ARTICLES

Confusion and Scandal

Homosexual Rebels Carry On

By Allyson Smith

As homosexual priest molestation scandals continued to explode throughout the U.S. during March, members of several Bay Area religious institutions participated in a "gay positive" Catholic ministry conference calling for further promotion of homosexuality in religious communities, parishes and schools. Sister Janet Rozzano of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas in Burlingame and Father James Schexnayder of Oakland-based National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries were among the nearly 600 people, including two U.S. bishops, who attended the New Ways Ministry Fifth National Symposium titled, "Out of Silence God Has Called Us," March 8-10 at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Along with the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of the Holy Names in Los Gatos and the Holy Cross Church Outreach Ministry Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Allies in Santa Cruz were also listed as official symposium endorsers.

During the conference, Sister Rozzano led a focus session titled "Lesbian Women in Religious Life." Sister Rozzano talked about becoming involved with the San Francisco chapter of Dignity, writing of her "coming out" story for her community's newsletter, and serving as a national board member of Communication Ministry Inc., which she described as "a network for gay and lesbian religious and clergy." Roman Catholic Faithful, a Petersburg, Illinois-based lay organization dedicated to exposing homosexual corruption within the Church, describes the group as, "A secretive Chicago-based organization for homosexual clergy and religious that publishes a newsletter, sponsors retreats, and is supported by many religious orders. According to Roman Catholic Faithful, the group is connected to the National Council of Bishops through its board members. Sister Rozzano cited some "learnings" that have guided her through what she described as her journey out of silence, including, "The grace to see sexual orientation as a gift from God."

National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries director Father James Schexnayder attended the Saturday focus session on "Challenging Heterosexism in Parishes" led by professor Helen Deines of Spalding University in Kentucky. During the session, Deines asked participants to name signs of heterosexism in parishes. Among the examples given were Mother's Day and Father's Day celebrations, the absence of gay and lesbian members, and the sacrament of Baptism. Deines offered several tips for increasing the visibility of homosexuals within Catholic churches.

At a Friday pre-symposium conference for parents of homosexual children and pastoral ministers, Detroit Bishop Thomas Gumbleton told parents, "The first thing that I think needs to be said that's very, very important if we're going to love our children is simply to recognize that homosexual people are not disordered people. They are psychologically healthy people.... Homosexuals are as healthy as anyone else." Gumbleton added, "Homosexuals are able to function and grow at least as well as heterosexuals. They are able to be creative, put in a hard day's work, act as citizens, help their neighbor. Somewhat surprisingly, they make love more humanely, largely because they are better able empathetically to feel what their partner is feeling."

During his Friday night opening plenary speech, Eugene Kennedy, a former Maryknoll priest and professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago, blamed the problem of priest molestation on an abusive Church hierarchy that prevents religious from developing a mature sexuality. "In the sexual abuse of the children, we observe a pattern that is identical to that with which the organizational Church has used and still uses in relating to its people," said Kennedy. "Many of these priests who victimized the young were themselves victims when young. Many, perhaps most of them, were neither heterosexual or homosexual, but rather asexual -- that is, immature in their human development -- children themselves who live ... in seminaries and novitiates that have kept them underdeveloped through programs in which the divided model of personality is efficiently and rigorously enforced." Kennedy added, "We might say that the sexual abuse of children is a symptom of the human abuse of adults refined and practiced by ecclesiastical bureaucrats over the centuries."

During his Sunday morning plenary address titled "Homosexual Love: In Keeping with Natural Law," Gregory Baum, a professor emeritus on the faculty of religious studies at McGill University in Montreal and a peritus at the Second Vatican Council, drew loud applause from the audience when he said, "I'm not the only Catholic convinced that the Church's entire teaching on human sexuality has to the reviewed. I will be less polite: I think the Church's teaching on homosexuality is wrong." He concluded with the statement, "Genuine homosexual love, like all genuine love, is blessed by God."

At a closing plenary session on Sunday morning, New Ways Ministry presented a 12-point statement on "Lesbian/Gay Ministry in the Catholic Church: A Vision for the Future" to be read at the annual meeting of U.S. bishops this fall in Washington, D.C.

The statement calls upon "Church leaders at all levels to pledge to find new ways to communicate the truth of Christ to lesbian/gay people," including: Developing educational programs "that reflect accurate images of gay/lesbian people." Fostering "a climate among young people that is knowledgeable and respectful of lesbian/gay reality." Providing "supportive work atmospheres so that lesbian/gay Church personnel -- clergy, lay, religious -- can disclose their sexual orientations to colleagues and constituents, if they so choose." Providing "educational and personal/spiritual development programs for gay/lesbian priests, religious, seminarians, and candidates."

New Ways Ministry was founded in 1977 by Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father Robert Nugent. It was the subject of a 20-year Vatican investigation until 1999, when the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith permanently banned Sister Gramick and Father Nugent from "any pastoral work involving homosexual persons." However, New Ways claims that the censure does not apply to the ministry itself. Father Nugent is now doing parish and adult education work. Sister Gramick transferred to the Sisters of Loretto and continues to speak and write about homosexuality and church reform. She attended the Louisville conference but did not speak or conduct any workshops. In January, Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith secretary Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone wrote to Archbishop Thomas Kelly of Louisville requesting that he forbid Mass to be celebrated as part of the Fifth National Symposium. Writing, "New Ways Ministry does not promote the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church," citing, "the confusion and scandal which will inevitably arise from this event." As an alternative, Archbishop Kelly invited participants to attend one of the regularly scheduled Masses at the nearby archdiocesan Cathedral of the Assumption.

New Ways Ministry issued a statement that it would go ahead with the Mass as planned, citing canon law and the Vatican II document, Lumen Gentium as justification. The statement said that conference endorsers "were deeply angered and disturbed that the congregation would use the Eucharist as a weapon or reward." On Saturday evening, retired Bishop Leroy Matthiesen of Amarillo, Texas, celebrated Mass wearing a rainbow stole on a ballroom stage decorated with rainbow banners.

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