‘A place for all’: Houses of worship reach out to Deaf, hard-of-hearing believers

When she moved to Schaumburg 13 years ago, there was one thing Susan Elizabeth Rangel refused to give up: St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church in Chicago.

Rangel, who is deaf, has been a member of the church for about 25 years, and she continues to make the 30-minute commute weekly to attend services for deaf and hard-of-hearing congregants. But the devout Catholic does more than that. She also serves Communion and teaches fellow deaf parishioners to be readers at Mass at St. Francis Borgia, home to the St. Borgia Deaf Center.

“As I was growing in my relationship to the Lord, my desire to serve” grew, said Rangel, who has been a lay church leader for about 20 years.

Worship services can be a challenge for those who are deaf. But many, including Rangel, find a way — sometimes bringing change themselves.

Like Rangel, Nathan Zastoupil was a minority in his childhood church.

“Growing up without the needed resources in a church was extremely hard for me,” said the Rockford native who was born deaf but has the ability to speak and to hear with hearing aids. “I felt at that point that there was no need for me to go to church at all. Lots of deaf people continue to feel this way.”

After completing confirmation classes, the Hanover Park resident stopped attending services.

But in 2014, after his daughter’s American Sign Language-interpreted baptism at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Arlington Heights, Zastoupil approached the pastor about including ASL interpreters at worship services. His request led to the church establishing a ministry for the deaf.

In 2017, he and his family transferred to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Schaumburg, where he helped establish a deaf ministry there.

“I truly love going to church today with a sign language interpreter there because I now know what’s being said in worship services,” said Zastoupil, who teaches a popular basic sign language class every September in honor of National Deaf Awareness Month.

Zastoupil also teaches sign language part time through the College of DuPage’s continuing education program.

“I have been teaching our congregation on how to sign ‘peace be with you’ when we do our sharing of the peace during worship services,” he added.

The Rev. Joseph Mulcrone, director of the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Office of the Deaf, learned sign language as a child to speak to his maternal grandparents, who were deaf.

Over his 53 years as a priest, Mulcrone has devoted nearly 47 of them to ministering to the Deaf community. He says he has witnessed deaf and hearing believers have what he calls a “conversion,” finding a deeper sense, a greater insight.

“I see it in people like Susan,” said the priest referring to Rangel, who passed her faith and her language to hearing daughters Lizzy and Jazzy, both of whom are fluent in ASL.

Lizzy Rangel, an ASL interpreter, recalls a time when she interpreted a daily Mass for her mother. As they approached the priest to take Communion, he signed “body of Christ” to her.

“My whole heart ruptured with love. That’s my own language. God was feeding me in my first language,” Lizzy Rangel said. “I’m home.”

Chicago’s Catholic Church has a long tradition of ministering to the Deaf community, according to Mulcrone. The ministry began in 1884, when nuns at a West Side parish set up a program to educate deaf children, he said.

In 1896, the archdiocese established a ministry for deaf people. Beginning in the mid-1960s, when the Catholic Church replaced the Latin Mass with local vernacular, the archdiocese introduced ASL interpretation.

The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, seeking to encourage more lay people to get involved in ministry, launched the Ministry Formation Program in the 1990s, said Mulcrone. The first of its kind in the nation, the MFP helped train deaf parishioners to read Scripture and assist during services and with religious education.

Thirty years ago, no other archdioceses had such a program. Now similar programs operate around the U.S. and overseas, said Mulcrone, who has served the Deaf community since 1977.

When he celebrates Mass at St. Francis Borgia, he uses ASL along with his voice to accommodate deaf congregants with hearing children and hearing congregants with deaf children.

“There are deaf people who may not see another deaf person all week,” he said. “Here they’re not the minority, they’re the majority.”

“We Deaf (people) cherish any moment we have with each other,” said Rangel who also attends daily Mass at her local church where she uses the services of an interpreter.

Suburban synagogues, including Congregation Bene Shalom Hebrew Association for the Deaf in Skokie and Congregation Anshe Tikvah, at the Tikvah Center for Jewish Recovery and Healing in Northbrook, also provide services for deaf and hard of hearing congregants.

Like others, Jewish people who are deaf may have a hard time finding a synagogue that offers the services they need.

To that end, Anshe Tikvah offers Friday and other services live and online, according to Debbie Lerner. That includes the High Holy Days, which begin this week.

“I was afforded a Jewish education growing up and not all Deaf people were,” said Lerner, who has served as the interpreter since Anshe Tikvah introduced ASL interpretation 10 years ago.

Lerner echoes her Christian counterparts on the importance of ensuring deaf and hard of hearing congregants have the opportunity to fully participate.

“We at Anshe Tikvah believe there is a place for all participants,” she said.