British deacon develops new resources for people with autism

A Catholic deacon in England has responded to what he says is “a crying need” for new catechetical resources for people with autism.

Deacon Mark Paine from the Archdiocese of Birmingham — who is autistic himself and a parent to autistic children — has produced two new resources that he hopes will assist people on the autism spectrum and those who serve them.

“Called By Name: Guide to Religious Education with Autistic Pupils Aged 5–11 Years” was written for teachers to help them teach religious education, and “Radical Belonging: Guide to Sacramental Preparation with Autistic Young People” is aimed at catechists in parishes and those helping young people prepare for the sacraments in schools.

Paine said he believes there is an urgent need for the resources because “the number of pupils in our mainstream Catholic primary schools identified with complex needs relating to the autistic spectrum has increased considerably.”

“There is a crying need for resources like this,” Paine told EWTN News. “I basically felt it necessary to provide resources which could be used by nonspecialists. I wrote them because no one else had, so I just felt there was a need to do it.”

Paine, who has worked in education for nearly 30 years, produced the resources for Catholic educators and catechists who are not specialists in autism and neurological issues.

“There are young people and adults who have never received sacramental preparation because the sacramental preparation programs available to teachers and catechists, on the whole, do not match the communication needs of people with neurodivergency or people who are nonverbal,” Paine said.

The deacon explained that being autistic “affects your ability to deal with various forms of social interactions and communications.” He added: “We miss out on social cues; there are communication and sensory issues that can become overwhelming.” So a key feature of the new resources concerns effective communication.

“It’s about people trying to demonstrate their understanding of nonconventional ways. For example, I talk about how [an autistic] student could indicate their understanding that they are receiving the body of Christ during first holy Communion preparation. There are ways of doing that which are not conventional.”

Paine added: “The existing material basically has one form of communication — the ‘normative’ way of doing things — whereas what I try and do is use my experience [in education] and my own experience as somebody with a disability to provide alternative ways for people to demonstrate understanding, and for nonspecialists to recognize where that understanding is present.”

Paine said he feels called “to address what I see as an injustice, which is that many Catholics are excluded from the sacraments because they are judged.

“The Catholic Church should be the most inclusive and welcoming place on earth. That’s what I’m trying to redress: people being excluded. I don’t think it’s deliberate. People don’t do it out of malice, but it’s just ignorance,” he said.

Behind Paine’s approach is a theology of “radical inclusion” — a striving toward greater inclusion based on the Gospel. “Radical inclusion is what Jesus preached,” he said. “It’s St. Francis of Assisi. Basically everybody is welcome, and radical inclusion is the Gospel — the kingdom is for everyone.”

Cristina Gangemi, director of the Kairos Forum, an independent consultancy that strives to support cognitively and intellectually disabled people, said she hopes the resources will be “an extremely important contribution to the building up of the body of Christ.”

Describing the new sources as “a valuable tool for the life and mission of the Church,” Gangemi told EWTN News that “in the past, the privileged voice of an experience of living on the spectrum of autism has often been missing from parish life. How a faith community values and enables this privileged voice is slowly becoming an important question within the life and mission of the Church.”

Gangemi said she believes Paine’s personal experience of autism will enable the new resources to connect with students and those involved in sacramental programs.

“In these resources we can find the privileged voice of experience at work. As they emerge from Mark’s own experience of autism, he is able to reveal to the Church, from the very living of his life, what enables and what disables the very important wisdom of autism.”

Paine, a member of the global disability theology network The Catholic Stream, is hoping the resources will help raise awareness of autism and inclusion both nationally and globally.

Last October, he spoke at an event in Rome launching The Catholic Stream and said: “I genuinely believe that a Church which not only accepts vulnerability and difference but actively embraces it is a stronger Church.”

Writing in support of Paine’s resources, Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham wrote: “I am deeply grateful to Deacon Mark Paine for highlighting the Church’s important work of helping our young people with complex needs and who may need additional support, together with those adults working with them.”

The free resources can be accessed here: “Called By Name” and “Radical Belonging.”