Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Advisory board advocates for disabled in the archdiocese
Advisory board advocates for disabled in the archdiocese
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published April 10, 2009
Detroit — When it comes to making churches and other parish facilities more accessible to people with disabilities, Leonard Gross says he believes there has been real progress, "but it's a project we have to continue to work on." Gross, 54, who belongs to Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Detroit, is also a member of the archdiocesan Disabilities Advisory Board, comprised of people who are themselves disabled or who work with disabled persons.
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Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
John Pokorney, in front of his parish, St. Aloysius in Detroit, is coming into full membership in the Catholic Church at the Easter vigil. |
Staff support for the work of the board is provided by the archdiocesan Department of Parish Life and Services, which is among the ministries funded by the annual Catholic Services Appeal.
"We go to parishes and encourage them to get people with disabilities involved in the Mass; and it they are going to make physical changes in their facilities, we advise them on making things more accessible," Gross explains.
Gross, who is blind and has cerebral palsy, says the board also helps increase awareness of resources available to those with disabilities, such as the Xavier Society, which produces materials for Catholics who are visually impaired.
The board also plans the annual Mass for people with disabilities held each year at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in August or September.
Transportation is one of the biggest issues for people with disabilities in metro Detroit, as improvements to area public transportation have been slow in coming. In the meantime, however, he says parishes can help disabled parishioners get a ride to church.
Gross says he got involved with the Disabilities Advisory Board at the urging of Sr. Joann Baustian, OP, who is at Our Lady of the Rosary and herself a member of the board.
He says he has been a member of the parish for about 28 years and sings in the choir, and has also participated with the Archdiocesan Choir "off and on" over the years.
Gross says he was raised a Baptist, but "there was a time in my life when I wasn't involved in any church." His first contact with Our Lady of the Rosary Parish came during a time of personal hardship, and Jane Ronan, a parishioner and fellow resident of his apartment building, suggested he contact the parish for assistance.
"I told her I needed help. I didn't have anything to eat at the time," Gross recalls.
Two representatives of the parish – the pastor Fr. Thomas McAnoy and Norman Kidd – not only brought food, but stayed to talk.
As Gross tells it: "I was impressed with them, especially that the pastor himself came. I thought, at the very least I could go to their church once or twice. Well, I did, and the rest is history, as they say."
The parish also has a number of other people with disabilities among its membership, some of whom were first invited by Gross.
"My girlfriend, Denise Cole, goes there now. When I met her, I told her, if this was going to go anywhere, she would have to come to Rosary. Now, she's in the choir with me," he says.
Gross speaks highly of the late Fr. McAnoy and of the parish's current pastor, Fr. Robert Morand, and of the good fellowship among parishioners at Our Lady of the Rosary.
His involvement with the parish has "affected my faith life and my relationship with the Lord greatly, because I know the Lord has been with me, and the church has been with me through some tough times," Gross says.
"When my grandmother and great-grandmother passed away, the church was helpful to me in countless ways," he adds.
Gross has become involved in some acting through the suggestion of fellow parishioners Wes and Shaun Nethercott of the Matrix Theatre in southwest Detroit. Most recently, he played a visually impaired man in a production of "Decide Tonight" at the theatre, and he has acted in radio plays for Detroit Radio Information Service, a radio station that broadcasts for the visually impaired.
On Good Friday every year at Our Lady of the Rosary, Gross is among several parishioners who portray various New Testament characters who tell of their feelings about Jesus being crucified.
"What I do is the blind man who has been healed," he says.
Besides the Disabilities Advisory Board, the annual CSA funds most other ministries of the Archdiocese of Detroit, such as the other activities of the archdiocesan Department of Parish Life and Services, the Department of Education, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, the Metropolitan Tribunal, various hospital chaplaincies and campus ministries, as well as the CTND Catholic cable TV channel and The Michigan Catholic.
Preliminary work on this year's CSA is already under way, and the public phase of this year's effort begins next month.
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