Fr.Tom Schweitzer
In Residence

Father Tom is the pastor of Holy Angels Church in Vernon, CA. Holy Angeles has a special ministry to the deaf, but does not have a rectory, so Fr.Tom lives at Incarnation and helps out with our daily liturgies. More about Holy Angeles

A parish of one's own in deaf community.
National Catholic Reporter | January 19, 2001 | JONES, ARTHUR | Copyright
Priest, parishioners thrive at Holy Angels Church of the Deaf

Fr. Tom Schweitzer, baseball cap on head, a statue of an angel in the shrubbery behind him, tipped back slightly in the plastic chair. The chair was one of two dozen around little white tables on the canopy-shielded courtyard, an outdoor are behind the church that accommodates the overflow crowds from breakfast, lunch and religious education classes.
"You know what deaf Catholics most want in their own Catholic church?" Schweitzer asked rhetorically. "The keys. In every other parish, deaf people always have to ask for the keys when they want to use the rooms." Not at Holy Angels, he said. Lots of people have keys. Schweitzer understands. Born hearing, he was 10 when his hearing began to deteriorate. By the time he was in high school he was seriously hard-of-hearing; in seminary he was deaf. "The difference between hard-of-hearing and deaf," he said, "is that once you can no longer use the telephone, you're deaf." He stopped using the phone in 1982.
Now 45, the Los Angeles-born priest was deaf for 18 years. Then, four months ago, he had a cochlear implant, a minute electronic device that has given him some of his hearing back. Not complaining but explaining, he said, "It sounds like you're listening to people on a cheap, 1960s plastic transistor radio: ra-ra-ra. "I'm just now beginning to - more