Xavier Society for the Blind, which will celebrate its 125th anniversary in December, recently joined in celebrating the Archdiocese of Washington’s Office of Deaf and Disabilities Ministries’ annual White Mass to honor people with disabilities.
Mary O’Meara, a society board member and the executive director of the archdiocese’s Office of Deaf and Disabilities Ministries, said the Mass is held during a regular Sunday liturgy and draws families and friends from across the archdiocese.
“By scheduling the White Mass during a regular Sunday liturgy, the celebration emphasizes that disability is an integral and ordinary part of parish life — not something “special” or separate — and fosters greater awareness of the many gifts that persons who are Deaf or live with disabilities bring to the Church,” she told CatholicVote in an email Nov. 10.
Malachy Fallon, the society’s executive director, told CatholicVote in an email Nov. 10 that the society provides free Catholic reading materials to blind and visually impaired individuals worldwide. She also noted that it was founded by Margaret Coffey, a teacher of the blind, and Father Joseph Stadelman, a Jesuit priest in New York City. Coffey and Fr. Stadelman used the braille press to provide The Baltimore Catechism to blind and visually impaired people.
Nowadays, the society — which has six employees and many volunteers and collaborates with freelance experts and other organizations — still uses braille but also provides materials, such as the New American Bible Revised Edition, in large print and audio formats, according to Fallon. According to the society’s website, donors have helped make that possible; braille books can cost more than $500 and take up to half a year to create.
According to a background information document Fallon provided to CatholicVote, the first of the White Masses honoring people with disabilities was celebrated in 2009, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, “at the inspiration of” diplomat and politician Sargent Shriver and his family, who attended. Shriver and his wife, Eunice, were advocates of people with disabilities.
The Mass was livestreamed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and since then, it has been held at different parishes every year to demonstrate the various ways communities include people with disabilities.
“This year’s celebration was especially meaningful, as Our Lady of Mercy is one of the founding parishes committed to ministry with persons with disabilities,” O’Meara said.
People who attend the Mass wear white because it is symbolic of baptism — something Catholics share, according to the document.
“After the processional hymn, the Rite of Blessing and Sprinkling of the Holy Water is done to celebrate all being one in the Body of Christ,” the document said.
Vivian Fridas, one of the society’s board members, read the First Reading using the organization’s braille Mass Propers, according to the society’s Nov. 6 e-newsletter. Fridas is also a public policy specialist at National Industries for the Blind.
Fallon and Donald Salvato, the society’s director of production and technology, attended the National Braille Association’s 80th Anniversary professional development conference, which took place in Cincinnati. Fallon wrote in the e-newsletter that she and Salvato learned at the conference about innovations in braille production methods and spent time with several of the society’s braille transcribers.
As the e-newsletter explained, Fallon and Salvato also met formerly incarcerated people who have obtained certification in braille transcription through the National Prison Braille Network, which has 45 programs across 30 states. Fallon told CatholicVote that the Xavier Society is considering working with transcribers from the Prison Braille Program as it seeks more ways to expand its braille library of offerings.
The society will celebrate its 125th anniversary with a Mass at 10:15 a.m. Dec. 14 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The Mass will be livestreamed on the cathedral’s website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel. A luncheon will follow at Cellini’s Ristorante. Space is limited, and registration (here) is required. Anyone with questions can call 212-473-7800, and prayer intentions can be sent to info@xaviersocietyfortheblind.org.
The event is “substituting” the society’s annual St. Lucy Mass, which is held Dec. 13, the feast day of this patron saint of the blind, Fallon told CatholicVote. The main celebrant, lectors, and altar server are typically society patrons and they use the society’s braille materials for the liturgy, she said.
Father Jamie Dennis, a priest of the Diocese of Owensboro, Kentucky, and a society patron, will celebrate the anniversary Mass with Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
“No other event better illustrates the unique and essential mission of Xavier Society for the Blind,” Fallon said. “This year’s Mass and our annual St. Lucy Mass are — quite literally — the embodiment of our mission.”
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