Fr. Arnold’s signed sermons speak volumes

Nearly all of the seminarians studying for the Diocese of Wichita learn Spanish because of the number of native Spanish speakers in the diocese.

Seminarian Seth Arnold felt a call to learn another language – American Sign Language – while studying at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago.

“There was a couple who came and gave a presentation to us and talked about their daughter who was deaf and how in much of the country there’s a shortage of priests to do this type of ministry,” Fr. Seth Arnold said.

Felt called to learn ASL

The parochial vicar at Church of the Magdalen in Wichita said after hearing the couple explain the plight of people with deafness, he felt called to learn ASL.

After speaking to his cousin, Fr. Chad Arnold, the director of Vocations, and a priest who is fluent in ASL, Fr. Ken Van Haverbeke, the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Andover, he was told “go for it!”

After a year of study and, more recently, intense coaching with Mark Benson, a sign language interpreter for Wichita’s USD 259, Fr. Seth celebrated his first signed Mass Sunday, April 30, at the Spiritual Life Center in Wichita.

An enriching experience

“It’s been a very enriching experience. I’ve almost found it – I’m not sure if easier is the right word – than learning a verbal language. But it is interesting to learn sign language because some of it is intuitive, like our body expressing itself. So, for some of the signs it’s like, oh, that makes sense.”

Fr. Seth hasn’t had much of a chance to use sign language outside of a Mass setting but opportunities are opening up, he said.
“I was in a grocery store and noticed a person signing to another – things like that,” he said. “It’s opened my eyes…the opportunity is there. I hope as I grow in my fluidity, if you will, that I will be able to not just minister to those in the Catholic Church, but to people in our community as well.”

The Sacrament of Confession is another area he will be able to minister to those who are deaf.
After “hearing” the confession of a person attending the April 30 Mass at the Spiritual Life Center, he said he sensed the penitent felt more comfortable than writing his sins and giving them to the priest.