{"id":5248,"date":"2009-12-15T10:17:08","date_gmt":"2009-12-15T15:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=5248"},"modified":"2013-05-10T15:20:33","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T19:20:33","slug":"father-richard-curry-s-j-the-perfection-of-eloquence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/12\/15\/father-richard-curry-s-j-the-perfection-of-eloquence\/5248\/","title":{"rendered":"Father Richard Curry, S.J.: The Perfection of Eloquence"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Christa Coronado<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father Richard J. Curry, S.J., is no stranger to the world of acting. The 66-year-old Jesuit, who was born without a right forearm, earned a PhD in theater from New York University, and he\u2019s even played a psychiatrist on the television detective series \u201cMonk.\u201d But he is perhaps best known as the founder and artistic director of the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped<\/a>, a 32-year-old nonprofit theater arts training institution for persons with physical disabilities, currently based in New York City and Belfast, Maine.<\/p>\n

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\"post02_soukup\"<\/p>\n

Photo by Michael Soukup<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Six years ago, Curry reached out to disabled combat veterans, especially amputees, and began the Writers\u2019 Program for Wounded Warriors, holding workshops for soldiers to tell their stories in dramatic monologues and in the process to begin to heal the psychological, emotional, and spiritual wounds of war.<\/p>\n

\u201cA dramatic monologue is not just journalism,\u201d says Curry, \u201cnot just retelling their story. In fact, it is telling their story for a very specific purpose, a very specific response that they want from the particular audience.\u201d It is an act of the imagination, he explains, and feeling the audience\u2019s response, says Curry, can be a source of great healing. \u201cIt opens up a validation that probably would not have been there before,\u201d he explains. The wounded warrior realizes that he is \u201cpart of a larger universe of love,\u201d says Curry, \u201cand once you get the wounded warrior in touch with that, then you can see that the healing can begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of his own physical disability Curry says he had to seek special permission from Rome this year before he could be ordained a priest after more than 40 years as a Jesuit brother (he joined the Jesuits in 1961 at the age of 19). When veterans \u201cstarted coming to me and asking me to be, in fact, responsive to them as a priest, it profoundly affected me,\u201d he recalls. He realized, he says, that \u201cthey\u2019re asking for a disabled priest.\u201d This fall, as a new chaplain-in-residence at Georgetown University, Curry launched an Academy for Veterans to minister \u201cin a sacramental way\u201d to those who have lost limbs and are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

Curry hopes to work with disabled veterans from military bases and hospitals in the greater Washington area and to expand his writers\u2019 program. He is incorporating the Georgetown University community into his plans and has set up both a mentoring program with Georgetown undergraduates and a program for law and business students to help disabled veterans with legal and financial matters.<\/p>\n

His mission, says Curry, is to let wounded veterans know there is life and joy after disability, and he acknowledges that he brings to his work the particular values of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuit order in 1534. \u201cEloquentia perfecta<\/em>, the perfection of eloquence, is the end result of Jesuit education,\u201d Curry says. \u201cThe student can stand on his or her own two feet and defend what he or she believes. This is what I wanted to do for the disabled, who have been ignored for so long. People never asked them what they thought or how they felt, so once you have empowered a disabled person artistically, you have in fact empowered a disabled person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christa Coronado, a junior at Georgetown University, was an intern at Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Once you have empowered a disabled person artistically, you have in fact empowered a disabled person,\u201d says this Georgetown University chaplain who ministers to wounded combat veterans and amputees through the theatre. 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