EXETER — On Saturday, Sept. 28, St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic community in Exeter hosted the diocesan Special Religious Education (SPRED) picnic for students with special needs and their families.
Msgr. Gerard O. Sabourin, pastor of St. Kateri Tekakwitha and the priest who helped bring SPRED to the Diocese of Providence, celebrated Mass, which was followed by a cookout.
With a tear in her eye, Irma I. Rodríguez, director of the Apostolate of People with Disabilities, thanked everyone present, particularly Msgr. Sabourin, who has dedicated most of his nearly six-and-a-half-decade long priestly ministry to helping people with disabilities.
Rodríguez noted how the mission of SPRED emphasizes the sense of community that defines the inner life of the Church.
“We are blessed because we have each other,” Rodríguez said. “We saw today…[that] we deeply love each other. We really mean it when we say, ‘I love you, and I want to be with you.’”
Rodríguez went on to say how the sense of community present in SPRED highlights the inseparable link between love of God and love of neighbor.
“Some people ask us, ‘Why do we do it? Why do we honor our Church, our friends in such a way?’ … Because it’s all about God,” she said.
The SPRED program was first developed in the early 1960s by Father James McCarthy, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, as a way of ministering to children, teens and young adults with different learning abilities.
Msgr. Sabourin was introduced to the program while attending a conference on catechesis in 1972. Shortly after his ordination in 1960, he had worked with children who have intellectual challenges. Throughout the 1970s, he helped build up the SPRED program while working as a chaplain for the LADD School in Exeter.
The strong sense of community that defines the SPRED program was visible throughout the celebration.
“I can just say it’s beautiful. It’s the most special Mass I go to all year,” said Mary Xavier.
Although a parishioner at Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk, Mass., her family joined the SPRED program at St. Theresa’s Parish in Pawtucket due to their proximity to the Rhode Island-Massachusetts border.
Xavier’s step daughter Jenny has been involved with SPRED for more than a decade.
“The lesson [I’ve learned from the program] would be to treat everybody equally in God’s eyes and with lots of love and respect,” Xavier continued.
“I always love attending the picnic,” said Rachael, one of the students supported by the SPRED program. Rachael, a parishioner at St. Patrick Parish in Providence, heard of the program from her mother, and has been involved for about five years. She has served as an altar server at the SPRED picnic Mass for the past three years.
“I think it’s such a blessing,” said Rodríguez. “I’m so excited that God has given us so many gifts and that we are able to continue this work.”
She stated how touched she was by the sense of respect with which many members of the SPRED community receive the Blessed Sacrament, along with the sense of joy that it brings them.
“It brings tears to my eyes, just to see how reverent they are, and how loving they are.”
“It’s a community of faith. We gather together and we celebrate, and just hope and pray that more people can see, feel, experience how beautiful it is.”
To learn more about the SPRED program, contact Irma I. Rodríguez , 401-278-4578, irodriguez@dpvd.org.
