Wilting Flowers and Flourishing Souls

Inclusion in Action Conference Session
2025

Session Description

Each year when school begins many families find themselves divided. Some children are welcomed at their parish school where their minds, bodies, and spirits are nourished by a balanced program of intellectual and faith formation. Other children in the family are not welcome because of their cognitive impairments and an unwillingness to accommodate them. This keynote presents the imperative of welcoming all students into our Catholic schools. It will do so from a perspective of Catholic social teaching which calls for justice and the integral human development of all persons so that all flourish together and fulfill their place in the Body of Christ. An emphasis will be placed on articulating this imperative to others.

Objectives

Those who attend this session will be able to:

  1. Identify challenges to the categories of human dignity expressed in Dignitas Infinita, ontological, moral, social, and existential, to persons with disabilities and correlate them to the responsibility of the Church in removing impediments to the full realization of human dignity
  2. Define integral human development and identify those factors necessary for the full development of all human persons.
  3. Articulate the spiritual and material consequences of failing to provide for the integral human development of all persons, especially those living with cognitive impairments.
Mark Bradford

Presented by:

Mark Bradford