{"id":15053,"date":"2014-11-23T12:37:07","date_gmt":"2014-11-23T17:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/?p=15053"},"modified":"2015-01-10T21:37:35","modified_gmt":"2015-01-11T02:37:35","slug":"pope-francis-autism-and-more-separate-masses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2014\/11\/pope-francis-autism-and-more-separate-masses.html","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis, Autism, and More Separate Masses&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/video.php?v=10152874262727497\" data-width=\"466\">\n<div class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/video.php?v=10152874262727497\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Post<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/autismspeaks\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Autism Speaks<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>I\u2019ve been to parishes where special needs children fidgeted and made noise all through mass and no one bats an eye. <\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve also been to parishes where everyone within ear shot turned around and gave the parents dirty looks til they moved to the cry room\u2026 where they got more dirty looks. <\/p>\n<p>In fact, the first ever Catholic church I went to with any regularity was in downtown Nashville. The pews were filled to the brim with every type of person imaginable; homeless people that talked to themselves, nuns, families with wailing kids, old folks, young folks, richly and sloppily dressed. And the mass went on. <\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m glad the families in the video above are finally able to have church back into their lives. No family or child should ever feel unwelcome in a Catholic Church\u2026 the noisy, diverse, universal Catholic Church. <\/p>\n<p>But (you knew there was going to be a \u201cbut\u201d) do we really need yet another separate mass catering to a specific group of people?  How are people not accustomed to dealing with autistic children\u2019s behavior ever going to be accepting of them if we separate them from the general congregation?<\/p>\n<p>It seems to me the problem is not with the special needs children and their families but with the intolerant others. Intolerance is usually based in ignorance. Separating special needs children from the general congregation just keeps perpetuating a cycle of ignorance because knowledge is gained through life experience and exposure. <\/p>\n<p>How can we be a church for <em>all<\/em> if we insist on being divided? There are actually churches here in Charlotte that are divided by ethnicity, language, and race. How sad. You know what would be even sadder? If we also lost the presence of the altar server with Down Syndrome and all the beautiful special needs children and their families, who are the true embodiment of being pro-life. <\/p>\n<p>I certainly appreciate what Pope Francis is trying to do to make these families feel welcome and having these types of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autismspeaks.org\/news\/news-item\/pope-francis-holds-mass-families-affected-autism\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">conversations<\/a> are good at dispelling ignorance.   <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Vatican\u2019s first-ever conference on autism, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.autismspeaks.org\/news\/news-item\/vatican-holds-first-ever-conference-autism\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Person with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Animating Hope<\/a>,\u201d was held on Nov. 21 \u2013 22. Organizers told the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.utsandiego.com\/news\/2014\/nov\/18\/pope-to-meet-with-autistic-kids-to-end-stigma\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Associated Press<\/a> the event is the biggest medical conference of its kind on autism, gathering more than 650 experts from 57 countries. Autism Speaks co-founders Bob and Suzanne Wright addressed attendees \u2013 including families \u2013 at the conference on volunteerism. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autismspeaks.org\/news\/news-item\/suzanne-wright-gets-standing-ovation-vatican-autism-conference\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Watch their remarks here<\/a>. Mrs. Wright received a standing ovation following her speech. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X4osO24Z6TU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>To close the conference, Pope Francis held a special mass for attendees and families. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I just have mixed feelings about separating these families from regular worship. <\/p>\n<p>Thoughts? <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Post by Autism Speaks. I\u2019ve been to parishes where special needs children fidgeted and made noise all through mass and no one bats an eye. I\u2019ve also been to parishes where everyone within ear shot turned around and gave the parents dirty looks til they moved to the cry room\u2026 where they got more dirty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":15058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[620,101],"tags":[1004],"class_list":["post-15053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pope-francis","category-sanctity-of-life","tag-autism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pope Francis, Autism, and More Separate Masses...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Post by Autism Speaks. I&#039;ve been to parishes where special needs children fidgeted and made noise all through mass and no one bats an eye. 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