By Rita McInerney

“Is being a deaf priest hard?”

The question was put to Father Ray Fleming, pastor of St. Mary’s Church for the Deaf in Rochester, N.Y., by Brent Shiver, 12, a deaf member of Corpus Christi Church, Stone Mountain. Brent, an altar boy, is giving thought to his future.

“It is a very difficult thing being a priest in 1985. For Catholics, it is the best and worst of times, there is excitement and creative tension. To be deaf today is also a difficult thing because it means being part of a minority group struggling for recognition and rights not only in the Church but in society in general. Being deaf is a very exciting thing because we are more and more recognized as a minority and a culture and the language is being accepted as a language. If you put them together there are very few models. So, it is very exciting to be a trailblazer. Hopefully, that same kind of excitement will be here for you and all the young people in the Church today.”

Father Fleming is newly assigned to the Rochester church which has a congregation of 250 on the parish list and a weekly attendance of about 50. He is 34 and was ordained three-years ago in the Diocese of Rochester. Assigned first to a non-deaf parish in Webster, N.Y., his new assignment to the deaf parish was “hoped for but not expected.”

He was at the Stone Mountain Church for the three day workshop for the deaf, held July 11 to 13 by the Atlantic Seaboard Region of the National Catholic Office for the Deaf. (NCCD) He is one of about six deaf priests in the U.S., actually, he believes, only the third priest who grew up deaf.

Father Fleming was the keynote speaker for the Workshop. His topic, “The Church’s Responsibility for the Deaf.”

In an interview on Wednesday, July 10, he articulated his views on the subject. It depends, he said, on what you mean by Church. “If you mean the Pope, cardinals, bishops I think they’re busy as administrators. What are we doing as Church? Christ commanded the Good News be preached to all His followers. The Church has the responsibility to recognize the deaf Church (community) as a group having its own language and culture, and then ask the question “How do we bring the Good News to that language, culture, community of people?”

“Here in Atlanta one person took it upon herself to show the rest of the Church that we deaf people are here.” He was referring to Christine McDonald whose ministry to the deaf at Corpus Christi was begun 10 years ago and serves deaf people well beyond the limits of the Stone Mountain parish.

“The deaf community has responsibility of membership to do what is requested in the Gospel -- feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give to those in need. It’s not one-sided but a wonderful exchange,” Father Fleming said. He cited one example of such responsibility, the signing choir at Corpus Christi which has created deaf awareness all over the community.

“It’s a question of social justice,” the priest added. “We’re here. What is the Church doing for us? The institutional Church expects us to support it financially. It has a responsibility to all of us to share the wealth, not only in money but in terms of people.”

Father Fleming, who grew up in Helena, Mont., as the only deaf person in the family, a “very isolating experience,” first began to think of the priesthood in the 1960s. Priests in his home diocese were kind but encouraged him to go where there were facilities for the deaf. He went to Washington, D.C. and joined the Third Order Regular of the Franciscans. This was a good and helpful community for the young man from Montana who knew nothing of the deaf culture. After graduating from the famed Gallaudet College for the Deaf in Washington with a degree in English he enrolled at a hearing seminary, Washington Theological Union. “I was struggling with my own identity. They were very helpful.” He also toured for three years as a performer and administrator for the National Theater for the Deaf. His last role, in “The Three Musketeers,” was that of a horse. He refuses to say which end he portrayed. Most of his roles were comic or naive young man characters.

His delightful sense of humor and friendly manner is immediately apparent to people meeting him on a one-to-one basis. His spiritual gifts, his love of God and people envelopes the congregation participating in the Liturgy with him.

While still with the theater company he made a Cursillo sponsored by the NCCD. “This forced me to reevaluate myself as a person, as a Christian person. Then I made my decision to enter the Rochester seminary.”

The young priest doesn’t believe a comparison can be made between the Atlanta and Rochester dioceses in terms of ministering to the deaf. The number of Catholics in his area, he points out, is much higher than here in the South. There is, in Rochester, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology, which provides a community of people fluent in the deaf language and pioneers in the deaf culture.

But wherever he goes as a deaf priest, he encourages people “to show themselves, to invite the bishops to see and observe, to hold some kind of dialogue with the (deaf) community.

Sister Alverna Hollis, O.P., executive director of the NCOD, is the communications link for the deaf ministry throughout the U.S. From her office in Silver Spring, Md., she writes, edits and photographs for textbooks, brochures and a five-times yearly magazine, “Listening,” dedicated to informing dioceses and deaf communities about activities such as the workshop at Corpus Christi.

She spoke Saturday afternoon on “Parents - Primary Educators of the Faith.” Basing her presentation on faith being “caught, not taught,” she urged the parents to remember that actions, not words, must be their deaf child’s guide. Visual aids can help. One of her suggestions was to draw a family tree for the child to help make clear the family relationships.

Their own attitudes are crucial, she reminded parents. How do they feel about the child’s deafness, do they really accept it? The deaf child has to know “It’s all right. We don’t expect you to be the same as the rest. We still love you.” Different standards must be allowed for the deaf child and the others. They need deaf adults as role models so they “can learn it’s wonderful to be deaf.”

Spirituality can find expression in family rituals and traditions of the Church seasons. Practices such as posting a one line psalm in different locations around the home, and daily family prayers form the spiritual values for the journey from God at birth to the final goal of meeting him, she said.

Sister Hollis has been with the NCOD for five years. She is the author of “Signs for Catholic Liturgy and Education.”

Brother Rene Robert, O.F.M. Conv., Chaplain of the Florida School for the Deaf/Blind in St. Augustine, and NCOD regional representative, Atlantic Seaboard, discussed religious signing and religious education for the deaf.

He expressed the hope that the success of the meeting would result in support and expansion of the ministry at Corpus Christi.

Father Fleming celebrated the liturgy on Saturday evening to conclude the workshop. Brother Robert, Father Tony Green and Father John Kelley concelebrated.

Mrs. McDonald and Jane Goodwin, pastoral worker for the deaf at Corpus Christi, were aided in planning and conducting the sessions by volunteers. The parish deaf ministry includes four volunteers who interpret the Mass and six who teach religious education to 18 deaf students. Twelve women make up signs of praise, the signing choir at Corpus Christi.

Mrs. McDonald says most of the volunteers have come from the signing classes for adults held each year at the church. Last year 32 people were introduced to sign language in the beginners’ class. Of these, she added, 24 continued their study in the intermediate class.