NEW WAYS MINISTRY was formed by the dedicated work of Father Robert Nugent, SDS, and Sister Jeannine Gramick, SSND. It is explained on the New Ways Ministry’s website
http://www.newwaysministry.org/History.html that “…Like its name and its co-founders, the vision and philosophy of this group was solidly Catholic…Their work as "bridge-builders" found them reaching out, in one direction, to gay and lesbian people, and, in the other direction, to people working within the Church and Church structures .
.. Primarily educational in mission, New Ways Ministry quickly established itself in the U.S. Catholic community as a national resource center and clearinghouse for information and materials on the topic of homosexuality as it impacts religious issues …
… Through national symposia, New Ways Ministry has brought the best of Catholic intellectual thought and research to Catholics in parishes. Speakers at our major events have included: John Boswell, Daniel Maguire, Sister Theresa Kane, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Reverend Charles Curran, Virginia Apuzzo, Richard Isay, MD, Sister Margaret Farley, RSM, Daniel Helminiak, and Bishops Thomas Gumbleton, William Hughes, Kenneth Untener, Matthew Clark, Joseph Imesch, and Patrick Cooney...
… In 1997, our twentieth anniversary year was a banner year for the ministry. In March, we sponsored the Fourth National Symposium, entitled "The Church Teaching/Teaching the Church: A National Dialogue on Lesbian/Gay Issues and Catholicism." Over 650 Catholic leaders and pastoral ministers gathered in Pittsburgh for a weekend-long in-depth and extensive discussion of topics ranging from same-sex marriage, family relationships, civil rights, homophobia, heterosexism, pastoral care, and lesbian nuns …
… At that meeting, Bishop Gumbleton made another historic statement: he called on all gay and lesbian Church workers—‘including priests and bishops’--to come out of the closet and acknowledge their sexual orientation. Little by little, awareness of gay and lesbian Church personnel is becoming a reality in Catholicism ...
October 1997 saw the publication "Always Our Children," a historic pastoral statement from the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Marriage and Family Life. This document, directed to parents and pastoral ministers, is one of the strongest affirmations of the goodness of lesbian and gay people in the Catholic Church. ‘In you, God's love is revealed,’ the bishops say to gay and lesbian people at the close of this document which calls Catholic parents and leaders to initiate dialogue, outreach, and affirmation of the gay and lesbian members of their families and parishes ...”
NEW WAYS MINISTRY is the only forum in the Catholic Church for an open discussion from some of the best medical and mental health professionals joined with the equivalent members from the theological and scriptural fields of study. I found this to be exceptionally true when I attended the New Ways Ministry Symposium, in March 1997. The co-founders Father Robert Nugent, SDS, and Sister Jeannine Gramick, SSND together they so closely followed Pope John Paul II directives that there are no irreconcilable differences between science and religion, as they remained dedicated to the pursuit of the free search for truth.
No comments:
Post a Comment