Ministry Stories

Sister Germaine Hilston, CSJ, who heads the Office of Faith Formation of the Northern Region located in Oswego, has another special calling within the Diocese of Syracuse. For the past fiteen years, she has been the director of special education for the religious-education students and is responsible for consulting and acting as a resource for teachers of faith formation who have disabled students in their classes.

 

Incorporating students with disabilities into religious-education classes is challenging, according to Sister Germaine, but it is an important goal to work toward and achieve because the diocese invites all students into faith formation just as God does.

 

"It is the desire of the Office of Faith Formation in all regions of our diocese to welcome children into our parish programs," Sister Germaine said, "and this certainly would include all young people with disabilities. The diocese wants all children to participate and receive the sacraments."

 

Currently, the Syracuse Diocese has approximately 50 students with disabilities in its Faith Formation classes. Those disabilities include autism, attention-deficit disorder, Asperger's Syndrome and various learning disabilities.

 

Sister Germaine stated that Faith Formation teachers are not special-education teachers, so they need special assistance in helping students with disabilities. Through her work as a consultant, Sisters Germaine provides teachers with reading material about various disabilities and website addresses regarding persons with disabilities, so that the teacher may do research about how to best serve their students. In addition, she works individually with teachers to train them to understand persons with disabilities and provides aides to work in the classrooms with students.

 

Even with the success that the Syracuse Diocese is having with incorporating students with disabilities in Faith Formation classes, the diocese still has much hard work to do.

 

According to Sister Germaine, a major obstacle involved with trying to incorporate students with disabilities into diocesan religious-education classes is that parents don't know that there is help for their children. Another is that many parents are concerned that their children's special needs may not get met in the Faith Formation classroom. Sister Germaine continues to develop strategies to help inform parents that the diocese is willing to assist their student in the classroom if they have special needs. There are plans to advertise in parish bulletins and within Faith Formation registration materials.

 

"Children and youth with disabilities have the same right to faith formation as any other young person in a parish community," Sister Germaine stated. "Their needs are just as important as anyone else's needs, and a disability should never be a deterrent to receiving a sacrament. We want parents to know that we want students with disabilities and will do anything to help them."

 

Sister Germaine has special plans for the future of persons with disabilities in Faith Formation classes within the diocese. She said that religious-education classrooms are currently unable to serve students with hearing or visual impairments because of a lack of resources, but the diocese is considering incorporating textbooks on tape into the Faith Formation curriculum for students with vision problems. Sister Germaine stated that it is much harder to serve students with hearing disabilities without an interpreter. She is also hoping to work more closely with all catechists in the diocese rather than only catechetical leaders to help insure that the needs of students with disabilities are met.