ASSOCIATION OF THE COMMUNITY POPE JOHN XXIII

FATHER AGUSTÍN YANES VALER

Agustin Yanes Valer was born in Havana, Cuba, on 26 February 1929. He is the son of Spanish parents who returned to Tenerife (Canary Islands) when the child was seven months old. Five years of age he became deaf because of an infection. At the age of seven he went to the village school and the teacher in awareness of his deafness let him sit at his table so he could understand. A lot of effort for him, but he wanted to learn and spent hours reading books that were paid by the teacher. He finished his schooling and went to work for an uncle, attending tutorials in the afternoons and therefore was able to complete his BA.

In his family there were several priests and when Augustine was eleven, knowing that that was the age of the first admission to the diocesan seminary, he also wanted to enter. He and his mother went to speak with the pastor but the village priest, a good priest who always welcomed him warmly and supported him said it was not possible due to his deafness. When children were fourteen years old a mission took place in the villages of Tenerife. Again Augustin wanted to become priest but the Jesuits who denied his request due to the impossibility not to hear. From that point on he contacted
Franciscans, Jesuits, Piarists but all the doors where closed on him.

He read a book that he bought from the missionaries entitled: "The drama of Jesus" and he was so impressed that he read again and again, but he changed the cover because his brothers annoyed him about always reading the same book .
At the age of 27 he traveled to Madrid with the intention of getting an ear surgery to be able to enter the seminary, but the operation was a failure. However there was the possibility of visiting a school for deaf children of a Deaf Catholic Action. He offered to help these children. Because of this decision and seeing the orphanage for the deaf the idea of the priesthood came up again. He joined the Faculty of Fine Arts, where he spent six years and graduated. He befriended with a group of fellow students, among whom were Kiko Arguello, the future founder of the Neocatechumenal, María Dolores Travesedo, Catholic Youth leader, Angel Fanlo, a member of Opus Dei, and a young priest Escolapio, and with these colleagues felt supported and encouraged to persevere the idea of the priesthood.

After graduating from Fine Arts, Augustine, as a member of the Catholic Action of the Deaf went to Valladolid and met the archbishop D. Jose Garcia Goldáraz, who was interested in his problem and needed priests and so offered to lead his request to the Vatican. He got the necessary dispenses and ever since Vatican II ended deafness was not a problem to priesthood anymore.

He became priest on April 30, 1967 in the Cathedral of Valladolid and celebrated his first Mass at the Church of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid for a crowd of deaf people arriving from all over Spain, Portugal and Latin America. He became professor for Special Education and worked at the school "La Purisima" in Madrid.

He has visited Latin American thirty-three times and many countries of Europe because of his pastoral work with deaf people. In recognition of his role in the world of the deaf, the University of the Deaf "Gallaudet" in Washington awarded him an honorary doctorate in letters and humanities.
He co-founded the Home for the Elderly deaf "Santa Maria del Silencio, in Cubas de la Sagra, Madrid, the BLADES, (Association of Parents and Friends of the Deaf) of PROAS, (Foundation for promotion and assistance to the deaf) and a magazine «Evangelizar» the Pastoral Care of deaf and has published several books on catechesis and special education. He is currently Director of Emeritus of Pastoral del Sordo, the Spanish Episcopal Conference and lives in Tenerife, where he is responsible for the pastoral care of deaf people as diocesan delegate.