(19 November 09-RV) There are more than 278 million hearing impaired people in the
world, and at least 1.3 million of them are Catholic, but globally there are only
13 priests who were ordained deaf.
The shortfall in education and training
in ministry to the hearing impaired is what this years’ conference of the Vatican
Council for Pastoral Health Care is all about. Entitled “The Deaf Person in the Life
of the Church” the three day conference opened this morning.
Delegates are
asking whether local communities are doing enough for their hearing impaired members
and why 80% of the worlds deaf live in underdeveloped nations. Liverpool Archbishop
Patrick Kelly is president of the International Catholic Foundation for the Service
of Deaf Persons. Hear what he had to say: