This Sunday’s gospel focuses on Jesus’ healing of a deaf man — and Catholic News Service has just posted a wonderful companion piece about ministering to the deaf:

The silence of the hallways is only interrupted by intermittent laughter and the occasional sound of moving chairs. A man noiselessly converses with someone on a higher floor, turns away and heads up a spiraling staircase to join his companion.

At Gallaudet University in Washington, an institution specializing in undergraduate liberal arts education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, the pervasive quiet does not suggest a lack of activity.

During one of Gallaudet’s summer sessions, many classrooms were full of hearing and deaf students learning everything from elementary sign language to how to prepare for interpretation exams.

Father Thomas Rozman, pastor of St. Patrick Cathedral Parish in Harrisburg, Pa., was practicing signing with his classmates in one of the rooms, with desks in a circle to maximize visibility. He is in his second consecutive year of summer studies at Gallaudet and is taking American Sign Language II, or ASL, in an effort to help more deaf Catholics feel a part of their faith.

“They feel like they don’t have a home in the church because they can’t communicate,” Father Rozman, who is not deaf, said. “A deaf person who wants to go to confession can write, but it’s uncomfortable.”

The Harrisburg Diocese has a focus on including Catholics in worship and parish life, Father Rozman told Catholic News Service. About two years ago the diocese established an Office for Ministry with People with Disabilities. Currently, most of the interpreters are laypeople. The priest said he was not aware of other priests in his area learning sign language.

There’s much more about this unique ministry at the link.