The Catholic Church needs the participation of everyone, and the disabled must not be excluded from the sacraments, the Pope said on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
“As we celebrate your International Day, I would like to speak directly to all of you who live with any condition of disability, to tell you that the Church loves you and needs each of you for the fulfillment of her mission at the service of the Gospel,” the Pope said on 25 November.
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities will be celebrated on 3 December. Pope Francis’ message marking the day was released in print, as well as in video form with translations in American Sign Language and Italian Sign Language.
Quoting his 2013 exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, he said: “The worst form of discrimination … is the lack of spiritual care.”
“Sometimes, as certain of you have unfortunately experienced, this has taken the form of denying access to the sacraments,” he said in his message.
“The Church’s magisterium is very clear in this area, and recently the Directory for Catechesis stated explicitly that ‘no one can deny the sacraments to persons with disabilities.’”
Friendship with Christ “redeems us and enables us to perceive differences as a treasure. For Jesus does not call us servants, women, and men of lesser dignity, but friends: confidants worthy of knowing all that he has received from the Father,” the Pope said.