People with disabilities felt seen, loved by Pope Francis

Pope Francis lived the passage of Chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel that talks about the obligation disciples of Christ have to care for the poor and vulnerable members of the community, said Father Joseph Mulcrone, director of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s St. Francis Borgia Deaf Center.

“He took Matthew 25:31-45 seriously,” said Mulcrone, speaking by telephone from Italy, where he was traveling with a group of pilgrims from the Deaf Center. “Jesus says, ‘When I was hungry, when I was thirsty, when I was in prison, when I was sick.’ That was just Pope Francis. He took that absolutely seriously in terms of his ministry. His ministry included everybody, especially those who live on the margins of society.”

That included Deaf people and people with disabilities, Mulcrone said.

“Everybody is child of God, and there is no differentiation for him,” he added.

Mulcrone said he saw that in person when he was in Rome for a conference on Catholic ministry in the Deaf community in 2018. Conference attendees were invited to meet with the pope before his Wednesday general audience.

When they arrived in the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican, they were joined by people in Rome to celebrate the anniversary of Special Olympics. Pope Francis entered, gave a short talk, then moved among the people, embracing children with disabilities and engaging with members of the Deaf community.

“We had two interpreters, in Spanish and in Italian, and the pope was watching them, and I heard him turn to an aide and say, ‘Why don’t we have interpreters?’” Mulcrone said. “And they started to talk about the difficulties, and the pope said, essentially, ‘Figure it out.’”

After that experience, when this year’s Jubilee of Hope was announced, advocates immediately insisted that there be a special pilgrimage day for the Deaf community and people with disabilities.

Mulcrone and about 20 pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Chicago were among those who participated in a special Mass celebrated by two archbishops April 30 at the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Rome as part of that pilgrimage.

The Mass, Mulcrone said, was interpreted into about 11 different sign languages for groups from around the world. When it was over, the congregation made its way to St. Peter’s Basilica to pass through the Holy Door together.

Pope Francis was just as beloved by people with other kinds of disabilities.

Sandy Murillo, who is blind, said that while previous popes, including St. John Paul II, talked about praying for people who “suffered from disabilities” and alleviating their suffering, Pope Francis talked about making things accessible to those with disabilities and including them.

“Dec. 3, the International Day of People with Disabilities, in 2022 stood out to me,” Murillo said. “He said something like, ‘Let’s not just say that we have to be accessible and inclusive, let’s not use it as a slogan or politically correct speech; let’s make things more accessible to people with disabilities.”

Murillo, who lives in Harvey and works at the Chicago Lighthouse, said that she feels a special connection to Pope Francis because of a momentary encounter.

Ever since she was a child, she said, she was interested in hearing about when popes met or blessed everyday people, the meetings of the most exalted figure in the church with people of no special status.

So when she heard Pope Francis was going to visit Michoacán, Mexico, where her parents grew up, in early 2016, she thought it would the perfect opportunity to see him in person.

“My parents would go back and visit for Carnaval, just before Lent, and some years I would join them,” Murillo recalled. “He was going to be there at the beginning of Lent, so I decided to go that year.”

She wrote a blog post for the Lighthouse about her experience: the way things just fell into place, including getting a last-minute hotel room near the cathedral in Morelia, where Pope Francis celebrated Mass, and the way her family was able to stake out spots near the street where he would travel, because they could not attend the Mass itself.

When the crowd started cheering because the pope was passing, Murillo said, “I thought, he pays attention to people with disabilities. Maybe if I lift up my cane, he’ll see it.’”

She lifted her white cane and waved it in the air.

“My mom told me he looked at me — she said, ‘He looked right at you and blessed you!’” Murillo said. “Even if it’s a couple of seconds, it’s such a touching feeling. For me it’s something I had wanted for a long time.”