Families of children with special needs find solace and support in their Catholic faith.
Pope John Paul II gave encouragement to families whose members include children with disabilities in an address in 1999. He acknowledged that the birth of a child with special needs can leave his parents “deeply shocked.” However, echoing his 1981 apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio, he insisted, “it is important to encourage parents to devote ‘special attention…to the children, by developing a profound esteem for their personal dignity, and a great respect and generous concern for their rights. This is true for every child, but it becomes all the more urgent the smaller the child is and the more it is in need of everything, when it is sick, suffering, or handicapped.”
The late Holy Father continued, “When children are more vulnerable and exposed to the risk of being rejected by others, it is the family that can most effectively safeguard their dignity, equal to that of healthy children. Illness, indeed, must prompt an attitude of special attention to these persons who belong in every way to the category of the poor who will inherit the kingdom of heaven.”
He added, “To welcome the weakest, helping them on their journey, is a sign of civilization. Thus [those with handicaps] should not be left alone, but to be welcomed by society and, according to their abilities, integrated into it as full members.”
The following is an interview with three Catholic families who have welcomed children with disabilities, in which they discuss the challenges they’ve faced and the blessings they’ve experienced.
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