Parish provides formation for students with special needs

By Melissa Williams Brown
Contributing Writer

MURRYSVILLE – Spearheading and teaching a faith formation program for special needs students at Mother of Sorrows Parish is a bright light for principal catechist Dr. Lisa Martinelli: She says it’s her students who are teaching her.

She recalls a 9-year-old special needs parishioner excitedly asking her, “How many sleeps until church?”

Martinelli started the classes almost 20 years ago when she wanted to take her then 3-year-old nephew, Jake Pollock, who is autistic, to church, and found there was no ministry available to accommodate him. Now there is a quiet place for Pollock and other special needs parishioners to learn about Jesus.

Pollock called the program “God’s school.” Now 22, he has a strong, growing Catholic faith and the thirst to pray to Jesus.

Martinelli said parents have been a blessing, forming a safe, supportive area for the special needs students who need a church that can accommodate them. Parents and caregivers wait nearby when the students meet on Sundays.

The group’s participants are middle- to high school students, each with different special needs. They are active in the parish, with some singing in the choir and others being altar servers.  

Martinelli is an attorney, bioethicist and author; an adjunct professor at Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, and in Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Information Systems, Public Policy and Management; a past adjunct professor of privacy law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law; and former chief privacy and data ethics officer at Highmark Health.

The Catholic Church is a major part of her life. She is Pennsylvania president of the Board of Councilors, Eastern Lieutenancy, of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, which supports the Catholic church’s work in the Holy Land.

Martinelli’s resume is impressive, but faith formation work is what is near and dear to her heart. She is passionate about the students and their achievements and is touched by how older students accompany and mentor younger parishioners.

She has seen 180 high school parishioners go through the ministry for reconciliation and 33 receive the sacraments of First Reconciliation and First Eucharist.

Martinelli said the students support each other.

“We are a community” she said.