One, holy, catholic, and accessible: if "here comes everybody" is truly to be our Catholic tagline, we must make every effort to make a place for every person.

IT ISN'T OFTEN THAT A CHANGE IN RECOMMENDED MEDICAL tests makes headlines, but a recent encouragement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that the embryos of pregnant women, regardless of a woman's age, be screened for Down's syndrome did. Newsweek columnist George Will, whose son Jon is among the 550,000 Americans with Down's, expressed the outrage of many parents and people with the syndrome (many of whom can read, after all), rightly identifying this kind of screening as a "search-and-destroy mission."

Indeed the suggestion that we should somehow eliminate a disability or genetic syndrome through some concerted societal effort calls to mind Alexander Graham Bell's effort to rid humanity of what he called its "defective deaf variety." Bell advocated outlawing residential schools for the deaf, forbidding instruction in sign language, and preventing deaf teachers from teaching deaf children. It took the courageous advocacy of Edward Miner Gallaudet and others to oppose such ideas, and today a rich deaf culture with its own language, literature, and art enriches those of us who can hear.

Catholicism would seem the natural ally of anyone opposed to the elimination of human variety based on how well someone functions in modern society, which is unarguably built around the needs and desires of the majority--who after all get to define what qualifies as "normal." In addition to a robust consistent ethic of life, Catholics have done much to honor and promote the full humanity of people who do not fit the "normal" physical or mental profile. Special Religious Development (SPRED), a catechetical program for those with developmental disabilities, and the L'Arche communities of the developmentally disabled and their assistants come to mind.

For all this work, however, there is much more we could do to become a more "catholic" sign of humanity's rich variety. For starters, we still have a theology that prevents the full sacramental participation of those with mental disabilities. As presented in the U.S. bishops' Guidelines for the Celebration of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilities, the requirement that a communicant possess sufficient "use of reason" to distinguish regular bread from consecrated elements still prevents some with Down's from Communion.

Guided by similar thinking, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix in 2006 forbade a boy with autism from receiving Communion because his father would consume the host after it touched his son's tongue. Like many children with autism, the boy was simply unable to swallow the host because of its texture; similar problems prevented him receiving from the cup.

But Olmsted was unable to accommodate this practice: "Just to touch it to one's tongue is not to 'take and eat.' ... So while your desire is for your son to receive Holy Communion, he is, in fact, only simulating doing so." I doubt that would be the response of the one substantially present in the sacrament.

But the barriers to full participation are not limited to a limiting sacramental theology. How many of our parishes are fully accessible to those who use wheelchairs or service animals? How many make possible the participation of the hard-of-hearing? Are liturgical and other ministries open to all who would seek to exercise them?

Imagine the parish in which a deaf person could proclaim the scriptures to an assembly of primarily hearing people--with vocal interpretation for the American Sign Language-impaired. Anyone looking from the outside in would have to admit: Here is a community that not only values the abstract humanity of every person but also one in which their actual bodies are anointed and cherished, their unique gifts welcomed and exercised.

AN ACQUAINTANCE WHO WORKS FOR A PUBLIC AGENCY that serves people with disabilities once said that it's not people who have disabilities but rather handicapped environments that prevent some from participation. I remember thinking that was one of the most "catholic" things I'd ever heard and a marvelous antidote to a cultural attitude that, despite noises about "diversity," often values it only insofar as it doesn't get in the way or cost too much.

We Catholics talk a great game when it comes to valuing every human life but can easily drift into the habit of building our church around what is "normal." We should celebrate the times our consistent ethic of life takes flesh in practice, but we have many barriers to remove if we are to become the truly "catholic" community we claim to be.

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Check out Bryan's blog at uscatholic.org.

By BRYAN CONES, associate editor of U.S. CATHOLIC.