Article by Fr David Neuhaus SJ | 8 December 2025
I want to share a wonderful experience. I listened to Darlene Creamer interview Mark James OP, Dominican priest, deeply involved in the ministry to the deaf community in South Africa. In the illuminating interview on his new book “Proud to be Deaf: Saintliness in the Catholic Deaf community in South Africa from 1874-1994” (Johannesburg, UJ Press, 2025), he lays out a vision of the place of the deaf in our community. Starting from Aristotle’s position that the deaf were not fully human, Father James traces the developments that bring the hearing majority to respect the deaf minority. He draws on the philosophy of Emmanual Levinas to underline a perspective on “otherness” that opens up a horizon for the liberation of deaf people from the historical tendency to make them conform to the dominant regime of the hearing community. Within the discussion, Father James dwells on the imposition of oral language on the deaf, educating them to read lips and vocalize words they could not hear. Sign language was often seen as negative. In the third part of his book, Father James gives examples of those in the deaf community who acted as leaven to show a way to liberate the deaf from structures of conquest that “were trying to remodel deaf people into hearing people”.
Watch the interview with Father Mark James OP here
Purchase a copy of the book here