[bksvol-discuss] Deaf priest who lost sight but not vision

  • From: "Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2005 17:22:44 -0400

This is another one that I would like to read, if we could get it.


Belfast Telegraph, Northern Ireland
Friday, July 08, 2005

Deaf priest who lost sight but not vision

By Bob McCullough
featureseditor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

CAN you imagine what it's like to be both deaf and blind? The thought fills 
most of us with horror and, yet, over the past week I have been reading a 
book about a man who was born deaf and Jewish yet became a Catholic priest 
whose work spanned five continents even as his sight deteriorated.

Father Cyril Axelrod has now moved to England and will be a guest speaker at 
the British Deaf Association Congress in Brighton in a fortnight's time.

He has a happy, smiling face and says that his deaf-blindness has become a 
new way of life: "There are frustrations to overcome but many new joys to 
experience and many new challenges. In some ways, my deaf-blindness has 
become the best teacher in my life. I have lost my sight but not my vision."

Born in Johannesburg to a family of strict Jews, Cyril was three years old 
before his hearing loss was discovered and says that, as a small child, he 
was sensitive and nervous and, at school, often bullied or picked upon by 
other children.

What he did not know then was that there were other things already affecting 
him, such as clumsiness and sight that was less than perfect and it was 
another 30 years before these things became clear to him.

Dominican Sisters ran the only good school near his home and he quickly 
learned to read English and develop the ability to understand abstract 
ideas. Learning the grammar and idioms of a language that one has never 
heard was a big challenge, as it is for many born deaf people, but his 
dreams of becoming a rabbi were shattered when told that, according to the 
law of Moses, disabled people could not become rabbis.

The setback did not undermine Cyril's faith in Judaism and he continued to 
go to the synagogue, but he slowly came to see that God might have a 
different plan for his life and the seed was planted in his mind when he 
started reading the Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas.

He began to wonder on the differences between Judaism and Christianity and 
learned that, while it might be difficult for him to serve God by becoming a 
priest, it was not impossible.

At the age of 23, Cyril was baptised into the Catholic Church and, after 
many years of training, ordained with his mother's approval. He travelled to 
Paris for the Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf and began to feel 
that God was using him for something more than he had expected. He saw his 
mission as lifting up the hearts of deaf people and empowering them with the 
hope that they could serve the church themselves.

But Cyril was not prepared for what happened in 1980. While on a three-month 
preaching mission in the USA, he tripped and fell down a long flight of 
stairs. He had not seen the step properly and was confused by what looked 
like curtains on the window, although he knew there were none there.

He felt an immediate surge of anxiety and an appointment the next day with 
an ophthalmologist confirmed that he had retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a 
disease that would make him blind in five years.

Cyril says candidly that these were bleak years for him and, at times, he 
felt as if God had deserted him. He was unclear what God wanted of him but 
was resigned to His will. On arrival in the United Kingdom in 2000, Cyril 
could only distinguish between light and dark and became depressed, angry 
and filled with disbelief. "My work with deaf people in so many countries 
seemed taken away from me. It all seemed too much for me, but in fact it was 
the beginning of a new journey".

. And the Journey Begins by Cyril Axelrod (Douglas McLean, £12.95).

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=651650


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