When A.O. John Smith received an autism diagnosis in August 2023, he started to crave community with other autistic Catholics. But he couldn’t easily find it in his area of rural Colorado.
So he started it. Smith is the founder and executive director of Autistic Catholics, a community of autistic Catholic people seeking to share their lives in friendship and looking for new ways to support and share resources with each other as either discerning, identifying, or diagnosed adults with autism.
“The impetus for starting Autistic Catholics really comes from not having folks with whom I can fully be my autistic self and talk about what I love most, which is our Catholic Faith,” Smith said in an interview with Aleteia.
Loneliness led to connection
Smith’s own desire for community came together with his professional background in nonprofit management and leadership. It was a natural fit for him to form a nonprofit and begin to organize the community nationwide.
What inspired him to start the group was “the loneliness that comes from not knowing people like myself who are both autistic and Catholic.” He said:
I hope that by starting Autistic Catholics, the wider network of autistics in the Catholic Church can find and meet one another, share life, and form friendships, while growing in the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. This is our mission, and we hope to be a light in the Church, a sign of Christ's Transfiguration, living in joy while sharing our common laments.
Rapid growth
There isn't another national organization or community specifically for autistic Catholics, so the group has met with a positive response and rapid growth. Smith’s work was featured in Word on Fire and Catholic News Agency.
“Already over a hundred folks have formed this fellowship in the last few months,” Smith said. “We imagine connecting with hundreds more in order to serve the variety of support needs of the group, to encourage belonging, and to empower witness.”
The loneliness that Smith experienced is not uncommon for autistic Catholics. This new community meets that real need for acceptance and belonging.
“Many of us have had adverse experiences with folks inside and outside the Church where we've felt marginalized and excluded because of our personalities and behavior,” Smith said. “There are so many of us who love the Church but have experienced loneliness because of our differences and hope to find a place for ourselves despite our differences.”
It seems that place to belong is here, thanks to his work founding Autistic Catholics.
