N.C. Catholic Bishop Nixes Event With Pro-LGBT Nun
However, an LGBT-affirming Baptist church has stepped in to host a talk on inclusion by Sister Jeannine Gramick.
BY Trudy Ring
April 24 2015 7:50 PM ET
The Roman Catholic bishop of Charlotte, N.C., has nixed an appearance by a pro-LGBT nun at one of the city’s Catholic churches — but the sponsors of the event have found another venue.
Sister Jeannine Gramick, cofounder of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBT equality in the Catholic Church, was to speak at an event called Including LGBTQ People and Their Families in Faith Communities at St. Peter’s Catholic Church May 16, local LGBT publication QNotes reports. Event sponsors are PFLAG Charlotte and St. Peter’s Gay/Lesbian Ministry.
However, this week the Charlotte diocese announced that Bishop Peter Jugis had intervened to cancel the event. “New Ways does not speak legitimately for the teaching of the Catholic Church and therefore cannot be allowed to hold gatherings on Church property,” said a short written statement from diocesan spokesman David Hains.
New Ways has been condemned by the church hierarchy because its positions on homosexuality run counter to official church doctrine. “The positions advanced by Sister Jeannine Gramick and [cofounder] Father Robert Nugent regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts and the objective disorder of the homosexual inclination are doctrinally unacceptable because they do not faithfully convey the clear and constant teaching of the Catholic Church in this area,” said a 1999 decision by the Vatican’s Congregation on the Doctrine of the Faith. However, in February, on Ash Wednesday, a group of LGBT Catholics and allies organized by New Ways received VIP seating for Pope Francis’s weekly general audience at the Vatican.
http://www.advocate.com/politics/religion/2015/04/24/nc-catholic-bishop-nixes-event-pro-lgbt-nun
http://www.newwaysministry.org/