Conversation “Dialogues on faith, disability and inclusion”
- Channel Youtube of the Pastoral UC.
- Friday, December 2 – 11:00 a.m.
- Those wishing to participate must register. here.
Addressing the inclusion of people with disabilities requires the implementation of comprehensive public policies and the design of strategies with a multidimensional approach.
“Moving towards inclusion is everyone’s task. And to do it efficiently you have to include the physical, health, emotional, and cognitive aspects and also the strengthening of the spiritual dimension, of faith. This will help us create spaces that aim to achieve the well-being of people with disabilities,” says Cristián Núñez, an academic at the UC Faculty of Theology.
The conversation is an open invitation to organizations and institutions that intervene and develop programs with people with disabilities; in addition to pastoral agents and catechists of the Church; catechists from Catholic schools and universities; catechetical directors of the different dioceses, pastoral vicars and others interested in deepening the matter.
The activity will take place within the framework of the commemoration of World Disability Day. It is organized by the UC Pastoral, the UC Faculty of Theology, the UC Faculty of Education, the Program for the Inclusion of Students with Special Needs PIANE UC and the Congregation of Santa Cruz.
The conversation will have the participation of prominent exhibitors. Germán López Cortacans, Doctor of Health Sciences and Theology, will refer to the anthropological-theological Foundations of people with disabilities as the Image of God; Andrea Vázquez Coordinator of PIANE UC, will address disability and inclusion in today’s society, particularly in the university context; Bishop Óscar Hernán Blanco Martínez, OMD, Bishop of Punta Arenas and president of the National Catechesis Commission, will speak about the pastoral guidelines of the Church regarding people with disabilities; Rosa Labbé, Coordinator of special catechesis in the Eastern Zone of the Archdiocese of Santiago and member of the National Catechesis Commission; Rossy Roque, catechist of the Holy Mother of Light Parish, Ciudad Guadalupe, Nueva León, Mexico; where she works with people with disabilities, they will delve into catechesis and disability in pastoral practice: reality and challenges.
During the activity various audiovisual resources will be used to allow accessibility to the content.
Spirituality, disability and inclusion
The conversation arises thanks to the completion of the general training course “Spirituality, disability and inclusion”, taught by professors Cristián Núñez from the UC Faculty of Theology and Ana Gutiérrez from the UC Education Faculty.
The course, developed during the second semester of 2022, aims, from the perspective of Fundamental Theology and in accordance with the vision of current inclusive education, to deepen the importance of understanding and developing the spiritual dimension of the human being in an inclusive context.
To make a greater impact in the community, the course used the Learning and Service (A+S) teaching methodology, which seeks to have students apply their knowledge in real contexts through services delivered to community partners with genuine needs and based on work interdisciplinary, typical of a general training course that integrates students from various UC careers.
Thus, the students linked up with five community partner organizations that work with people with disabilities: the Don Orione Sacramentine Sisters, the Pedro Aguirre Cerda Rehabilitation Institute, the Catechesis Group of the Señora del Rosario de Andacollo Parish, the Disability Program – San Miguel and the Catechesis Group of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Basilica.
“The rehabilitation of people with disabilities can be physical, but if it is not mental, emotional and from our hearts, it will ultimately be incomplete. Any process that one does from the physical must also be driven by the spiritual, since that will mobilize us. We must give meaning to this rehabilitation and inclusion process”, concludes Osvaldo Quezada, a 2nd year UC Psychology student.
This course intends that students, in addition to valuing spirituality in their lives, become a concrete contribution to society, based on the development of a service project that improves and/or enhances the spiritual development of people in situations of disability. With this, UC is committed to promoting the training of its students in social responsibility, contributing to the development of the country.