This summer I gave a talk on “Living Catholicism with Illness or Disability” for an online conference. Now that the conference is completely dark and nobody can see the talk I gave, I figured it worthwhile to upload the talk again, but to my own channel. I hope you enjoy it. Here’s the video and I have my notes below. (The notes are close to a transcript as they are what I used, but I’m sure I adlibbed a few… Read more
October 1, 2020
Living Catholicism with Illness or Disability
October 1, 2020 By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
September 18, 2020
An Autistic Mental Breakdown Doesn’t Excuse Shooting a 13-Year-Old
September 18, 2020 By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
In Salt Lake City, a 13-year-old autistic boy had a mental breakdown. The mom called 911 to help, but when police showed up they shot him. This emphasizes a problem with how police are trained to deal with autistics and others with disabilities. I will cover the incident, note the training issues that are known then provide a short moral analysis. The Incident CNN reported: A 13-year-old boy was seriously injured after being shot by a police officer in Salt… Read more
September 16, 2020
Portland Bans Most Facial Recognition
September 16, 2020 By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
I have written several times about facial recognition before. As a large concern of mine is the ethics of privacy, the connection is quite evident. Recently, Portland passed the strongest facial recognition ban in the USA. I want to share that story and do a little moral analysis. The Facial Recognition Ban in Portland CNN reported on this ban: The city of Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday banned the use of facial-recognition technology by city departments — including local police —… Read more
September 1, 2020
Debunking Catholic Disinformation Re: Vaccines (Viganò)
September 1, 2020 By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
Archbishop Viganò was the papal nuncio in the USA years ago but has recently come to fame for various letters he’s written in retirement. He started by revealing a possible cover-up of clerical sexual abuse. However, has slowly gotten further from mainstream Catholicism in what he writes. On August 21, he wrote a letter posted on The Remnant. This letter starts making claims well outside the Bishop’s expertise, which are boldly contrary to the evidence which is freely and widely… Read more
August 22, 2020
Woman Told She Should Have Aborted Autistic Children
August 22, 2020 By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
In Ireland, someone told a woman with two autistic children that she should have aborted them. Here’s the story followed by two points I have with this. Suggesting Eugenic Abortion An Irish Website, NewsTalk, posted the story: Samantha Kenny, from Athy in Co Kildare, says the letter targeted her family after she campaigned for back to school guidelines for children with autism… She told Newstalk Breakfast she has reported the issue to Gardaí [Irish national police]. “Initially I was kind… Read more
August 13, 2020
Video Shows the Need to Train Priests on Disability
August 13, 2020 By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
On Sunday, there was a video of a priest kicking a 7-year-old disabled child out of his sister’s baptism. We can train priests better than this. The boy is a non-verbal autistic and also had Sotos syndrome, which is a rare genetic condition characterized by excessive early growth that tends to be comorbid with autism, intellectual disability, delayed development, low muscle tone, and speech impairments. The boy dropped a toy and made a small noise. Then, the priest yelled at him… Read more
August 1, 2020
Genetic Screening Might Kill Disabled Babies
August 1, 2020 By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
Yes, you read that right. Most of you have probably heard about genetic testing on Down Syndrome Children that results in a very high percentage of them being aborted. The US doesn’t keep great statistics on this but the best research estimated 67% termination rate. In European countries, the termination rate is often over 90%. “Termination rate” here is the medical term: this means a baby is killed in utero after being diagnosed with Down Syndrome. This is a tragedy…. Read more
July 29, 2020
A Quick Blog Interview on Autism
July 29, 2020 By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
The Simple Catholic had emailed me some questions a while back. The blog editor got back in touch with me a few days ago saying he was going to post the interview. I’d replied so long ago I had not remembered replying. Nonetheless, I thought I’d share part of the blog interview here and give you the link for the rest of it. What challenges do you face as a priest with autism? My religious community tends to take on… Read more
July 28, 2020
Speaking Out Against Drinking Bleach
July 28, 2020 By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
Unfortunately, many promote drinking bleach (usually called MMS) to cure autism and COVID. All the evidence points to this being ineffective. However, some Catholics have fallen for it and promoted it as something Catholic. I wanted to present why this was wrong and clarify that it was not in accord with Catholic teaching so my fellow autistics did not get confused. I think, unfortunately, when certain Catholics get press for things that sound off and are contrary to Catholic teaching,… Read more
July 11, 2020
Good News: First State DNA Privacy Law
July 11, 2020 By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
As I might have mentioned before, I’m currently writing a doctoral thesis on the Catholic approach to privacy. What lead me to this was concerns about genetic privacy in things like employment and insurance. Right now, there are limited laws in the USA, where the Americans with Disabilities Act functionally makes DNA testing for employment impossible. However, federal law does not apply to life, disability or long-term care insurance. However, Florida recently passed a new law. New Florida DNA Privacy Law… Read more
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