MANY AWARDS AND AWESOME WORDS AT TONIGHT'S NCPD BANQUET IN HOUSTON.............

The National Catholic Partnership for Disability Banquet tonight at the Marriott West Chase Hotel in Houston Texas, is something I will remember and especially cherish for the rest of my ordained ministry and indeed my entire life.  The banquet food and service were superb; but the banquet program of presentations, speeches, and awards,were even more superior.  I will savor, discern, digest, contemplate, remember, and with an, "attitude of action", to work and minister to bring the words and inspiration this evening's event has instilled in me and many, many, many, dozens of others present and throughout the parishes and dioceses, of the USA.  It  is overtime  to embrace, empower. and make accessible, the inclusion of persons with special needs, be we, - priests, deacons, religious, laity. or any person. For every human person has the right to dignity inherent in our being.  Just as we are reaffirming here in Houston the 35th Anniversary of the U.S. Bishops 1978 Pastoral Statement On Persons With Disabilities, which states, "There is No Separate Church for the Disabled"; so too is there no place anymore, anywhere, for bias, prejudice, insensitivity, separation, injustice, or discrimination, to be present in the American and Universal  Church.  That "Attitude of Action", was so brilliantly proclaimed in the words of our host Bishop, +Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, and other speakers tonight. From here,'Where Faith And Disability Meet', may the Light of Jesus The Lord Of All Creation Shine Brightly throughout the Catholic Church and the Christian Community of Believers Now and Forever !!!.............fr.tdp