[NFBMI-Talk] Trying To Help A New Prospective NFB Member Who Is Catholic

[drob1946 at gmail.com]

Dear Kane, 

   As Catholic and blind , my wife and I  have accessed a variety of material on our faith.  We will try to follow up with you on some specifics.  I wonder if she is in an area that will provide a catholic  radio station. I will check on it for her if we knew her location. Also, she may have access to EWTN the catholic television network.  If no catholic publications are on newsline, then we should see that it can get a couple of them.  

   Thanks for the assistance your giving her. 

Yours in the Federation, 
Dave Robinson

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBMI-Talk <nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Kane Brolin via NFBMI-Talk
Sent: Wednesday, March 9, 2022 12:26 PM
To: Ohio-communities-of-faith at nfbnet.org
Cc: Kane Brolin <kbrolin65 at gmail.com>; NFB of Indiana Mailing List <NFB-Indiana at googlegroups.com>; NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List <NFBMI-Talk at nfbnet.org>; NFB of Michiana Mailing List <nfbofmichiana at googlegroups.com>
Subject: [NFBMI-Talk] Trying To Help A New Prospective NFB Member Who Is Catholic

Greetings.  This is my first-ever message to the Ohio Communities Of Faith list, but I highly respect a lot of folks--Dr. Carolyn Peters and Dr. Evette Simmons-Reed, for example--who likely contribute to and watch this list.

I recently enjoyed a lengthy conversation with an 81-year-young lady who happens to be grandmother to my son's best friend.  While I am a dedicated Christian, I am not Roman Catholic; Mary is very Catholic.
While pitching NFB-NEWSLINE® as a source for information that she could draw from to get a wide variety of information now that she has effectively lost her eyesight for reading purposes, Mary pointed out that nearly all of what she used to read is Catholic in nature.  But a quick search of NEWSLINE®-enabled publications does not seem to identify anything in easily accessible format, such as the leading 20 most popular publications aimed at American Catholic consumers of the printed word. https://blog.feedspot.com/catholic_magazines/

I reside near the city of South Bend, Indiana, which in a de facto sense serves as home to The University of Notre Dame.  But Notre Dame does not seem to have an active outreach to the blind in particular; and Mary clearly self-identifies as a sympathizer of the Jesuits, whereas Notre Dame is not linked in any way, shape, or form to the Jesuit monastic order.

Mary spoke to me at length about being inspired by Father Robert Spitzer, a Jesuit priest and philosopher who used to be president of Gonzaga University.  Dr. Spitzer is about 70 years old today, and he has publicly spoken of his eyesight loss.  But from the blog dedicated to this topic, it certainly does not appear that Fr. Spitzer is touting alternative techniques to blindness; instead, there seems to be a lot of discussion about the medical nature of his eyesight loss, aimed at the hope that stem cell implantation will correct it.  So from my cursory reading of this, Fr. Spitzer does not help re my outreach on behalf of the Federation.
https://blog.magiscenter.com/blog/latest-news-on-fr-spitzers-vision

, Mary has acquired an iPhone but has little confidence yet in how to use this with VoiceOver.  She seems to have a very sharp mind, but has not yet embraced alternative techniques toward using technology nonvisually, and she does not read Braille.  Her eyesight has been compromised for decades by macular degeneration, but only now is she open to dealing with this rationally and self-identifying as blind without shame.  She would have much more incentive to up her game technologically if we could help her to embrace technology in a way that plugs her into relationships with blind Catholics who have a healthy perspective toward blindness, too.
But I do not really know where to direct Mary so she can find a spiritual home among serious Federationists who are also serious about remaining steadfast with social teaching and matters of faith and practice uniquely meaningful to the Catholic blind.

Thank you in advance for any help you might provide.

Kind regards,

Kane Brolin
President, Michiana Chapter
Treasurer, Indiana State Affiliate
National Federation of the Blind
(574)386-8868 (mobile)

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