Tag: human life

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Anti-Human Themes in Modern Environmentalism

When I was a teenager in the 1970s, I enjoyed much of the popular music of the day but paid little attention to the words. It was usually the rhythm and melody that got my attention; the lyrics were more like another instrumental track than something to analyze. As I got older and especially when I became a writer, the words and their message became much more important to me. When I listen to the ’70s music now, I’m surprised by some of the radical, impure, and foolish philosophies we teens of that time “grooved” to.

One of my favorite groups was the Eagles, though I preferred their lyrical songs like “Desperado” to their hard-driving rock songs like “Life in the Fast Lane.” Among their more lyrical offerings was a song entitled “The Last Resort.” It has a beautiful melody and builds from a simple piano accompaniment to a full-on orchestra. I was oblivious at the time to the preachy and even anti-human lyrics.

It was written in 1976 by bandmembers Don Henley and Glenn Frey and reflected the sentiments of the newly emerging environmentalist movement (the first “Earth Day” was in 1970). Its lyrics argue, in effect, that man destroys everything he calls paradise; he ruins everything he sees as beautiful.

Don Henley would later say that “The Last Resort” was one of his favorite songs

because I care more about the environment than about writing songs about drugs or love affairs or excesses of any kind. The gist of the song was that when we find something good, we destroy it by our presence—by the very fact that man is the only animal on earth that is capable of destroying his environment. The environment is the reason I got into politics: to try to do something about what I saw as the complete destruction of most of the resources that we have left. We have mortgaged our future for gain and greed. [1]

His comments convey the anti-human belief that somehow, by our mere presence and capabilities, we destroy whatever is pristine and naturally beautiful. This pessimistic and cynical view of the 1970s has only gotten worse today. Notice also that “the complete destruction of most of our resources” he spoke of still hasn’t occurred more than forty years later. Before I critique any further, let’s examine the lyrics.

The first part of the song describes a young woman from Providence, Rhode Island. To his credit, Henley begins by featuring a young, liberal interloper. She is depicted as one of the dope-smoking hippies who experimented with commune life in the 1960s and 1970s. She sets out for the Rocky Mountains to live like “the red man,” but the presence of filthy communes wrecks the place and “laid the mountains low.”

She came from Providence
The one in Rhode Island
Where the old-world shadows hang
Heavy in the air
She packed her hopes and dreams
Like a refugee
Just as her father came across the sea

She heard about a place people were smiling
They spoke about the red man’s way
And how they loved the land
And they came from everywhere
To the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand
Or a place to hide

Down in the crowded bars
Out for a good time
Can’t wait to tell you all
What it’s like up there
And they called it paradise
I don’t know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
While the town got high

The second part of the song addresses suburbia. The human plague is depicted as a chilly wind that blows down the mountains all the way to Malibu. The claim is made that we wrecked the deserts, the canyons, and the coast; that rich developers raped the land with ugly houses and neon lights. The natural beauty was appreciated as a kind of paradise by the dwellers, but Henley argues that their mere presence means that paradise is lost, destroyed.

Then the chilly winds blew down
across the desert
Through the canyons of the coast
to the Malibu
Where the pretty people play
hungry for power
To light their neon way
and give them things to do

Some rich men came and raped the land
Nobody caught them
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes
and Jesus people bought them
And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun
sinking in the sea

Part three laments that, having ruined every paradise in the continental U.S., some now set their sights on Lahaina (in Hawaii). Yes, you too can sail to a far-off land and destroy it the way the Catholic Missionaries did to California! They just had to get in an anti-Catholic jab. To radicals, the Catholic Church is a mortal enemy. Protestants and unbelievers get a pass; somehow was Catholic missionaries that brought “the white man’s burden,” the “white man’s reign.” Catholics are also mocked for singing in our parishes of a paradise “up there.” We’re so awful, though, that apparently if we ever got there, we’d ruin that too just by being there. The lyrics are tinged with the lament of Jean Paul Sartre in his play No Exit: “Hell is other people” So, in this final part of the song, we have all three of the favorite whipping boys of the radical left: humans, white men, and Catholics:

You can leave it all behind
and sail to Lahaina
Just like the missionaries did
so many years ago
They even brought a neon sign
‘Jesus is Coming’
Brought the white man’s burden down,
brought the white man’s reign

Who will provide the grand design,
what is yours and what is mine?
’Cause there is no more new frontier,
we have got to make it here
We satisfy our endless needs
and justify our bloody deeds
In the name of destiny
and in the name of God

And you can see them there
on Sunday morning
Stand up and sing about
what it’s like up there
They called it paradise,
I don’t know why
You call some place paradise,
kiss it goodbye.

Things have only gotten worse severe since this song was written in the 1970s. For too many environmentalists, mankind is the problem; like a plague of locusts, we must be limited or even removed completely.

As I have written here before, Catholics should be aware that radical environmentalists, including climate change extremists, have “solutions” that no Catholic can countenance. Many of them are advocates of abortion, euthanasia, and forced sterilization. They support government involvement in the economy in ways that contravene the principle of subsidiarity, violate the natural rights of the human person, and disproportionately harm the poor and developing nations.

Another problem with the radicals’ stance is that they see can little or nothing positive in man’s role in the environment. We are viewed as an unnatural interloper. We have surely transgressed in some ways against the natural world, and it is right that we work to reduce pollution and waste. However, I do not believe that there is a “climate emergency.” I’ve been hearing similarly dire predictions all my life, but we’re still here! But I digress; I’m neither a politician nor a scientist.

The point is that for all our errors or excesses, humans have also improved and even helped to advance the potential of the natural world. We have increased agricultural yields, driven back diseases, and made many parts of the world more productive and beautiful. We seldom clear-cut forests anymore. We carefully harvest trees, which are a renewable resource, and we replant them. Why is a city or a suburb inherently bad or ugly? Farms are beautiful, too, and collectively they feed billions. Humans have done some wonderful things to unlock nature’s potential and, as Scripture says, to subdue its unrulier dimensions. The Catholic and biblical view is that we are supposed to be here; we are to oversee the world as stewards and extend, in a way, the work of creation.

Contrary to the songwriters’ allegations, we do not necessarily destroy paradise just by being there. We often improve on the created world through human ingenuity, making use of its resources to feed, clothe, and shelter human beings, each beautiful one made in God’s image. We are not enemies of paradise; we are part of it. God gave it for us to enjoy in moderation and with care.

For all the finger-wagging that so many in the environmental movement do, they also drive cars on paved roads and live in homes with electricity, heat, running water, and air-conditioning. They have wood in the structure of their homes, which built on land that likely once belonged to indigenous people. They eat of the fruits of modern agriculture and fly on planes to business meetings and vacation destinations.

All of us can help by polluting less and wasting less, but human beings are important; we are not a plague on planet Earth. God gave us this earth to use with care and reason. Catholics should not accept the radical environmentalist vision in toto. The Catholic understanding of our role in the natural world is stated well in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

To human beings God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of “subduing” the earth and having dominion over it. God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors. Though often unconscious collaborators with God’s will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers and their sufferings. They then fully become “God’s fellow workers” and co-workers for his kingdom (CCC # 307).

Anti-human attitudes have no place in Catholic thinking. Our summons is to live up to what the Catechism so beautifully states. Whatever your views on the condition of the environment and the climate, stay Catholic, my friends, stay Catholic.

I still like the song for its melody and arrangement. The words I can live without, except that they illustrate well the problems we face today in upholding human dignity and understanding our proper role with respect to the environment.

Cross-posted at the Catholic Standard: Anti-Human Themes in Modern Environmentalism

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Suicide is Contagious: Don’t Let it Spread by Supporting Assisted Suicide

The Maryland physician-assisted suicide bill has been passed by the House of Delegates and is now being considered by the state Senate.  The House bill is numbered HB 399, and the bill cross-filed in the Senate is SB 311. We have every reason to be very alarmed by these developments. Other states are considering similar legislation designed to advance, assist, legalize and normalize the suicide of those who no longer see a reason to live.  Meanwhile, a law legalizing assisted suicide in the District of Columbia took effect in 2017.

Be very careful, dear reader, before you allow a narrow and flawed notion of compassion to bypass a more serious moral reflection.  Suicide is almost never a purely private act. If some are killing themselves it is more likely that others will too because it is either an option they had not previously considered or it prompted those who were already thinking about it to actually do it, especially when it is glorified in the media or the appearance of social approval is given.  Sometimes, people feel obligated to commit suicide when others are doing it.  See Report of the Secretary’s Task Force on Youth Suicide. Vol. 2: “Risk Factors for Youth Suicide,” (Davidson & Linnoila eds. 1991)(Dept. of Health and Human Services); Phillips, “The Influence of Suggestion on Suicide,” 39 Amer.Socio.Rev. 340 (1974).

Suicide rates increase dramatically when a famous person takes his or her own life.  And in places like Oregon, where assisted suicide has been legal since 1997, the overall suicide rate of healthy individuals is more than 40 percent higher than the national average.

Yes, suicide is contagious, especially if it is legalized. This is not only because is leads others to consider it, but also, because it leads many to begin expecting and requiring it of the sick and dying. We have already seen this in the terrible effects of legalized abortion. Infants with poor prenatal diagnoses are aborted at rates approaching 90 percent. Parents in such situations are often pressured both by doctors, family members, and their own desires for a “perfect” child, to abort.  To legalize killing is more than to simply permit it in rare circumstances, it is to unleash it; increase its numbers by widening expectations of when it can and “should” be used.

One person’s “right” to legally commit suicide, eventually becomes my duty to commit suicide. This is NOT a merely private decision. Yes, indeed, suicide is contagious. Every human person who is growing elderly or struggling with physical or mental disability, or diagnosed with progressive illnesses such as Multiple Sclerosis, COPD, Alzheimer’s are going to be the first to come under threat.

No Catholic can or should ever support legislation that permits physician assisted suicide, or other form of suicide.  Let’s consider first what the Catechism teaches about euthanasia/assisted suicide, how it defines it and why it is wrong:

Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible. Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia [or assisted suicide] consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable. Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.

Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of “over-zealous” treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.

Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted (CCC 2277-2279).

Thus the Catechism defines euthanasia/assisted suicide as the intentional ending of a life, whether by direct means such as injection with deadly drugs, or indirectly through the refusal to provide food and/or water. The distinction between euthanasia and assisted suicide lies in who initiates the final act that actually causes death, the patient himself (assisted suicide) or a third party (euthanasia).

One cannot emphasize enough that simply refusing or withdrawing burdensome treatments, or allowing the dying process to proceed once it has naturally begun by not providing machines such as ventilators that are unlikely to be therapeutic, is not euthanasia/assisted suicide. Church teaching does not require that one pursue every treatment possible. The patient must discern carefully with information supplied by his medical team along with an assessment of his personal resources—spiritual, psychological, emotional, familial, and financial—whether or not a particular treatment is excessively burdensome. However, even for an imminently dying person, basic care (which usually includes nutrition and hydration, even if administered through a tube) must be provided.

Pain management for those with terminal illnesses, for those with degenerative diseases, and for the dying is allowed and encouraged, even if the medication has the unintended side effect of shortening life. Arguments that dying is too painful and therefore a patient should be euthanized or assisted in dying are not valid, because it is very rare today that pain cannot be managed reasonably through advancements in the growing specialty of palliative care.

Let’s consider some other reasons, both religious and natural, that we should oppose assisted suicide/euthanasia. I’ll begin with the natural reasons that should concern us all, including those of different faiths and those with no faith tradition. Then I’ll move to the religious reasons that should influence us who believe.

Legalized assisted suicide grants death-dealing authority to certain persons, i.e. medical professionals; this in turn results in irreparable damage to the doctor-patient relationship.  Introducing death as a medical treatment option that can be offered by health care professionals fundamentally transforms a trusted profession that has been solely dedicated to healing for millennia. It is because of this dedication to healing that doctors have enjoyed such respect and trust from their patients and society as a whole. The idea that government can give death-dealing power to certain individuals means that they can also enforce and regulate it. With an already broken healthcare system plagued with a spending problem, it is not difficult to imagine that assisted suicide will be an easy “fix” to our spending problem and legitimate treatment options will be refused.”

Legalized assisted suicide will likely lead to poorer healthcare and increased pressure on the sick, the elderly, the disabled, and the traumatically injured. Those who advocate for the physically and mentally disabled have good reason to fear that pressure will be applied to euthanize the disabled and those who have been in traumatic accidents. As the concept of “a life not worth living” grows, and as the idea gains traction that disability (even milder forms) is a fate worse than death, those who struggle with disability may well be easy targets for those who advise suicide. Some may feel pressured to no longer be a “burden.” Many will have the sense of their dignity being lessened. More can be read here: Disability and Euthanasia – History and Concerns.

As noted, granting individuals the right to end their life ultimately threatens us all because it implicitly denies the dignity of the dying. Failing to understand this dignity will lead to poorer care and will increase pressure on the elderly and dying to end their lives prematurely so that they are no longer a burden. In other words, the “right to die” too easily becomes the “duty to die.” What begins sociologically through pressure not to be a burden, soon enough becomes economically necessary because insurance benefits may vanish. And one can’t ignore the possibility of eventual legal pressure. The experience in the Netherlands is particularly sobering. More can be read on that here: Euthanasia Law in the Netherlands.

There are many more reasons to oppose euthanasia/assisted suicide purely on rational grounds. You can find more of these here at the archdiocese’s Transform Fear website.

Now I would like to move on to those reasons that originate from our faith in Jesus Christ.

One of my privileges as a priest is to have accompanied many people on their final journey toward death. I’ve also accompanied their family members. In making these journeys, I have discovered that some of God’s greatest and most necessary work takes place in and during the process of natural death.

Natural death is an important part of life that should be respected and accepted, not rejected. Some very important things happen on our deathbed that assist us spiritually, psychologically, and emotionally. These things happen not only to us but to our loved ones as well.

I have seen pride melt away; I have seen powerful contrition for past sins emerge. I have seen gratitude intensify, both in the one who is dying and in the loved ones who surround him or her. I have heard beautiful words like, “I love you,” “I am proud of you,” “I will miss you.” I have seen people let go and let God take over. I have seen forgiveness, tenderness, appreciation, and love being shared as never before. There is also the beautiful gift of listening and waiting, along with the learning of lessons that will never be forgotten.

I do not say that there is not grief and emotional pain; there is. But that is not all there is; there is beauty and love, too. And these are important and necessary. Perhaps some of the most necessary and profound things take place on our deathbed and at the deathbed of others.

Supporters of the legalization of assisted suicide and/or euthanasia might argue that these beautifully human and transformative moments also occur when one takes death into his own hands. I have no doubt that many tearful goodbyes are shared and some reconciliation among family members occurs as well. But there is a very different quality and a transparent authenticity within these moments when one has surrendered his/her life and control of it over to God.

The dying process helps us to receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, and God says this is necessary for us. As God directs Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature … For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Sam 16:7). Even in the painful sight of once-strong individuals reduced to weakness, there is a kind of strange beauty and we must ask the Lord to give us the “eyes to see” (cf. Mt 13:16).

In the nursing homes of this land are people who once ran businesses, raised families, and led communities. Now many have returned to a kind of childhood, even infancy. Some cannot walk, some have to be fed, some can no longer talk, some clutch dolls, and some must wear diapers. All this seems so horrible to many, but important things are happening. These are not conditions that any of us would willingly choose or wish upon another. However, not one of these losses, even the significant loss of intellectual capacity in such diseases as Alzheimer’s, diminishes worth or dignity. I do not want to minimize the pain that accompanies these losses—and the pain is not limited to the patient alone. Often family members and caregivers undergo significant stress and experience the pain of our Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross. But again, something important is happening.

Are those in nursing homes really so different from you and me?  Maybe death and dying are the “place” where all worldly status, all privilege, all inequalities are leveled and we simply become who we are. Are we not all little children to God? Does He not have to provide for every one of us in our need? Does He not have to feed us, clothe us, and enable us to speak? Perhaps it is just that with the elderly and dying the illusion of self-sufficiency has been shed. The Lord says, Unless you change and become like little children you will not inherit the kingdom of God (Mat 18:3).

As Catholics, we can never affirm the world’s claim “My body is my own and I can do with it as I please.” For a believer, this is simply not true. Scripture says, You are not your own. For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body (1 Cor 6:19). We are the steward, not the owner, of our body; we belong to God. As disciples, we seek to imitate Christ as He surrendered to His own impending death and gave us His Body at the Last Supper: This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me (Lk 22:19).

As Christians, we must once again reaffirm our acceptance of the cross. No one likes the cross—it is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles (1 Cor 1:22)—but we have been taught by Christ that the cross is both necessary and saving. And we must insist, at least among our own number, upon the belief expressed by St. Paul: So we do not lose heart. Though our body is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Cor 4:16-18).

Think carefully before you support assisted suicide/euthanasia through some notion of “compassion.” The truest compassion is to want for someone what he or she truly needs in order to be saved. Ultimately, only God can say what this is. We do not have dignity because we can control our own lives; we have dignity because our life is in God’s hands.

The archdiocese’s Department of Life Issues and the Maryland Catholic Conference have been working with coalitions such as Maryland Against Physician Assisted Suicide to warn people about how the bills threatens vulnerable populations, including those who are sick, elderly, disabled, or who lack adequate, affordable healthcare.

Suicide is Contagious! Don’t Let it spread. Please become informed and act against the legalization of assisted suicide/euthanasia.

Cross-posted at the Catholic Standard: Suicide is Contagious: Don’t Let it Spread by Supporting Assisted Suicide

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Is this World a Womb or a Tomb for You?

There is a line in the first reading for Wednesday of the seventh week of the year that reminds us to be humble and to realize that things—including us—are passing:

You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears (James 4:14).

This is an antidote of sorts to the modern tendencies of excessive self-esteem and lack of concern for our death. Despite the advances of modern science and technology, we cannot even be sure of the next beat of our heart. A man can be robust and confident, at the height of his career, and then suddenly gone.

To be sure, there is a glory to the human person, a glory that comes from God, but our sense of it must be received with deep humility. Whatever we have, we have received from God. St. Paul says, What have you that you have not received; and if you have received it why do you glory as though you had not? (1 Cor 4:7) Whatever glory we have is from God. We are small, contingent beings; each of us is but a puff of smoke, a vapor, a mist. The slightest wind will scatter us.

In the frontispiece of a family history, my father transcribed the following verse from Psalms:

As for man, his days are like grass; he flowers like the flower of the field;
the wind blows and he is gone and his place never sees him again (Psalms 103:15-16).

It is similar to what James says in today’s reading. We are like a puff of smoke or a vapor just before the wind blows or the sun rises.

Our years are seventy, or eighty for those who are strong. They pass swiftly, and we are gone (Ps 90:10).

As Christians, we should not be depressed by such thoughts, but we should be sobered. This life and its worldly glories are not the point. What a cruel joke it would be if that were so! Nothing but a puff of smoke, scattered by the merest breeze—it would be cruelty to say the least.

We Christians know that our life here is like the time we spent in the womb. Our tenure here is temporary while we await a greater glory to come. The child in the womb enjoys its warmth and seclusion, but as it grows, the womb comes to seem confining and limiting. Then birth pangs usher in the news: “You were made for something larger, something greater.” Many things of this world give joy, warmth, and pleasure, but if we are faithful we outgrow them. Our heart expands and this world can no longer contain us.

The birth pangs of our looming death say to us, “You were made for something larger, something greater.” We go forth from the womb of this world to what the Psalms often call the wideness or spaciousness of the glory of God (e.g., 17:29; 117:5; 118:45 Vulgate). Most of us will need the “afterbirth” of this world purged from us. After that is done, we will be received into the loving arms of our God and Father. This is our glory: to be caught up into the heart of God our Father, who conceived us and who loves us.

James warns, within the wider context of calling us a “puff of smoke,” that we must be wary of a pride that roots us in this world and celebrates a human glory somewhere other than in the arms of God.

Come now, you who say,
“Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town,
spend a year there doing business, and make a profit”
you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow.
You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.
Instead you should say,
“If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.”
But now you are boasting in your arrogance.
All such boasting is evil (James 4:14-17).

Yes, beware of arrogance; beware of your own plans. God must have His heartiest laughs when we tell him our “plans.”

People used to visit cemeteries frequently, but doing so is much less common in today’s busy, arrogant times. Make it a practice to walk frequently in the nearest cemetery, particularly during Lent. While there, behold the glory of this world and remember that whatever it gives it takes back.

Consider again the words of Jesus:

Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it falls and dies, it rises to produce abundant fruit (John 12:23).

What will it be for you? Will it be the passing glories of this world, which die and then are trampled underfoot, or are blown away like a puff of smoke? Or will it be the seed that is sown but dies to itself and rises to something far more glorious?

Will this world be for you a tomb, which seals you into itself, or a womb, which births you to new and greater life? The decision is yours.

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Belonging Starts Here

Every Person Has Unique Gifts and Belongs as a Full and Equal Participant in the Community
by Mary O’Meara

As a society, there is a renewed awareness of the need to acknowledge the value of the diversity of our human family. It is encouraging to see more and more people calling for our culture to embrace all people, to draw them into the fabric of social life, and treat them as equal, full and active participants in the community. Yet, perhaps the most marginalized segment of society has been largely left out of the discussion.

Historically, persons with disabilities have found themselves if not excluded, then limited from society – on the outside looking in and seen as “other,” rather than as members of the community. Too often are they made to feel unwelcome in places and activities that are routine parts of everyday life for their “typical” neighbors. Too often do they face in society attitudes that disregard their human dignity and the positive contributions they have to offer.

While some progress has been made, much more needs to be done. For a long time we talked about persons with disabilities in terms of access, such as providing sign interpreters or ramps under the Americans With Disabilities Act, but what we need to see now is a culture of belonging and full inclusion. Our neighborhoods, schools, government agencies and our entire community should be places where everyone in their diversity – including physical, intellectual, cognitive and mental diversity – feels welcomed as contributing members without limiting or patronizing them.

One step in that process is the annual White Mass hosted by the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, which will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 22, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.

Named for the white garment worn at baptism, this liturgy celebrates the gifts and giftedness of all persons in their physical, intellectual or developmental uniqueness as integral members of the community. It is a beautiful expression of a welcoming culture where no one is an afterthought and everyone participates in the life of the community: People who are Deaf or have a disability serve as lectors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, gift bearers and they lead prayers.

Beyond being a celebration of the harmony of God’s family, the White Mass is also a summons to dialogue and action to promote human dignity and inclusivity in the greater community. Human life is like a great orchestra, marked by variety and also marked by limitations. We are all different in the way we look or sound. We each have things we can do and things we cannot do. Each of us has our own qualities. And in this is beauty which benefits us all.

This difference is precious, Pope Francis reminds us. “Everyone brings his or her own, what God gave them, to enrich others.” As public awareness is raised to the need to overcome prejudice and exclusion in society, it is crucial that we treasure too as full and equal participants those who might differ in certain ways physically or cognitively.

Belonging starts here. We are all equal in dignity and we all have gifts to offer, even if some of us need support to participate more fully. We want all persons to belong. We need all persons to belong. Persons with disabilities are a positive presence in society. Ensuring that everyone with their uniqueness truly belongs starts with each one of us.

Mary O’Meara is the Executive Director of the Department of Special Needs Ministries for the Archdiocese of Washington.