Posted on: Saturday, October 6, 2001

Church addresses needs of disabled

By Adrienne Ancheta
Advertiser staff writer

Iwie Tamashiro, head of the Catholic Ministry for Disabled Persons, describes her duties, one of which is transcribing text to Braille in her office at St. Stephen's Diocesan Center. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Iwie Tamashiro, director of the Catholic church's Ministry for Persons With Disabilities, resisted her first job as a sign language interpreter for a Catholic Mass.

"I had a list of why I couldn't do it," Tamashiro said. For starters, she was not Catholic and knew nothing about the church or its rituals.

Twelve years later, she is the one-person office for the ministry, which helps the church address the needs of disabled parishioners including the elderly. As part of her job, she regularly interprets services at Our Lady of Sorrows in Wahiawa, helps disabled people receive sacraments such as confirmation, types weekly Braille programs for one parish and flies to the Neighbor Islands to help other parishes with their work.

Though it would have been providential if her first job brought her to the church, it was neither that nor marrying a Catholic man that began her church career. Instead, a grueling weekend spent translating a marriage counseling session for her deaf friend seven years ago convinced her to join the Catholic church.

"I thought it was necessary that (my friend) and her fiancee go through marriage counseling," Tamashiro said. Throughout the hours of interpreting, even as she coped with swollen arms and fingers, Tamashiro learned about Catholicism from the counseling priest, Father Terri Watanabe. Later at the wedding rehearsal, Watanabe practiced administering communion to everyone in the wedding party — except Tamashiro. She began to cry.#034;My feelings were hurt so bad," she said. "That's how I knew I wanted to be Catholic."

She was initiated nine months later, but her work with the church's disabled began before that when she was appointed to Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo's board for persons with disabilities. She was later chosen to head the disabled persons' ministry, established 3 1/2 years ago."The mission is to help parishes address accessing needs for people," Tamashiro said.

Though that sounds simple, the ministry deals with many different problems. The first is getting churches to recognize that a disabled community exists. John Maher, a member of the Catholic church's board for persons with disabilities and father to a son with Down syndrome, said parishes sometimes forget that families within the body include members who have special needs.

"People have the perception a lot of times that there are no people with disabilities, but a lot of times it's because the church is inaccessible and the people are not there," he said.

Some parishes on Maui, where Maher lives, have begun addressing the needs of disabled by providing transportation to Mass, installing wheelchair ramps into churches and such, and Maher has seen church attendance rise as a result.

Another problem for the ministry is helping parishes realize that installing wheelchair ramps is not the fix-all in becoming more friendly to the disabled.

"Oftentimes, it's not just a ramp or technical advice," Tamashiro said. "It's about engaging with a person with a disability and figuring out how do you minister to them."

Early this summer, Tamashiro began working with 17-year-old Katie O'Brien, who has Down syndrome and is deaf. With Tamashiro's interpretive work and training, Katie received her first communion on July 1.

"We never felt that Katie would ever be able to make her first communion but through the efforts of Iwie and the church, we were really very pleased with the total outcome," said Valery O'Brien, Katie's mother. "It was one of the most rewarding experiences in my life and my family's."

The O'Briens did not know a ministry for disabled persons existed but knew Tamashiro because she is an interpreter. Through a chance conversation, Valery mentioned that she would like Katie to have first communion and Tamashiro volunteered to help.

Katie understood the basic theology of the church better than her mother expected, given Katie's 5-year-old cognitive level. Now Katie and her family regularly attend Sts. Peter and Paul church, one of the few O'ahu parishes to have a sign language interpreter, and Katie is able to understand and be a part of services rather than to just sit and watch.

The ministry "is a very good outreach to any of our special-needs Catholics," Valery said. "I think once more people know about it Iwie will get more and more calls." The O'Briens and Tamashiro currently are working on putting together a group of disabled people with Katie to receive confirmation.

Although many ministries are miles away from being fully accessible — of the more than 80 ministries in Hawai'i, only six offer sign language interpretation — the ministry's work, combined with parish advocacy groups, has already brought more community members into the church and continues to move forward.