The Roman Catholic Church traces their roots to the early days of Christianity. We believe in one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This concept is called the Trinity. We believe the Father is the creator of Heaven and Earth. We believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. We believe he was born from the Virgin Mary. Through his life, he performed many miracles. He suffered, died, rose from the dead on the three days after dying, and ascended into heaven. We believe the Holy Spirit is the giver of life and the inspiration to many. We believe the Roman Catholic Church is the universal church which has been handed down from the apostles and founded by Jesus Christ.
Within the Roman Catholic Church, there are many ways to serve God. We call these paths vocations. There is the vocation to the married life, single life, and the consecrated life. When we dive even further into the vocation to the consecrated life, we see Diocesan Priests and Deacons, and Religious Priests, Brothers, Sisters, and Nuns.
Diocesan Priests are focused on a certain location or diocese. There are about 200 dioceses in the United States. Religious Priests, Brothers, Sisters, and Nuns are different. They live in a community of at least two and are able to minister in any place the community decides.
There are many different communities. Some of the most common ones are Dominican, Franciscan, Jesuit, Benedictine, and many others. Each community has a specific way they serve God this is called a community’s Charism. For example, Dominicans are well known for their preaching, Franciscans for their poverty, Jesuits are known for their intense study, Benedictines are known for teaching in schools. This is not to say that a Dominican can’t teach, or a Benedictine can’t preach. Rather, this is what the communities are known for doing well.
We are the Dominican Missionaries for the Apostolates of the Deaf and Disabled. That is a very long title which needs to be broken down.
- We are Dominican. Our Charism is to preach in the tradition of St. Dominic.
- We are Missionaries. This simply means we are not tied to one single parish or one area. Our mission is to go out to meet the people.
- We are for the Apostolates of the Deaf and Disabled. Apostolate is a fancy word which simply means work or ministry. Our ministry, our mission, our life is centered on primarily on Deaf Ministry. In recent years, the community has discerned a call to work with those who are otherwise disabled. In a church which does so much good work with hospitals and clinics, it is surprising how few dioceses have a ministry targeted toward those who are permanently disabled. It is even more surprising that in the Church which founded Deaf Education in the United States, we see shockingly few dioceses have Deaf Ministry. It is our mission, as we train more and more men to become priests and brothers to work with Deaf and Disabled people, to remedy these sad statistics.