BRAINTREE -- When Carla DiRuzza's son Christopher was diagnosed with Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome at the age of 12, she cried. Due to the rare disorder, which causes intellectual disability, she thought that her non-verbal son could never receive his first Holy Communion or be confirmed into the Catholic Church. Now 24, Christopher has received both sacraments.

Carla, a parishioner at St. Joseph-St. Lazarus in East Boston, once went to a priest to apologize for the involuntary noises her son made during Mass.

"He was praising the Lord," the priest told her.

"We've never not been welcomed by a priest," Carla DiRuzza said on April 28.

DiRuzza and her son attended a special Jubilee Year Mass with Persons with Disabilities and the Deaf on April 27, celebrated by Bishop Cristiano Barbosa at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. Archbishop Richard Henning was supposed to celebrate the Mass, part of a global Jubilee of People with Disabilities for the Jubilee Year of 2025, but had to go to Rome to attend Pope Francis's funeral.

"There's a difference between being welcomed and actually feeling like you belong," Carla DiRuzza said. "I cried throughout the Mass, I couldn't really keep it together because it was so beautiful. And I was grateful that we were part of it."

The Mass featured worship aids in large print and Braille, American Sign Language interpreters, and a sensory-friendly space. The music was played at a lower volume than usual and there was no incense in order to accommodate people with sensory issues. Christopher DiRuzza loves the organ, so he and his mother sat next to it. Carla DiRuzza also learned how to say "Alleluia" in sign language. She said that going to Catholic school as a kid, she was always taught that God loves everybody.

"Yesterday, you felt it, and you believed it," she said.

Deacon Tommy Heyne, of the ordination Class of 2024, served during the Mass and proclaimed the Gospel. One of his classmates, Rick Johnston, died suddenly while still in formation. Johnston would have been the first deaf permanent deacon in the Archdiocese of Boston.

"This certainly would have been his Mass to celebrate as our first deaf deacon for the archdiocese," Deacon Heyne said on April 28. "In his honor and in his memory, I volunteered to assist."

Deacon Heyne learned some Sign Language so he would be able to sign for the deaf community during Mass.

As a physician, which he called his "other vocation," Deacon Heyne works regularly with people with disabilities.

"I was really grateful that the archdiocese was doing this and I wanted to support however I could," he said.

Bishop Barbosa said in his homily that the church, and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, belonged to everyone in the assembly. He said that the church as an institution could do more to be welcoming and accessible to those with disabilities, because it is their home, too.

Looking out at everyone in the assembly, Deacon Heyne said he thought, "This is the church. This is who Christ came to bring to his flock."

He saw the Mass as a way for the archdiocese to reach out to "people in the peripheries." For him, that's what the church is all about.

"Even though it didn't have all the smells and bells per se, perhaps it was even more beautiful and more poignant," he said.