Once again we share an interesting and topical post from the Catholic Union on a matter very close to our heart.
The Holy Father and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences met last week to discuss ‘Disability and the human condition’. The President of the Catholic Union, Baroness Hollins, addressed that plenary session; and the work (outlined below) of an award-winning organisation led by one Scotland-based subscriber to our Weekly Briefing demonstrates the vital contribution our laity undertakes at the praxis of these important issues.
Chris Gehrke, Director of L’Arche Highland, writes:
Earlier this month, in a speech to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Pope Francis commented on the stuttering progress made by the international community in acknowledging the rights and dignity of persons who live with disabilities. Our “throwaway culture”, he said, discards people with disabilities by failing to recognise their contributions to the shared project of human flourishing.
Pope Francis is right about this. Today, we excessively value qualities such as autonomy and efficiency. And no group is more acutely excluded by this than people with learning disabilities. The Pope’s remedy is to seek out “forms of social friendship that include everyone”. If you want proof that such friendships are not just utopian fantasy, I suggest a visit to L’Arche Highland, in Inverness.
L’Arche is a Community movement, bringing together people with and without learning disabilities in equality and mutual respect. Our shared life is a joyful rebellion against a society that’s often unfair and unkind to people with learning disabilities. The form of inclusive social friendship we have in L’Arche is neither utopian nor perfect. But it is real – in the stories and daily life of individual people, with and without disabilities, who come together in our Community.
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