Why people should learn BSL

Sr Marika Rebicsek OCV,

Source: Caritas Deaf Service

As Sign Language Week 2025 draws to a close, we're sharing a reflection by Sr Marika Rebicsek OCV, part of the Caritas Deaf Service community, about her experiences as a Deaf person in the Church and the importance of learning British Sign Language (BSL) to foster inclusive communities.

Every month, my Hearing Dog Angus and I embark on a journey of up to five hours round-trip, navigating several trains and buses with my electric wheelchair, to get to Westminster Cathedral for the Deaf Community Mass. Let me tell you why.

I was born profoundly Deaf, and was blessed to be among the lucky Deaf children who have wonderful parents to support them. My mother taught me to read, write, lipread and speak. But lipreading is extremely difficult, and even the best lipreader struggles; it's 25% what you see, and 75% guesswork. It's exhausting; one gives up after 10 minutes, and it makes it even more of a challenge is that the average parishioner isn't Deaf aware, and has no idea how to articulate to enable Deaf parishioners to understand.

I could opt for a hearing aid, but for the majority of severely or profoundly Deaf people, loop systems are useless. And in church, where parts of the Mass are sung or there is quiet music playing, the acoustics are anything but helpful to hearing aid and cochlear implant users.

Perhaps I could follow along with the readings on an app, like Universalis? It is possible; but if you can't lipread the priest or reader, you will still be lost. By the time I find my place, the Gospel has finished, and we're almost at the Consecration.

There are also speech-to-text transcribing apps, but they don't recognise religious terms very well. Indeed, mine once suggested that we were to have "cows by candlelight" before Christmas, and replaced "offered up" with "bottoms up" in the Eucharistic Prayer… I expect Our Lord had a good laugh!

Despite moments of comic relief, all this was deeply frustrating to me; I didn't feel part of the community. So, while in my teens, I decided that the only way forward was to learn BSL.

Eventually, I met other Catholics in the Deaf Community, and the first Signed Mass I attended in 1977 totally blew me away. Prayer was visual! Finally, for one Sunday a month at the Deaf Community Mass in Westminster, I felt I was wanted in church.

All my friends sign, because that is the only way I can communicate on par with a hearing person. Did you know that on average, a profoundly Deaf 16-year-old leaves school with a reading age of nine and three quarters? How, then, are they supposed to engage in something as wondrously complex as the life of the Church?

My local parish is just six minutes' walk away, and how I do wish there were someone there who can sign. I feel so excluded, whether it's at coffee mornings on Sundays where I can't lipread, trying and failing to use speech-to-text in the noisy church hall, or having to pass on Scripture study, TV nights, trips and quiz nights. My Hearing Dog reminds people they need to take extra care when speaking around me, but still, nobody can relay things to me. It feels like being trapped in a glass bubble looking on as the world goes by.

Two weeks ago, after Sunday Mass at my parish, there was a big party for a parishioner who was turning 90. Suddenly someone near me who I didn't recognise started signing… I nearly fell off my chair! She was fluent L2 signed, and part of a signing choir! Hope at last, I thought to myself. Maybe she can help me at Mass?

Alas, she lives two parishes away, and was only there for the party. So my search for someone who can sign, someone who can help me, continues.

The Caritas Deaf Service works to enable individuals who are Deaf, Deafblind and Hard of Hearing to participate fully in the life of the Church. It does this by running regular Signed Masses, Bible Study sessions, social events, trips and pilgrimages tailored to the needs of the Deaf Community.

LINKS

Deaf Community Mass: https://caritaswestminster.org.uk/deafservice/liturgies-and-events/

Caritas Deaf Service: https://caritaswestminster.org.uk/deafservice/

Support the Caritas Deaf Service here: https://caritaswestminster.org.uk/deafservice/donate/