Sign language to proclaim the Gospel

Fr Takawej, a parish priest in Bangkok, organised a sign language course to teach the language of the deaf to some of his parishioners. He said: "10 deaf people attend our Sunday Mass and two of them have converted."

Bangkok (AsiaNews) - Fr Peter Prasert Takawej, parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Bangkok, invited Prof. Kampol Suwannatat, founder of a national association for deaf people, to hold a sign language course. Parishioners who attend the course can now use this means to proclaim the Gospel.

The first course started in July 2005 and finished in February this year. Narong Thanomlek, one of the 10 students who attended, said: "I am very grateful to Fr Takawej, who has understood the importance of taking the good news to deaf people too. He has even provided fund for us to attend catechism studies at the Major Seminary, so we can have better knowledge about the subject we are about to proclaim."

He added: "The course has just finished. I was so satisfied that I invited Prof. Suwannatat to hold a similar one for my friends at the seminary. So the professor held another course for seminarians, they met for three hours every Thursday. This course was also completed in February.

Fr Takawej said: "We have been providing sign language interpretation for deaf people at our 9am Mass on Sunday for four years already. At first, three or four people used to come; now 10 deaf people attend Sunday Mass, and two have converted.

Wilai Chaiwattanachai, a woman who took part in the course, said: "This initiative is very important: there are 50,000 deaf people in Thailand. In these months, I have met and communicated with deaf people and I feel their hearts are not deaf, but frank and friendly."

• THAILAND
• deaf
• hearing
• impaired
• sign
• language
• evangelisation
• mission