By: David Rothrock
Jean Vanier realized early on that L’Arche can’t meet the needs of all people with intellectual disabilities. He, together with Marie-Helene Mathieu, founded Faith and Light as a support for people with intellectual disabilities living alone or with their families. Faith and Light brings together people with intellectual disabilities, together with family, friends and young people, to be a community of faith and friendship where people belong and can be supported. They gather in friendship and faith once or twice a month. Faith and Light began as a pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1971 and the pilgrimage continues every ten years. That first pilgrimage in 1971 gathered 15,000 people.
Faith and Light in Tacoma was founded by Fr. Jim Boyle and Danny and Teres Millar. In 1981 and 1991 L’Arche Tahoma Hope joined Faith and Light on the pilgrimages to Lourdes. The members of L’Arche Tahoma Hope who participated in those pilgrimages were Greg Hanon, Sue Hudacek, Nancy Tyson, Cheri Harris, Fr. Jim Boyle, Dick Sutherland, Shelly Rubatino and David Rothrock.
In 1981, the Tacoma Faith and Light community flew to Toronto, Canada to join Canada Faith and Light to travel to Lourdes, France. The Boeing 747, filled with Faith and Light pilgrims, landed at a small airport near Lourdes. The airport could not accommodate a large 747 – so we had to deplane using a mobile stairway. Since so many of the Faith and Light pilgrims were non-ambulatory, we were faced with a challenge. Jean Vanier, who was there to greet us, joined in as we all, together with some French troops guarding the airport, began to deplane, carrying people down the staircase to their wheelchairs.
I remember sharing a tiny room with Ira Ruby in a little hotel in Lourdes. Ira was a kind, gentle, simple man who lived at Jefferson House, a wonderful nursing home in Tacoma for mostly destitute people. Ira was a very active and committed member of Faith and Light. Since the toilet in the hotel was down a winding hall and staircase, every room was furnished with its own “pot.” During the night, both Ira and I had to navigate in the tiny room to manage the “pot.” More than once we awoke in the morning to put on “damp” shoes which were placed too close to the “pot.”
We all witnessed a “miracle” at Lourdes that year – it was the eruption of joy. Despite the considerable suffering and struggles many of the pilgrims with disabilities endured, the joy of being together in a community of faith and hope and kindness, “erupted.” I don’t think that I have ever experienced such a sense of communal joy. It was palatable. And it is not where most expect to find joy. That’s the miracle!
I remember the Faith and Light trip to Rome where we gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica. There were many wheel chairs and wheel beds. Pope Paul VI arrived in the “sedelia,” a chair carried by four men on their shoulders. Michel, from the L’Arche community of Ambleteuse in France, and I were standing not far from the altar. When the “sedelia” was lowered for the Pope to step out and walk up the stairs to the altar, Michel turned to me and said, “Regarde, il marche le pape.” (“Look, the pope can walk.”) In Pope Paul’s address in French to the thousands of assembled Faith and Light pilgrims, he spoke in a familiar manner directly to the pilgrims with an intellectual disability. He said, “Because of what you live, because of your suffering, you are the closest to Jesus, and because you are the closest to Jesus, you are at the heart of the church.”
I thought, my goodness, the pope really does understand!
