By Thea Jarvis

Viewers who tune to the television Mass this Sunday will be treated to a special liturgy appropriate for the hearing impaired.

Making his television debut at the Mass will be Mr. Paul Cabrita, S.M., a member of the Society of Mary and a teacher at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf.

As lector for the Mass, Cabrita will present the scriptural readings in “total communication,” reading and signing the scriptures at the same time and making them understandable to both the hearing and non-hearing audience.

Was he nervous during the studio taping of the Mass, completed just before the Christmas holiday?

“I’m always nervous at first,” he says with some modesty. “There’s always a new group and you don’t know how they’re going to respond.”

But the job itself isn’t new to Paul Cabrita, a candidate for the priesthood who lives at the Marist rectory in Atlanta. Each Sunday he can be found at Corpus Christi Church in Stone Mountain, lectoring in total communication, interpreting the Sunday homily, and assisting in religious education classes.

At the parish, which has implemented an extensive outreach to the deaf, most deaf students are mainstreamed into regular classes. Cabrita assists in an eighth grade class on Sunday evenings, interpreting the lesson for four deaf students as the team teachers present it to the class.

The mustachioed Marist wishes he could do even more in the line of volunteer work for the deaf, but a full-time job and busy schedule sometimes prevents it.

During the week, Cabrita teaches high school biology, earth science and health at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf in Clarkston, one of the most outstanding facilities of its kind in the country.

For him, the job goes beyond just teaching. The identity crisis is often intensified for a handicapped teenager, and Paul Cabrita is sensitive to the needs of those in his classroom.

“I challenge the kids, I believe in them. I say to them in my words and my actions that you are not worthless,” he related during his lunch break in the well-equipped science room he inhabits from 8-4 each day.

“I can’t preach – which is okay. The best example I can give is to an example for them,” letting them know “God doesn’t make junk,” Cabrita said of his ministry, which is sometimes questioned by those who feel a religious should remain in close orbit around his own community.

From his brother Marists, he has received only warm support. Before entering the order in 1979 at the age of 32, he was told by Marist superiors that there was “a big need for deaf ministry in the Church today,” Cabrita remembered. “They’ve encouraged me all along.”

Paul Cabrita’s work with the hearing impaired stems in large part from his friendship with Father Ray Fleming, the third deaf priest to be ordained in the United States, and Father Killian Perry, T.O.F., chaplain for the deaf in the twin cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Both encouraged him in his outreach to the deaf even before he joined the Marists.

Cabrita, a native of Swansea, Massachusetts, had been teaching the deaf in the Maryland-Washington area when he began to feel “God was calling me to something more,” he said. His eventual linkup with the Society of Mary’s Washington Province was mutually rewarding. The young man’s scholastic background was impressive and his single-minded commitment to the deaf was unquestionable.

No doubt Paul Cabrita’s ability to strike a realistic balance between his priestly vocation and his extended ministry bespeaks a wide and varied educational background. He is presently a master’s candidate in theology at Washington Theological Union and holds a master’s degree in deaf education from Western Maryland College.

What does the future hold for the multi-talented Marist? The field of deaf ministry within the Catholic Church is wide open. Workers in the field are eagerly sought by parishes like Corpus Christi, which serves people in a geographical area where a concentrated outreach to the deaf can be found in surrounding schools and local programs.

Some would say the Catholic Church is playing catch-up with Protestant denominations in its care for the deaf. If so, men and women like Paul Cabrita will be the pioneers needed to fill in the gaps and round out the picture.

“Very slowly, I see deaf ministry starting to grow,” he says candidly, knowing how much needs doing.

With the eye of the realist and heart of the poet, Paul Cabrita’s commitment will make the growing quicken and endure.