By Caroline Smith
When Jocelyn Versace stepped down recently from her role as Senior Regional Coordinator with Personal Advocacy Service (PAS), she left a legacy of dedication and inspiration over more than two decades of service.
Ms Versace retired from PAS on 3 July after 22 years with the Morley-based Archdiocesan agency, which facilitates faith development of people with intellectual disabilities and volunteers within local parishes and the wider community.
Reflecting on her time there, she said it had been a personal journey of faith which also involved her in the journey of people with disabilities and their role in the Church.
Ms Versace’s work began in 1994 when she joined the agency as a volunteer, shortly after completing the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.
“After a few months (of volunteering), Sister Eileen Casey RSM (the founder of PAS) approached me and invited me to consider employment there,” she said.
“I was a new Catholic and was intrigued by this very different program I was experiencing.
“I was very comfortable working with people who are different to me and so was never challenged by that aspect – being a new Catholic provided me with enough challenges. On reflection, it has been a wonderful entry and immersion into the Catholic faith I have grown to love.”
She added that working with people who have different disabilities often inspired her to think about the nature of faith itself.
“What does faith mean to a person who is vision impaired, cannot hear and has a severe intellectual disability?” Ms Versace said.
“I have wondered about it, and then I have seen it – it is all about trust.
“I, too, have learnt to see faith from a different perspective. It is a rich perspective, one that allows everyone to feel and experience moments of profound truths.”
After more than 20 years with PAS, Ms Versace said she had seen some changes within the disability sector; in particular, its connection to the Church, and these had provided ample challenges for her to grow within her role.
“Looking back to the time I started in 1994, the agency has evolved and has to remain contemporary and up to date in the very fluid, ever-changing disability sector, and this means being informed,” she said.
“The core or essence of what we do and how we do it has not changed. That is: appropriately proclaiming the Good News to our friends with intellectual disability so they know that they are dearly loved by God.”
She added that some great initiatives had been developed, such as the Special Religious Development program – which was brought to Australia by Sr Casey after she had trained in the United States – and which paved the way for people with intellectual disabilities to receive the Sacraments and experience inclusive liturgies.
Looking ahead, she said people working in areas of disability and faith still had a challenge ahead of them, to ensure that people they supported would remain connected within the community.
“When voiceless people have no personal connection to their faith, someone who can lobby for them or help them to remain included and present in parish life by deed and witness, then our friends with intellectual disability will disappear back into the shadows in the places they live,” Ms Versace said.
“Unless this advocacy remains constant, active and ongoing, our parish communities will return to the place of not knowing who is out there in the shadows, not knowing of the pain and anxieties many families experience and community will be poorer for it too.”