New Ways Ministry is a ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian,

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, bisexual, and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

Catholics. The national organization is primarily based in the state of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. It was one of the earliest groups attempting to broaden the way Catholics have traditionally dealt with LGBT issues, and was established by Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father Robert Nugent. In 2021,

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

addressed two letters to New Ways Ministry, in which he commended the organization for its outreach to the

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

community and referred to one of its co-founders, Loretto Sr. Jeannine Gramick, as "a valiant woman" who had suffered much for her ministry. He also said he is aware that New Ways Ministry's "history has not been an easy one," but that loving one's neighbor is still the second commandment, tied "necessarily" to the first commandment to love God, while thanking them for "their neighborly work."Fraga, Brian. "Pope Francis thanks New Ways Ministry in recent correspondence", ''National Catholic Reporter'', December 8, 2021
/ref>

History

New Ways Ministry was founded in 1977 by Sr. Jeannine Gramick, a Catholic

religious sister A religious sister (abbreviated ''Sr.'' or Sist.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to pra ...

, and Fr. Robert Nugent, a Catholic priest. The ministry expanded their existing work of writing and speaking on homosexuality in the years following 1971, with the aim of creating acceptance for gay and lesbian Catholics within the Roman Catholic Church. It adopted its name from the pastoral letter of Bishop

Francis Mugavero Francis John Mugavero (June 8, 1914 – July 12, 1991) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Brooklyn from 1968 to 1990. Early life and ordination Francis John Mugavero (pronounced Ma-GUV-e-ro) was born on June 8, 1914 in the ...

of the Diocese of Brooklyn, "Sexuality: God's Gift". Written in 1976, the letter addressed gay and lesbian Catholics, as well as the widowed, adolescents, the divorced, and those having sexual relations outside of marriage, stating: " ...we pledge our willingness to help you ...to try to find new ways to communicate the truth of Christ because we believe it will make you free." These sentiments inspired the pastoral efforts by the co-founders to build bridges between differing constituencies in Catholicism. In 1975, Nugent left the Archdiocese and joined the staff of the Quixote Center in Maryland. In 1977, he joined the Salvatorians, that same year he founded New Ways Ministry with Gramick. "We knew it was risky," he told the St. Petersburg Times in 1999, "because Catholics weren't talking and writing about sexuality."Woo, Elaine. "Father Robert Nugent dies at 76; priest who supported gays, lesbians", ''The Los Angeles Times'', January 4, 2014
/ref> Nugent served as a consultant for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on its 1997 pastoral document on homosexuality, "Always Our Children."

Mission and work

New Ways Ministry advocates for acceptance of LGBT people among Catholics and among the general population. In the belief that homophobia and

transphobia Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger to ...

stem from a lack of understanding, New Ways Ministry focuses on educating families, churches, and communities through dialogue, publications and research, and educational programming. Publications have included responses to Vatican Instructions, "Homosexuality: A Positive Catholic Perspective" and "Marriage Equality: A Positive Catholic Approach," and symposia on the issue of homosexuality in the Catholic church have hosted speakers including Bishop

Thomas Gumbleton Thomas John Gumbleton (born January 26, 1930) is an American social activist and retired prelate of the Catholic Church. Gumbleton served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit from 1968 to 2006. According to Gumbleton, the Vatic ...

of the

Archdiocese of Detroit The Archdiocese of Detroit ( la, Archidiœcesis Detroitensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church covering the Michigan counties of Lapeer, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, and Wayne. It is ...

and Bishop

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of the Diocese of Rochester. They also organize Catholics nationally in support of marriage equality initiatives.

Partnerships

New Ways Ministry partners with Equally Blessed, a coalition of Catholics who support full LGBT equality, and the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics.

Criticism

In 1984 Cardinal James Hickey barred the organization from the Archdiocese of Washington because of its dissent from traditional Catholic teaching on the issue of homosexuality, which condemns sexual activity between people of the same gender."US bishops reaffirm: New Ways Ministry not a Catholic organization", ''Catholic World News'', March 17, 2011
/ref> The same year, the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

ordered co-founders Nugent and Gramick to resign from New Ways Ministry. Both continued publishing, speaking, and ministering around gay and lesbian issues within the Catholic Church until 1999. That year, the

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible ...

, then under the leadership of Cardinal

Joseph Ratzinger Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

, condemned the organization’s positions on homosexuality, and ordered co-founders Gramick and Nugent to cease pastoral ministry within the gay and lesbian community. Notification of the CDF, May 31, 1999
/ref> Fr. Nugent returned to parish-based ministry, but Sr. Gramick refused to comply. While he stepped back from public ministry, Nugent continued to counsel gay and lesbian Catholics privately, and advised theologians and scholars working on issues of homosexuality. He also wrote of

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( (); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and phil ...

and Thomas Merton. In 2010, Cardinal

Francis George Francis Eugene George (January 16, 1937 – April 17, 2015) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the eighth Archbishop of Chicago in Illinois (1997–2014) and previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Yakima and A ...

, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), stated New Ways did not present an authentic view of Catholic teaching. Instead he insisted that it "confuses the faithful about the Church’s efforts to defend traditional marriage and to minister to homosexual persons". In March 2011 the USCCB affirmed George's statement and reiterated "...that in no manner is the position proposed by New Ways Ministry in conformity with Catholic teaching and in no manner is this organization authorized to speak on behalf of the Catholic Church or to identify itself as a Catholic organization." In 2011, the

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (US ...

stated that "in no manner is the position proposed by New Ways Ministry in conformity with Catholic teaching and in no manner is this organization authorized to speak on behalf of the Catholic Church or to identify itself as a Catholic organization."

Nugent's death

Nugent retired in June 2013, and died of lung cancer at the age of 76 on January 1, 2014 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, location of the US Province of Salvatorians. Some of Nugent's papers are in the Special Collections of Marquette University.

Pope Francis

In 2015, a group of 50 LGBT activists and pilgrims were given first row seating at a wednesday papal audience in St. Peter’s Square, Rome.{{cite web , first = Philip , last = Pullella , url = https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-gays/gay-catholic-group-gets-vip-treatment-at-vatican-for-first-time-idUSKBN0LM18K20150218 , title = Gay Catholic group gets VIP treatment at Vatican for first time , date = February 18, 2015 , publisher =

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

In 2021,

addressed two letters to New Ways Ministry, in which he commended the organization for its outreach to the

References

External links

New Ways Ministry websiteNew Ways Ministry Records
*[http://www.usccb.org/news/2010/10-028.cfm "USCCB President Clarifies Status Of New Ways Ministry", Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Feb. 12, 2010]
"Statement on New Ways Ministry", Cardinal Edwin O'Brien, Archbishop of Baltimore, March 12, 2012
LGBT and Catholicism LGBT Christian organizations Catholic dissident organizations