Today, I am featured in a Catholic News Agency piece spotlighting Autistic Catholics as a new organization helping Catholics on the spectrum.
Here is some of what I said:
The new president of Autistic Catholics, Father Matthew Schneider, an openly autistic priest, told CNA the project is a response to Pope Francis’ call to go to the peripheries, “as autistic people are often on the periphery in our society.” […]
Schneider noted that people with autism are disproportionately more likely to be atheists.
“If we don’t fill that niche to help autistics live a full Catholic life, non-Catholic and non-Christian groups will do that and lead autistics away from Christ and his Church,” Schneider said. “We already know we autistics are about almost twice as likely (1.84 times) to never attend church and significantly more likely to be atheists and agnostics or to make their own religious system.”
Schneider compared this to Catholic inculturation: evangelization “where you adapt how you explain the Gospel to reach people while maintaining the whole Gospel.”
Read the rest of what I said, and what Allen Obie John Smith and Kaitey Sheldon had to see in the whole piece on Catholic News Agency. I recommend it.
