HYANNIS — For Mary Jane Owen, blind, with partial hearing and confined to a wheelchair, talking about the vital need for dioceses and their parishes to minister to those with disabilities comes from firsthand knowledge.

But it goes far beyond justice, says Owen, who, as executive director of the National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities says that the fear of human vulnerability and its denial of place in our society — a feeling held even among Catholics — is catering to a culture of death that even spreads to children newly from the womb.

"I think we need to accept the fact that God doesn’t place the gift of life in high-impact plastic," she said. "He places it in very vulnerable, human vessels. We are all destined to fall apart. But we Catholics should not be that concerned about the frailties because we know we are destined for a better place in our resurrection."

Owen, who has worked as a social worker, research director, assistant professor and who holds degrees in fine arts, theology and social work, displayed her widespread knowledge, wit and vibrant personality early Monday morning when she spoke to representatives of the Fall River diocese prior to the two-day regional meeting of the NCPD at the Four Points Hotel in Hyannis.

Representatives from across New England gathered there Monday and Tuesday to share ideas and resources with colleagues in the ministry, brainstorm strategies, to increase participation and overcome physical and attitudinal barriers in welcoming those with disabilities back into the parish community and its spiritual life.

Their discussion focused on such things as access ramps, easy access to lavatories, and removal of sections of pews to allow those in wheelchairs to be with their families and friends at church liturgies.

"But before that can happen, and even with access ramps and other amenities in place, there must be an attitude change among the people in the parishes," Owen asserted.

"Somehow we have let into our society the idea that if we don’t have a perfect body; the attributes that we consider to be winning, somehow we have failed. Human disabilities are a normal part of God’s plan and that is what civilizes us, if we let it. Our intertwining disabilities, our diversities, make the strongest bond."

Hosting the event were the NCPD and the Diocesan Office of Catholic Social Services.

Owen, who took over the national office in June, 1991, came to the key post following two decades of national level activities in promoting creative policies and programs of inclusion for America’s 43 million disabled citizens.

She made it clear from the outset of the talk Monday that "a new definition of disabilities is: they are the normal and anticipated outcome of the risks, strains and stresses of the living process itself. Therefore, the condition ceases to be merely an individual tragedy and becomes an expectation within any community."

She said that everyone, no matter what their level of disability may be, reflect a certain facet of God’s universal presence in our world.

As a former academic professor, Owen said she asked her international friends what the theology of disability might be for them. "Repeatedly I heard the phrase: ‘It is the theology of the wounded Christ.’"

Yet, said Owen, she was astounded when she learned that many people with disabilities have fallen away from the Church. "We could take Bishop Sean O’Malley’s beautiful, recent pastoral on racism ... and just substitute the world disability for racism ... and you’d see how much, how many people are affected."

Owen, who has a master’s degree in social work, offered a startling statistic: "We should expect that 20 percent of every parish includes the disabled." She said U.S. Census figures show that 10 percent of every parish includes those severely disabled, said to lack one or more capacities of what is understood as basic life.

"I asked one blind woman who had fallen away from the Church what had happened. She told me, ‘I was so tired of being prayed over. I want to pray with.’ I think that is an important consideration for parishes and clergy to keep in mind."

A hard look at some of the disabled shows that they identify more with their abilities than with their disabilities, said Owen. "So there are many people who need to be in the Church and we need them in the Church and the Church needs them there too. How can we welcome them home as Pope John Paul II advises us to do during this millennium year of jubilee when I don’t see us seeing that resurrection, that power of the human spirit that we ought to have."

The answer, "put into my heart certainly with help of the Holy Spirit, was that every rehabilitation, every habilitation, might be seen as a minor recapitulation of Jesus’ resurrection," she said. "Easter is the day when we see the real meaning of Good Friday. We human beings also go through our private, Good Fridays."

Owen also stressed that disability "is a tie that binds. It does away with a culture of isolation, of death and irresponsibility and brings a feeling ... of a need to be connected. Whenever I travel, I have to ask for help. The amazing thing is that when people help me, they end up thanking me. I think it is because they are given a chance to be civilized ... to be more Christian."

While leprosy is no longer a dreaded disease in most parts of the world today, many of the disabled, no longer welcomed by their church community, often feel they have such a disease, said Owen. "The pain of exclusion is affirmed," she said. "Sometimes they are hurt by the barriers; and sometimes by the words that are said to them."

During an open discussion period that followed, Owen was told that many parishes in the Fall River Diocese had implemented access for the disabled as well as easily accessible lavatories; and more churches have such facilities in the planning stages.

But Thomas Palanza, an architect and consultant, said that various building codes frequently prevent installation of lavatories for the disabled in the older churches.

Owen said that while many parishes place the disabled in wheelchairs at set places towards the rear of the church or at the very front, "I love to be with my family ... and process in the communion line, participating in the liturgy and going up to receive the Eucharist, and so pew cutouts in other places for wheelchairs seem very important."

In her dealings with the various American dioceses Owen said she had found all the bishops most cooperative and eager to make it easier for the disabled to come to Church and be comfortable there.