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| Mrs. Michele Haytko |
At St. Maria Goretti Parish, we welcome all children into our religious education program. Our Adaptive PREP classroom is a place of love for the uniqueness of God's people. No matter your difference or struggle, your child has a home with us. The Adaptive PREP program began at SMG in the fall of 2016 after a year of preparatory work by then-Director of Religious Education, Meg Szewczak, PREP Administrative Assistant, Joann Prahler, and Adaptive PREP Catechist, Michele Haytko, with guidance and prayerful encouragement by then-Pastor, Fr. Brownhotz. For ten years, we have welcomed over thirty children through our program, now working with our current Coordinator of Religious Education, Robin McLaughlin. Our focus is on sharing God's love with our treasured families, celebrating the diversity of each of God's children, and embracing those with adaptive needs into the fullness of the Church through the sacraments and religious education. If you are the parent of a child who would benefit from a hands-on experience of Jesus, regardless of physical or neurological difference, please reach out. We would love to welcome you into our PREP family!
1601 Derstine Road
Hatfield, PA 19440
215-721-0199
Parish Website: www.stmariagoretti.net
PREP Website: www.stmariagoretti.net/prep
Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez
Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter & Paul
222 N 17th St, Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 587-3500
https://www.archphila.org
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Saints for Those with Special Needs
St. Joseph of Cupertino
Feast Day: September 18
Patron: of Aviators, Flying, Studying, and those suffering mental handicaps
St. Joseph of Cupertino is the patron saint of people with developmental disabilities, including autism, often invoked for those facing learning difficulties or anxiety. Known for being slow to learn and absentminded, his intercession is sought for patience, understanding, and divine assistance in education and daily life challenges.
St. Thorlak
Feast Day: December 23rd
Patron: of Iceland, people with autism and Autism Spectrum Disorder, and fisherman
Saint Thorlak (Thorhallsson) is recognized as a patron saint for people with autism and those with autism spectrum disorders. As a 12th-century Icelandic bishop known for his quiet strength, compassion, and holiness, he is venerated by many as a heavenly intercessor for the autistic community.
St. Margaret of Castello
Feast Day: April 13th
Patron of: the disabled and blind
Margaret of Castello was an Italian Catholic educator and a Dominican tertiary. Margaret was both blind and had other physical disabilities and became known for her deep faith and holiness. Her parents abandoned her in a local church due to her disabilities, and the town's poor took her in and assumed care for her. Nuns later offered her a home at their convent but soon came to detest her presence and cast her out, prompting the town's poor to once again take her in and care for her. She later met with Dominican friars and was accepted as a Dominican tertiary. She started a school for children to teach them in the faith and often took care of children while their parents were out at work. Margaret's holiness was apparent to all in her life, so people lobbied for her to be buried in the local church, which was an honor reserved for a select few. Her beatification received approval from Pope Paul V on 19 October 1609. Pope Francis later declared her a saint through equipollent canonization on 24 April 2021.
St. Dymphna
Feast Day: May 15th
Patron of: those suffering with nervous and mental afflictions
Dymphna was born in Ireland sometime in the seventh century to a pagan father and devout Christian mother. When she was fourteen, she consecrated herself to Christ and took a vow of chastity. Soon afterward, her mother died and her father - who had loved his wife deeply - began to suffer a rapid deterioration of his mental stability. Her father decided to marry Dymphna instead, and she fled with her confessor to Gael. In defense of her purity, Dymphna received the crown of martyrdom around the year 620 and became known as the "Lily of Éire". The United States National Shrine of Saint Dymphna is at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Massillon, Ohio and St. Dymphna's Special School can be found in Ballina, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland.
St. Lucy
Feast Day: December 13
Patron of: the blind
Lucia of Syracuse, better known as Saint Lucy, was a Roman Christian martyr who died during the Diocletianic Persecution. She is one of eight women (including the Virgin Mary) explicitly commemorated by Catholics in the Canon of the Mass. Lucy was nobility-born to a Greek mother and Roman father, who died when she was five years old. Lucy consecrated her virginity to God and hoped to distribute her dowry to the poor. However, not knowing of Lucy's promise and suffering from a bleeding disorder, her mother arranged Lucy's marriage to a young man of a wealthy pagan family. After St. Agatha appeared to Lucy in a dream, her mother was healed, and they distributed her dowry. When her betrothed heard of this, he denounced her as a Christian. When she refused to burn a sacrifice to the emperor, the governor ordered her to a brothel. However, guards could not move her and, when they tried to burn her, she would not light. St. Lucia was martyred by the sword and eye-gouging. When her body was prepared for burial, her family saw that her eyes had been restored, leading to her veneration of patron of the blind. She is invoked for prayer for illnesses of the eyes and throat.
St. Drago
Feast Day: April 16
Patron of: the mute, the deaf, and the mentally ill
Saint Drogo was born into a noble family, however his father died before he was born and his mother died in childbirth, leaving the newborn an orphan to be raised by relatives. At twenty years old, he gave his money and goods to the poor, renouncing his estates to live a life of poverty and penance. For six years Drogo kept sheep, busying himself with practices of prayer and penance. He was a skilled shepherd who could read the weather and knew how to cure the animals of their ills. He shared these skills with others. To avoid the danger of praise and admiration, he left his place and went on pilgrimages. At length, a hernia stopped his pilgrimages, so he built himself a small cell against the wall of the church. The cell had a window to the outside for limited contact to receive food and water from those seeking his prayers and counsel. A second window opened into the church so he could follow the liturgies and receive Communion. Here he lived as an anchorite for 45 years until he died in 1186, at the age of eighty-one.
Feast Day: January 24
Patron of: the deaf
Born prematurely to noble parents, Francis attended the best schools and eventually obtained a doctorate in law and theology. Despite his parents refusal, he remained committed to becoming a priest, and was ordained. He pursued advancement and, during his years as bishop, de Sales acquired a reputation as a spellbinding preacher and something of an ascetic. His motto was, "He who preaches with love, preaches effectively." His goodness, patience and mildness became proverbial. He wrote many books and counseled charity over penance as a means of progressing in the spiritual life. De Sales developed a sign language to teach a deaf man about God, which made him a patron saint of the deaf, in addition to being a patron of writers and educators.
Blessed Hermann of Reichenau
Feast Day: September 25
Patron of: the physically disabled
Blessed Hermann of Reichenau was an 11th-century Benedictine monk and scholar who composed many works on history, mathe, astronomy, and music. He traditionally is credited with the composition of "Salve Regina", "Veni Sancte Spiritus", and "Alma Redemptoris Mater". Born the son of the Count of Altshausen, he was born with a cleft palate, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida. Based on later evidence, he possibly had either amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or spinal muscular atrophy. As a result, he had great difficulty moving and could hardly speak. At seven, he was placed in a Benedictine monastery by his parents who could no longer look after him. He learned from the monks and developed a keen interest in theology. At twenty, Hermann entered their order as a Benedictine monk, becoming literate in several languages, including Arabic, Greek and Latin. He was a renowned religious poet and musical composer and went blind later in life before dying at age 41.
Feast Day: June 15
Patron of: the disabled and abandoned
Born with a deformed hand and scrofula, St. Germaine lost her mother to death. Her father soon married again, but his new wife persuaded the father to keep Germaine due to her disability. From near infancy, she was abandoned in the fields as a shepherdess. When she returned at night, her bed was in the stable or on a litter of vine branches in a garret. In this hard school Germaine learned early to practice humility and patience, and found a great devotion to God, transforming her lonely life into love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and for the Virgin Mary. She assisted daily at the Holy Sacrifice; when the bell rang, she fixed her sheep-hook or distaff in the ground, and left her flocks to the care of Providence while she heard Mass. Although the pasture was on the border of a forest infested with wolves, no harm ever came to her flocks. She frequented the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and it was observed that her piety increased on the approach of every feast of the Virgin Mary. The villagers are said to have inclined at first to treat her piety with mild derision, until certain signs of God's signal favor made her an object of reverence and awe. Notwithstanding her poverty, she found means to help the poor by sharing with them her allowance of bread. She died in her sleep at the age of 22. She is known as a patroness for those with disabilities and those abandoned.
St. Angela Merici
Feast Day: January 27
Patron of: the sick, those with disabilities, and orphans
Born in 1474, St. Angela Merici and her sister were orphaned in childhood. When her sister died without receiving the last rites, Angela pryed and received a vision, which inspired her to join the Third Order of St. Francis. She received a vision in her 20s that led her to fund a school devoted to the religious training of girls. She became blind on a pilgrimage but was cured upon her return. Invited to stay in Rome by Pope Clement VII, she returned to her school in Brescia and, in 1535, founded the Company of St. Ursula, a school for girls, with the goal to elevate family life through the Christian education of future wives and mothers. This was the first teaching order of women religious. When she died in 1540, there were 24 communities of the Company of St. Ursula and the Ursulines are still active throughout the world today.