Deaf community to host event through a Christmas dinner
The B.C. Catholic
BURNABY
The local Deaf Catholic community is raising funds, spirits, and Christmas cheer for an upcoming local conference.
“Our national conference is held every two years,” said Dr. Joe McLaughlin, the president of the Canadian section of the International Catholic Deaf Association (ICDA). Though the next conference is to be in Toronto in 2018, McLaughlin’s group is raising money to help host the 2020 conference that will be held in Vancouver.
The Catholic Deaf Association (CDA) is raising money to host the 2020 event through a Christmas dinner after Mass with ASL interpretation in St. Francis de Sales Church in Burnaby Dec. 3.
“The purpose of the conference is spreading the Word of God and His kingdom,” McLaughlin said. It also promotes the “development and sharing the responsibility of Church work in local dioceses to unite the Catholic Deaf” for ease in pastoral training, workshops, and retreats.
McLaughlin, who was born deaf, also has two deaf siblings.
The proceeds from the dinner will support the conference, but also the ICDA mission fund, which aids in the religious education of Deaf Catholics.
The dinner “is a quiet affair, but if ASL sign language could be heard, the room would be rocking!” said Sister Glenys Symons, ESCH, the pastoral worker for the Deaf in the archdiocese.
“The general population and the ministry forget” about the Deaf among them, and the fundraiser seeks to increase awareness of Deaf Catholics in the community.
The Mass will begin at 5 p.m. Tickets for the dinner are available for $30 from Juliana Musso, julianamusso3@hotmail.com.
