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CNS Story:
DISABLED-ADAPT Jul-28-2006 (840 words) With photos. xxxn
Disabled seek bishops' support for community living law
By Jerry Filteau
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- More than 30 people in wheelchairs occupied the
lobby of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for an hour July 27
in an effort to get USCCB backing for a federal law that would help
many people with disabilities live in their communities instead of
in nursing homes.
The demonstrators were members of Adapt, a national organization
that fights for disability rights.
After demonstrating for an hour and meeting briefly with top USCCB
officials, who agreed to a follow-up meeting, the group left.
Cassie James of Philadelphia, who led the group in several chants,
told Catholic News Service that Adapt "is fighting for real choice"
for many people with disabilities who would be able to leave nursing
homes if Medicare and Medicaid funding were not biased in favor of
the institutionalization of those with disabilities.
The group was seeking support for the Medicaid Community-based
Attendant Services and Support Act, which the demonstrators referred
to by the shortened name MiCASSA. The bill has been introduced in
both houses of Congress.
"It's time for change, not charity," James said.
She led the group in a back-and-forth chant:
"What do we want?"
"We want MiCASSA!"
"When do we want it?"
"We want it now!"
She also led them in a chant, "Our homes, not nursing homes!"
Kathleen Kleinmann, who has muscular dystrophy, told CNS she worked
for Catholic Charities of the Pittsburgh Diocese as its Washington
County director in 1986-87 but left to start her own nonprofit
center for independent living there. The center "is now a $6 million
operation," she said.
Compared with nursing home care, "giving the basic services needed
(for people with disabilities to live independently) is not
expensive, but it is essential," she said. "The church could be in
the forefront."
She said Adapt was formed in 1982 to campaign for wheelchair access
on buses. When it won that fight in 1990, it turned to the
independent living issue. But she said the Catholic Church has not
been giving that issue "the kind of response we think it deserves."
Philadelphian Eileen Sabel, who said her friends call
her "Spitfire," described nursing homes as "death camps."
The demonstrators began gathering in the lobby of the bishops'
national headquarters shortly before 1 p.m. Promptly at 1 p.m. they
began singing "Amazing Grace" followed by chants for MiCASSA,
for "change, not charity" and for "justice, not charity."
About 1:40 p.m. Msgr. David J. Malloy, USCCB general secretary, and
Nancy Wisdo, USCCB associate general secretary, came in to meet with
the group.
Accompanying them were Msgr. Francis J. Maniscalco, USCCB secretary
for communications, and Janice LaLonde Benton, executive director of
the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, whose offices are
next door to USCCB headquarters.
They listened as James and others described the concerns they wanted
addressed and what they described as a lack of responsiveness from
Catholic officials on the MiCASSA legislation, on which the USCCB
has not taken a position. A couple of speakers also complained about
the lack of handicap-accessibility in some Catholic churches.
Wisdo volunteered to set up a time to discuss the issues more fully,
saying she would also like to include the Catholic disability office
and the Catholic Health Association in the discussion.
Benton, who has been with the Catholic disability agency since it was
formed in 1982, said she would like to work with Adapt and assist it
in getting the voices of the disabled heard more widely.
Msgr. Maniscalco told CNS later the demonstrators he talked with
seemed to share a spirit of good will summarized by one woman who
told him, "This demonstration is kind of a compliment to you because
we think you can really make a difference on something like this."
"They really were looking for the church to assist them in a matter
that's extremely important to them," he said.
During the demonstration Anita Cameron of Washington told CNS she
grew up Catholic and got interested in social justice through the
church.
"The Catholic Church has a long, long history of social justice,"
she said, but she finds it "disheartening" that the church does not
pay more attention to the civil and human rights of those with
disabilities. "We're participating members of society, too."
Michelle McCandless of Philadelphia said she has used a wheelchair
since she was run over by a catering truck two years ago. When asked
if she was a Catholic, she said she grew up Catholic and "I wear a
Catholic cross, but I go to a Baptist church because they're
accessible."
Bob Kafka of Austin, Texas, a national organizer of Adapt, said
there has been a bias toward the institutionalization of the
disabled in Medicare and Medicaid since the programs were
established in 1965.
When the money gets short, states cut back first on the community-
based programs that would free people with disabilities to stay out
of nursing homes, he said.
"It's a civil rights issue," he added.
ADAPT.org
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