History was made last Tuesday when two Deaf priests, Fr. Shawn Carey of the Archdiocese of Boston and Fr. Paul Zirimenya from San Francisco concelebrated Mass in American Sign Language on CatholicTV. Why is this a big deal? For years, the Deaf community has struggled for the right to use ASL, a language that is linguistically equal to spoken languages, but often perceived as inferior by the majority hearing population. In the Catholic Church’s history, this has sometimes meant that Deaf people were denied the Sacraments because they were not able to access the sacraments in their own native language. To publicly broadcast a Mass celebrated in ASL is a sign of how far the Church has come in recognizing ASL as a natural language on par with all other languages witnessed at Pentecost. It is also a public recognition that Deaf priests can and in fact have been serving hearing people for years, through the gift of their language.
The closed-captioned and voiced interpreted Mass (in English) can be accessed online at: http://www.catholictv.org/shows/catholictv-mass/tuesday-mass-presentation-blessed-virgin-mary
Don’t the words of consecration have to be said in order for any Mass to be valid?
Ryan Ellis: Respectfully, the words of consecration ARE indeed being said…in ASL
ASL is not a spoken language though.
Some further background on the validity of the sacrament as celebrated with the use of sign language:
https://zenit.org/2019/03/05/sign-language-by-a-celebrant/
Fr McNamara, writing in 2019, is evidently unaware that a Roman Missal for Masses for the Deaf already exists (it was published in 2015), found at https://catholicdeaf.org.uk/roman-missal/ . The same website also offers Year B of the Lectionary for Mass for use with the Deaf, with further years to come — see https://catholicdeaf.org.uk/resource/
Perhaps because he’s cut off from civilisation in the US and Rome, not the UK.
Ryan,
The words are said — in a language that deaf people can understand. In England and Wales we have a Eucharistic Prayer for Masses with the Deaf approved by Rome in 1992 (it had been submitted for approval in 1977 — go figure!). The text is specially designed for use with British Sign Language (not the same as ASL), but the words of institution are identical to those in a standard Missal.
Your question is similar to the one that seminarians often ask: in a Mass with the deaf, shouldn’t the priest be making the gestures prescribed in the Missal, not sign language?
The Note attached to the England & Wales EP includes the following:
https://fssp.com/fssp-nashua-reaches-deaf/
ASL in the TLM
“ASL is not a spoken language though.”
Hearing the Word is not simply a matter of acoustics. As is often pointed out throughout the Bible, it’s possible to hear and not understand–that is, to not hear at all. Spoken language can fall on the deaf ears of the hearing enabled; sign language can open the ears of the deaf.