In an article published by National Catholic Register, TCA’s Leigh Snead is quoted in Lauretta Brown’s article titled “Families, Advocates Discuss Ways the Church Can Welcome Persons With Disabilities“. She writes:
Leigh Snead, a fellow at The Catholic Association and mom of four, feels grateful that her parish, St. Pius X in Granger, Indiana, has been a welcoming environment for her identical twin boys with autism, Carlo and Bruno.
“I can usually count at least three other families, no matter what Mass I’m attending at our big church, that have a family member or child either on the autism spectrum or with Down syndrome or with other disabilities,” she told the Register. These children are a part of the parish life as altar servers, and there is even a special-needs catechesis.
She would like the bishops’ new pastoral statement to emphasize outreach to families who have felt overwhelmed trying to attend Mass with “a young child on the autism spectrum or with any other disability that maybe doesn’t have a lot of vocal control” and who “got in the habit of not going to Mass” due to unpleasant reactions to their behaviors.
