#TheChurchIsOurHome: People with disabilities are a resource for Church communities

By Vatican News

During an audience on 12 December, Pope Francis said: "because we usually associate with disability the idea of need, assistance and at times – thank God, less and less – a certain pietism. No, the Pope does not look at you in this way; the Church does not look at you like that. The Christian point of view on disability is no longer, and must never be pietism or mere assistentialism, but rather the awareness that fragility, assumed with responsibility and solidarity, is a resource for the social body as a whole and for the ecclesial community.”

In the second video of the #TheChurchIsOurHome series, released on Thursday, participants in the special synod listening session explain how belonging to the Church community and encountering the Gospel triggers new energy in unexpected ways.

For Enrique Alarcón Garcia, who gets around using a wheelchair, Jesus' words to a cripple - "Rise up and walk!" - are an encouragement not to let oneself be trapped by one's condition and to take upon oneself the responsibility of proclaiming the Gospel and "transforming reality so that it proceeds toward the Kingdom of God."

In its dynamism, the synodal journey opens up people with disabilities to full participation in the life of the Church, and enables them to fully understand and live out their unique vocation.