Vatican City, Apr 2, 2018 / 08:52 am
Cardinal Peter Turkson issued a message for World Autism Awareness Day urging faith communities to have meaningful encounters with those who have autism and with their families, in opposition to a culture of exclusion.
Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Turkson said it is important that governments, institutions, and the entire community "work to respond adequately to the needs of people with autism spectrum disorders."
"In this way, the culture of encounter and solidarity will be fostered in spite of that of exclusion and of waste, which instead relegates them to the margins of society," he wrote April 2.
The people affected by autism spectrum disorders are confronted by difficulties every day, he explained, both the challenges resulting from their condition, and those placed before them by society, "depriving them of being able to live to the fullest of their possibilities."