DISABILITY MILESTONES 6.............

Continuing the march of progress in Ministry to Persons with Disabilities on the part of the Catholic Church that numbers 14 million Disabled Catholics in the United States, I share with you the following Disability Awareness and Action Milestones :

2006 - National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD) Council on Mental Illness established.
2007 - NCPD hosts first of 16 national webinars.
2008 - Launch of the Washington office of the International Catholic Foundation for the Service of the Deaf.
2008 - A Conference for Deaf People and Pastoral Leaders in the Catholic Deaf Community entitled, "One Faith : The Call to Discipleship in the Global Deaf Community", held in Rome, Italy; Deaf Catholic Groups from over 33 countries attended, speaaking many languages.
2009 - The Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care hosted "The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church", which took place in the Synod Hall of the Vatican.  Presentations were given by Deaf Catholics from the United States and other countries.
2010 - NCPD Autism Task Force established.
2011 - Loyola Press releases Adaptive First Eucharist Preparation Kit for preparing students with Autism and other Developmental Disabilities. 
2013 - Boards of NAfIM, National Apostolate for Inclusion Ministries and NCPD, National Catholic Partnership on Disability approve NAfIM joining NCPD as the NCPD Council on IDD, Intellectual Developmental Disabilities.

Kudos to the visionary and One Church inclusiveness of the Catholic-Christian Leaders in the Church of the United States who over the past 176 years and continuing, who have and are doing what is right, just, and vitally important to the accessibility, inclusion, presence, and participation, of the Disabled, just as Jesus did during His Public Ministry.............Father Troy David Powers