Developmental Disabilities and Sacramental Access: New Paradigms for Sacramental Encounters

Is a developmental disability an appropriate reason to bar a baptized person from the sacraments? This is the disturbing question that generated this book. The pastoral reality is that Roman Catholics with developmental disabilities are often barred from sacraments. Sometimes they are subject to discrimination or face unusual obstacles in the sacramental life of the Church. This volume, collaboratively written by pastoral theologians from Catholic Theological Union and the Special Religious Education Office of the Archdiocese of Chicago, addresses these issues. Punctuated with true stories of shame and triumph, this volume grapples with real issues that daily confront Catholics with developmental disabilities. With a breadth of scholarship that ranges from biblical perspectives to ethical and canonical issues, the authors demonstrate how people with developmental disabilities need to embraced by the Church and its sacraments, for they teach us something central about sacramental encounters.