On Friday, November 21, NCPD will be part of a panel on pastoral care for persons on the spectrum, following presentations on the causes, research and therapies for persons with the diagnosis. For NCPD and other lay leaders, pastoral care begins with the conviction that persons with disabilities, like everyone else, are created by God and born with gifts to share. Their “giftedness” enables them not only to receive the Gospel message, but to be witnesses or “agents” of that message. Going beyond inclusion, NCPD will explain that its foundational concept is belonging, referencing that, in baptism, Catholics participate in an essential belonging to the Body of Christ, equal in dignity to one another.