After 10-plus years of intentionally serving individuals with special needs, one Dawson County church is growing its ministry to help those attendees experience fellowship in a fun, safe way.
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Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church will hold its first Special Needs Mass this Sunday, May 7, starting at 9 a.m. in the church’s Life Teen Room.
These new services will be held on the first Sunday of each month at the Catholic church, which is located at 991 Kilough Church Road.
“This first Mass has been long anticipated and very much needed. It’s the next step for our Apostolate,” said parishioner Tony Mancini.
This new mass is the latest way for parishioners to serve locals of all disability levels, ages and denominations through the church’s Special Needs Apostolate.
Motivated in part by their son who has high-functioning autism, Tony Mancini and his wife, Anne worked with other congregants and area community members to start the group. So far, the SNA has been able to offer activities like fun nights and a booth at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame’s 2022 Labor Day Car Show.
Planning
The church’s Life Teen room already includes comfortable seating, like couches and bean bag chairs, and there’s more space to place extra chairs so that 15-20 attendees can be a part of the Special Needs Mass, Mancini said.
The room’s ample space allows supervising volunteers to better respond to any attendee needs or behaviors, he added.
A live feed of Mass will be projected onto a wall. Volunteers trained as Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist or EMEs will also help with communion.
Since it would be difficult to coordinate taking Special Needs Mass attendees to and from communion in the main sanctuary, the sacrament can be brought directly to them instead, Mancini said.
Per the church’s tradition, communion specifically will be offered to individuals and their families who are practicing Catholics.
He displayed a bevy of toys and calming tools gathered for attendees, such as a hugging device to help calm down children on the spectrum, sensory and floor rockers, a crash pad and colored seating and floor tiles.
“These are the types of things that’ll keep a child with a disability issue or issues comfortable and happy,” Mancini said.
He added that there’s “something for everybody” and pointed out that the devices are designed to be not noisy and close to the ground to prevent falls.
“This way the family can attend Mass,” Mancini said, looking around at the collection of toys. “If the child is busy, they’re less apt to be disruptive.”
Scheduled volunteers will help monitor attendees and make sure they stay in the Life Teen area.
Mancini explained how the church priest, Father Brian Higgins, shared in his eagerness for the apostolate’s mission.
“Father Higgins gave us donations for all this stuff from donations for his sister…who passed away (in 2021) from cerebral palsy. People donated money and gifts to her…so he gave all the money to our group to do stuff like this,” Mancini said, adding that the apostolate’s special needs-friendly toys and tools “aren’t cheap.”
“He’d love for us to become the hub in northern Georgia for activities towards special needs [families],” Mancini added of his priest.
Just like the other Special Needs Apostolate programming, people of all disability levels, ages and denominations are open to attend this particular Mass, which has been a longtime goal of the ministry to start, he said.
“With watching efforts develop over recent months,” Mancini said, “the cool part is that we’re finally getting here.”