Rome, Italy, Nov 2, 2011 / 11:55 am
Ignacio Segura Madico, the vice president of the Spanish Association of Blind Catholics, is leading a signature drive to declare Blessed Manuel Lazon Garrido as the patron of the organization.
Blessed Manuel was a journalist and writer who spent 25 years in a wheelchair. He was blind the last nine years of his life and was a tireless champion of joy for young people.
Segura told CNA that “(b)elief in God does not depend on physical, but rather spiritual sight.” Therefore “belief in God by someone who cannot see well or is blind is not anything special compared to other people without disabilities. Belief in God is a virtue that makes the one who has it and practices it a better person.”
The organization for the blind was canonically established on Nov. 28, 2008.
It was founded in 1990 in the Diocese of Zaragoza by a group of Christians including the association's current president, Luis Garcia Martinez de Aguirre.
Members of the association include the blind and those devoted to helping them.