Committed to communicate: Deaf conference participants hold Mass at North American Martyrs

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

AUBURN, Massachusetts - The lector proclaimed Scripture readings.

The main celebrant preached and prayed the Eucharistic prayer, several priests joining him around the altar.

The congregation offered the responses.

But this wasn’t a typical Mass. The main communication was via American Sign Language. A voice interpreter spoke the words being signed – for hearing people who don’t know sign language. Participants in the International Catholic Deaf Association United States Section’s conference in Boston had come to North American Martyrs Church in Auburn for this Mass July 5. Some local hearing people came too.

The main celebrant was Father Joseph J. Bruce, who is described as “the first born-deaf Jesuit priest in the global history of the Jesuits.” He wears a hearing aid and lip-reads, signs, and speaks verbally. He lives with Jesuits in Boston and works at the College of the Holy Cross as curator of the Deaf Catholic Archives housed there.

Father Bruce was once assigned to ministry to the deaf in the Worcester Diocese, which diocesan leaders say no longer formally exists. Articles in The Catholic Free Press from the 1990s, with input from a history put together by the deaf Catholic community, said the ministry’s formal roots dated to 1942. Over the years Jesuit priests helped with it and it included Masses, confessions, pastoral ministry, religious education, newsletters, and socials.

Father Bruce celebrated Mass for the deaf at St. Paul Cathedral in 1982 and became regularly involved with that monthly Mass in 1984. In 1986 Bishop Timothy J. Harrington appointed him minister to deaf Catholics in the Diocese. Masses were also held in various parishes and at Catholic Charities, through which the ministry was funded by the Bishop’s Fund.

Paul Lewis-O’Rourke, head usher for the July 5 Mass, told The Catholic Free Press that there are some deaf Catholics like himself in the diocese, but there are no longer specific Masses for them. He goes to different Masses in Worcester, and sometimes worships at St. Jude Parish in Waltham, which has a ministry to the deaf.

At the Mass in Auburn, Father Bruce preached about St. René Goupil, a deaf Jesuit, one of the eight North American martyrs for whom the church is named.

St. René, who lived in the 1600s, entered the Jesuit novitiate in France, but left because he was progressively losing his hearing. A surgeon, he later helped Jesuit missionaries in what is now the United States and Canada. He and St. Isaac Jogues, another of the North American martyrs, were captured by Indians. St. René was tomahawked for making the sign of the cross over a child. Before he died he professed vows as a Jesuit before St. Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit priest.

Father Bruce also preached about an experience he himself had when preparing to make final vows as a Jesuit in the early 1990s. He was teaching English to deaf students in the Middle East, at a school in Salt, Jordan. Helping other adults walk with deaf children, he was shocked that men and boys threw stones at them. Some people said this was because of prejudice against deaf people.

As he walked to Mass the next day, men and boys threw rocks at him; he felt the impact of some rocks through his coat, he said. He went home a different way, not wanting to be martyred.

“Catholics continue to be killed for the faith to this day,” said Father Bruce. He said Pope Francis says Christians should, in their daily self-denials, imitate martyrs, to show their fidelity to the Gospel.

Turning to a Gospel story, Father Bruce said that North American Martyrs Church was chosen for this Mass because of its window depicting Jesus’ encounter with a deaf man (Mk 7:31-37). He said that if Jesus and this man couldn’t communicate, the man wouldn’t have become part of the Christian community.

Father Bruce told The Catholic Free Press that some Scripture translations call the man a deaf mute, but that mute means “you can’t communicate,” while deaf people can communicate with their hands.

He told the newspaper that Matthew Toth, a psychologist at the College of the Holy Cross, and his wife, Mary, wanted to donate the window of the deaf man planned for the church, but someone else had already paid for it. However, the Toths, whose son Kevin was deaf, convinced Father John F. Gee, then North American Martyrs’ pastor, not to include the word “mute” in the widow.

Mr. Toth said he and his wife saw a drawing of the proposed window before it was made, and objected to including the word “mute” because it “has a connotation that is equal to ‘stupid.’”

Father Bruce concluded his homily by asking the congregation to remember Richard Johnston, who he said chose North American Martyrs Church for this Mass because he felt it was important that more deaf people learn about St. René. The Mass was in memory of 63-year-old Mr. Johnston of Marlborough, who was preparing to be a permanent deacon. Mr. Johnston volunteered with Father Bruce in the archives and was chairman of the conference planning committee. He died April 24.

Rachael Weber, of Norton, said Mr. Johnston was a sweet, friendly man and “you could trust him.” He was very involved at St. Jude’s in Waltham, where she sometimes goes when she can get a ride, she noted. She said it is hard to be in a parish because of a lack of interpreters. She communicated with The Catholic Free Press through Cheryl “Cher” Allen, an interpreter from Norfolk.

Speaking of the window of Jesus and the deaf man at North American Martyrs, Ms. Weber said, “I really liked that because it connected with me as a deaf person.”

It was nice to attend Mass with deaf priests, said conference participant Laura White, of San Sebastian Parish in St. Augustine, Florida.

Deaf people really want to learn more about their faith, she said. But some don’t go to church because not every church provides everything they need, she continued.