Category: Deaf

People and activities in the Cambodian deaf world

National Catholic Office of the Deaf

Pastoral Week (Monday)
Flying into Chicago from Portland, with ice on Lake Michigan

Today was strictly a travel day. I had been checking the United app the last couple days and it said my flights were still on schedule so I did not re-schedule them as many others did for their flights because of the snow over much of the US. But although there were no snow or weather problems, the trip was “eventful.”

• Two sisters from Montreal and I left the Portland hotel at 3:30 AM. I arrived quite early for my 9:00 AM flight, but their offer of a ride saved me a $65 Uber fee.
• The flight to Chicago was smooth and I got a little sleep.
• When I went to the gate in Chicago for the flight to Louisville, there was a notice it was delayed 15 minutes. Then a second delay was announced, and then a third because the plane was in the maintenance hanger.
• Finally at 9:45 AM we boarded the plane.
• At 9:46 it was announced there would be a 20-minute delay for refueling.
• Then it was announced the plane would be de-iced. Another 20 minutes.
• After that we moved out to a taxiway. And stopped. After 20 minutes it was announced there was an instrument problem and we had to return to the gate. But we didn’t move.
• 25 minutes later it was reported we were waiting for a gate to be available and we finally moved to F4. The repairs took 20 minutes.
• Then it was announced we needed to refuel again.
• Finally 1.5 hours late we took off for Louisville and arrived at 9:25 PM. The original ETA was 5:37 PM.

It was plenty cold there but the streets had been plowed and it was no problem getting to Nazareth Home.

National Catholic Office of the Deaf

Pastoral Week (Sunday)

In the morning we had our last information session and then left right away for a national pilgrimage site, The Grotto on a Portland hilltop.

The Grotto is a shrine to Mary as Sorrowful Mother and is part of a huge rock face on the hill top.

At the top of the cliff and the grotto is a beautiful forest of magnificent trees.

On the edge of the cliff, with a panoramic view, is this chapel for meditation and prayer. It is amazing that all of this is within the city of Portland.
Our time at The Grotto concluded with a final liturgy. The presider was Bishop Stephen Raica whom I first met at the 1978 Florida NCOD conference in Florida, when he was a new priest getting into deaf ministry.
Back at the hotel, we had a concluding banquet. For me it was a chance to meet more new friends.

National Catholic office of the Deaf

Pastoral Week (Saturday)

This has to be a brief post. I need to leave the hotel at 3:30 AM to get to the airport and I need to get some sleep. It could be a l-o-n-g journey back to Louisville with all the snow and air travel disruption.

At one of our announcement sessions, two representatives from the International Catholic Deaf Association gave information about the activities and programs of the ICDA,

National Catholic Office of the Deaf

Pastoral Week (Friday)
As many Catholic gatherings do, our pastoral week started with a liturgy for 90 or so participants from all over the USA.
There is a group of six American Sign Language interpreters working at this conference to facilitate the spread of the program content and enable communications among the participants with various levels of sign language skills.
One of the first speakers was Fr. Bill Key from Milwaukee. He and I have been friends since these annual gatherings in the early 1970s.

Two other friends from the early days of deaf ministry are Bea (L) and Judith, Sisters of Providence who are ministers in Seattle. Here we are at a nearby mall food court for a supper to allow us to catch up.

National Catholic Office of the Deaf

Pastoral Week (Thursday)

We flew through Denver to get to Portland from Louisville, and then in Portland it was a 24-mile drive to the hotel where the gathering is being held. On the drive I noticed one sign that we are not in Kentucky: the trees here have no mistletoe while the barren trees around Louisville are full of the dark clumps of the seasonal parasite.

Registration for the gathering started at 4:00 PM and then in the evening we had a welcome reception. I was pleased to meet some of the pastoral workers I first met 50 and 60 years ago.

An Old Friend

When I got back to Nazareth Home, one of the staff asked if I knew a deaf man had been admitted. I found out it was John. I first met him 50+ years ago when he was a student at the Kentucky School for the Deaf. He became an active member of our Catholic deaf group and I had the wedding ceremony for him and his wife. It was wonderful for both of us to see each other again.

Signs of decency not wanted

In the past, American Sign language interpreters were provided for White House press briefings and other events so that U.S. deaf people could understand. The Trump White House ended that practice, saying it “would severely intrude on the President’s prerogative to control the image he presents to the public.”

The White House has a point. Trump has presented an image of one who mocks people with disabilities; routinely verbally abuses and disrespects people; is against inclusion; and flouts and ignores laws that he doesn’t like. Facilitating communications for deaf people could intrude on the negative image that he has created.

The National Association of the Deaf is suing to have sign language interpreting restored at the White House.

Visiting Bardstown

When I left Louisville for deaf work in Asia, Fr. Randy Hubbard replaced me in deaf ministry and kept thing going. Now he has been made pastor of the St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown, 50 miles from Louisville. Today some of the Catholic deaf group in Louisville went to visit him.

Afterwards we went to a local restaurant and continued our conversations and comradery.

I’ve been here before….

50+ years ago I used to have my hair cut at the Tri-City Barber College in Louisville. Then I went to Asia for 42 years, and for the last 20+years in Cambodia I had my own barber school, a job training program for deaf youth.

Today I returned to Tri-City after the long absence. It’s in a different location and the staff I knew are no longer there. The same could be said for a lot of my hair: it’s no longer there. But I got a cut from Eli, a delightful young man, eager to please, and he only charged me $7!