Ryan Rohrich
After becoming blind, this LA Catholic gained a new kind of vision
“Everyone was paying more attention. They were looking at him like he was achieving something great and he is. We all have these abilities, we can see, but we hesitate to do something like Ryan did.”
-Father Nitesh Gomez
When a lector finishes the reading in Mass, parishioners don’t typically clap or cry. Then again, Ryan Rohrich isn’t your typical lector.
Because while the 29-year-old may be sharing Scripture, he can’t actually see it. He’s blind.
“I’m grateful to be proclaiming the word of God,” said Rohrich, a parishioner of St. John of God Church in Norwalk. “In those moments I feel his presence with me.
“I am more than my disability.”
Rohrich wasn’t born blind but lost his sight due to a cancerous brain tumor a decade ago. But that hasn’t dampened his desire to serve his parish and beyond. Every day, he dons his dark sunglasses, grabs his cane, and goes where “God leads.”