By Gretchen Keiser

Deaf Catholics can now go to confession in the archdiocese to a priest who can sign.

After five months of private tutoring and two weeks at a special camp to learn American Sign Language, Father Bill Hoffman, pastor of St. Michael’s, Gainesville, is ready to serve the deaf in this way.

Until now, no priest in the archdiocese had the skill. The deaf could receive the sacrament of confession only if accompanied by a hearing and signing person who could interpret their confession.

“I’m ready to try,” Father Hoffman said. Toni Miralles, a St. Jude’s lay minister working with special education and the handicapped, “really said there is no priest here who can hear confessions in sign language,” he recalled. “There was a need there and I didn’t see anybody meeting the need.” He can now hear confessions in ASL.

He has a TDD (telephone device for the deaf) on his phone at St. Michael’s. The deaf can call 1-534-3338 during hours when the office is open and can type a message for Father Hoffman. His first sacramental visit alone came recently when he was called to visit a deaf person with AIDS in Northside Hospital and was able to administer the sacrament of the sick.

Although his parish is Gainesville, he said he would cooperate as much as possible with people living elsewhere in the archdiocese and make arrangements for them to come to Gainesville or to meet them.

His availability came as welcome news to Sister Rita Baum, SSJ, executive director of the national Catholic Office for Disabilities. She said there are about 53 priests throughout the U.S. who can sign, seven of them deaf.

The camp at which he polished his skills, Camp Mark Seven in Old Gorge, N.Y., was begun by Father Tom Coughlin, the first born-deaf person to be ordained a Catholic priest in the U.S.

Cecilia Converse of St. Jude’s parish tutored Father Hoffman and found him an “excellent student.” “We met once a week for about an hour or hour and a half.” She says he rated A for effort and passed his finals with flying colors. She made him interpret and sign the Our Father and the choir’s “Gloria” at two Sunday Masses at St. Jude’s.

She became interested in signing at 16 when she worked in a fast food restaurant with another girl studying signing. She went on to receive a degree in vocational rehabilitation with a specialty in interpreting at the University of Arizona and later received her master’s degree there, and also worked part-time at the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind. She is now a rehabilitation coordinator in the Atlanta area and is hopeful St. Jude’s will begin holding a bi-monthly signed Mass. She would like to use her skills for the church.

Father Hoffman said he also hoped a penance service for the deaf could be arranged this Advent.