you to exist in the flesh;

And, therefore, because of this dialogue we, too, are invited to draw

Near to the Blessed Trinity and to bring all our heart’s painful love.

And thus, Lord, we bring all those who we suffer with, whether we

Know them personally or not, but especially if they are in our

Family, among our neighbours, on the street, in a doorway, sleeping

Under a tree, near a library, in a tent on the side of the street, or

Lying, almost unrecognizably in the rubbish, hidden in dirty greys.

But there are others, Lord, whom you know are out of sight but not

Beyond your penetrating gaze, seeing right through the closed freezers,

at temperatures where, ordinarily, no one lives, yet live the

Smallest, frozen unborn, barely in existence but exist they do as

“to be” is irrevocable and who will cry out for their right to grow?

While, then, these that are frozen are fortunate in comparison to those

Who have been “deleted”, “discarded”, “experimented upon”, they

Are many and, frequently, even if they are thawed, they may never

Survive and find a maternal home or, if they do, they may fail in the

Reviving of life, in “restarting”, and die a thawed, withering death.

How many of us, Lord, while not exactly the frozen human embryos,

Buried alive in freezing nitrogen, are yet frozen out of society in so

Many different ways, as if there are those who go about with ice-cold

Capabilities, shooting darts of addiction to drugs, alcohol, and

Pictures, preying on the prayerless, wordless, dying bodies of people?

When you came, Lord, it was your word, your touch, your company,

Which touched so many and, even if we deserted you, yet you came

To save, to stay among us, and to forgive; and, having risen and

Ascended from us, yet you have stayed, silently, in our Churches,

Being there, beckoning us to come to the warmth of your presence.

It is true, Lord, that we live in a world of contradictions where there

Are immense, technological aids for those whose thoughts are within

Being able to speak through a machine, or write, or in some way

Convey what they are thinking through the immeasurable help of

What changes actions, or eye movements, into words out of silence.

But it is also true, Lord, that there is an immense wastage of human

Life, like a slope of human slippage, sliding into the drain an

Unknown, almost inestimable amount of human remains, but not just

The remains of adults – but the remains of culled, cut, and incredibly

Innocent human life, known in all his or her splendor only by you.

Only you, Lord, can call upon the heart of each one of us to come to

The invisible fire of your Eucharistic presence to be soaked in the

Mystery of a love that always seeks to take us from where we are to

Who you are, that we may be warmed through and, while slowly,

Surely, you thaw and make a warmer, melting love, that loves to love.

And so we come, full rounded now, not just remembering that you

Came and did what you have done, however much of it was unwritten

And passed down, perhaps passing out of memory and dying with the

People whose lives were changed, forever now, being with you in

Eternity, where now you gather all who have passed into your family.

And so, Lord, let us come into your unchanging company, leaving no

One, neglecting no one, overlooking no one, except those who

Wilfully choose to stay cold, heart unburnt, un-melted, frighteningly

Unwilling to listen: the voluntarily frozen whose lives are a betrayal

Of being human and whose hearts are out of reach of a touching love.

by Francis Etheredge Catholic married layman, father of 11, 3 of whom are in heaven, and an author: https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/francisetheredge/

Prayer for the 1500 plus people who died in the India flood

We pray for those who have lost lives, homes, livelihoods and more in India as monsoon flooding - exacerbated by the climate crisis - have turned God’s gift of water into a nightmare. Aware that the decisions of people in suits and air conditioned boardrooms are often felt by people in remote villages who cannot afford clothes on their backs, we ask not only for comfort for the victims and openness of their communities but also that the consciences of those around the world may be stirred to address the disasters to which human greed contributes.

by Father Justin Glyn SJ Profiles in Catholicism

Prayer for peace in Gaza

Lord your life words and action can inspire leaders and help bring peace in the world by guiding the leaders to end hostility and seek peace by reconciliation and justice in all matters.

Peace is not only the end of violence but the growing hope that justice will be done for the victims. That there be compassion for the wounded and the hungry and the refugees. We pray there will be help for these abandoned victims of war.

May the violent leaders have a change of mind and heart to give up sinful ambition and desire for power.

Help us Lord to find greater love and concern for each other in our communities.

When you said "peace i give you peace i leave you" that gave hope that people would overcome their hatred and hostility to each other and come together as brothers and sisters in one family headed by our loving father with you

our friend and guide Jesus of Nazareth.

AMEN

by Father Shay Cullen Profiles In Catholicism

A Prayer to Prevent Antisemitism

Lord God, through the covenant you established with the Jewish People, we Christians have been grafted into this covenantal tradition according to St. Paul. But very often throughout history, we have shown ourselves ungrateful for this gift given us through Jesus who imbued in his teachings this Jewish covenantal tradition through acts of antisemitism. We join with Popes St. John Paul II and Francis in confessing our sins of antisemitism past and present. Through this prayer, we commit ourselves to the elimination of any remaining anti-Semitic teachings in the Catholic community and pledge to add our public voice in denouncing any manifestations of antisemitism in contemporary society. We ask your blessing so that we may have the strength to fulfill this pledge we make in your presence.

by John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, Profiles in Catholicism

Disabilities Interviews