Deaf Awareness Night – San Antonio
INVITATION TO DEAF AWARENESS NIGHT featuring Father Tom Coughlin,
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Marian Hall Ballroom, University of the Incarnate Word, 4301
Broadway, San Antonio
Father Tom Coughlin, the only Deaf man ever ordained a Roman Catholic
priest in this country, will be the presenter at the annual Deaf
Awareness Night co-sponsored by Walk, Roll & Read and the Campus
Activities Board of the University of the Incarnate Word. Father Tom
will present information about “Mutism: the Darkside of Deafness”
interspersed with information about his own struggle through seminary
and ordination; and his recent legal struggles with the City of Castle
Hills to be allowed to keep the nine members of the Deaf Apostolate of
Saint Dominick whom he is mentoring in his house. UIW Chancellor,
Sister Helena Monahan of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word
of San Antonio will begin with an opening prayer.
Fr. Coughlin was born to deaf parents and maternal grandparents in
northern New York near Quebec border in 1947 and obtained his High
School education at St. Mary’s School for the Deaf in Buffalo, NY, BA
degree in English from Gallaudet University; MA in Theology from the
Catholic University of Washington, D.C. He was ordained as the first
deaf priest in North America and worked several years as home
missionary priest for the International Catholic Deaf Association. He
purchased a bankrupt resort hotel in Old Forge, New York in 1981,
converting the 9 acre waterfront hotel into Camp Mark Seven, a
Catholic deaf youth camp. In 1996, he became a Registered Nurse for
Camp Mark Seven and worked also as School Nurse at Schools for the
Deaf. In 2004, with Bishop Vigneron of Oakland, California assistance,
he formed a new religious congregation for deaf and hearing religious
vocations: The Dominican Missionaries for the Deaf Apostolate.
Currently the congregation has relocated to San Antonio and there are
nine members in the community. Father Coughlin continues to serve as
Prior General of the congregation and works as Director of the Deaf
Apostolate at San Francisco di Paola Church in downtown San Antonio
and as a chaplain and Registered Nurse at Camp Mark Seven in Old Forge
during the summer months.
Deaf Awareness Night is open to all interested persons free of
admission.
Refreshments in the front hallway of Marian Hall at 6:30 p.m.
Sister Helena Monahan leads opening prayer at 6:55 p.m.
Father Tom presents from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Formal question and answer session with Father Tom 8:30 to 9:00 p.m.
Continued visitation in Student Center after the event.
CAMPUS MAP: http://www.uiw.edu/map/maplarge.html (Student Center is 15)
For more information, please contact Walk, Roll & Read Vice President
Demetrius Smith at [email protected]
Sent by Rachel Cywinski, Walk, Roll & Read president
Walk, Roll & Read is an official student organization at the
University of the Incarnate Word. It supports students with
disabilities through advocacy and awareness, and sponsors the annual
UIW Deaf Awareness Night and annual Disability Awareness Week.