KOCHI: It was a rarest of the rare experience for the faithful, when the Holy Mass was celebrated in sign language at the Our Lady of Dolours Basilica Church, Thrissur, the other day. The Holy Mass in sign language was organised in connection with the 90th anniversary of the Basilica Church, which is the tallest church in Asia.
Hundreds of differently abled children and their parents from various parts of the district attended the Mass celebrated in sign language by Fr Min Seo Park, who himself is a differently abled priest from the Archdiocese of Seoul, South Korea. Fr Park is one of the three differently abled persons who have been ordained priest by the Catholic Church across the world.
Fr Park, who was born normal, became hearing impaired at the age of two, after consuming wrongly prescribed medicine.
At the school for the deaf, he met Fr Michael Cheong-Soon-o, to whom he revealed his desire to become a priest. But, due to lack of courses for the deaf in Korean seminaries, he was sent to the United States.
He is the first differently- abled Asian to be ordained priest by the Catholic Church.
Fr Park also holds a Master’s degree in Divinity from the St John’s University, New York.
During the Mass, sign language experts translated the Mass for the faithful with normal physical conditions.
The Mass was followed by a meeting to felicitate Fr Park. “First of all, I want to thank God for accepting me as a priest,” Fr Park said after his first Mass.
‘I am not a Star’
“As the first Catholic priest with a handicap, I was given a lot of media attention even before my ordination.
But, I am not a star; I’m an ordinary priest,” he said, and appealed to the faithful, “pray for me to be a humble and honest priest.”