CMf D, Ministry for the Deaf Catholic community, enables acessibility to Catholic worship and spiritual development.

The Christian life bears fruit in communion; in faith, hope and charity shared between persons on our common journey towards communion with God. When one or more of the five senses is impaired, the natural means to achieve and sustain such a communion is weakened, but the desire for it remains and is, if anything, increased by the very fact that the challenges are so real. The Catholic MInistry for the Deaf exists in this context, to provide the means to build communion among the Deaf and between the Deaf and the wider community, to make real that beautiful truth of the Catholic faith; that we are never alone.

The community is made up of individuals of great strength, the challenge is seeing our greatest strength not in ourselves alone but in the community as a unified whole. To achieve this, the community needs to transcend the functional role that it naturally fulfils, and be a place and a people where it is okay not to be strong because we find our strength in the other, and ultimately in the Lord. As we shape the future of the community around the pillars of prayer, formation, and service, it is my hope that by the grace of God we will soon be able to achieve this.

Simon Phillips OSB, Obl.