Gramick challenges Vatican rules
By ERIN PIROUTEK
Assistant News Editor
Sister Jeannine Gramick hopes that the Vatican's decision to limit her ministry to gays and lesbians will invoke dialogue about areas of disagreement within the Church. Her Thursday lecture "What if Catholics Disagree" explained her points of disagreement with the Vatican and encouraged discussion first in small groups then by the entire audience.
In July 1999, The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, a body to safeguard church teaching, ordered Gramick and Father Robert Nugent to permanently end their pastoral work to gays and lesbians and their parents.
This specifically forbids activities such as leading retreats and workshops; however, they are still free to speak and write.
"It's been a limiting of my ministry, not a silencing," said Gramick.
The seeds of Gramick's ministry developed in 1969 at the University of Pennsylvania where Gramick was pursuing her masters.
"I became very good friends with a young man who was gay," said Gramick. The man had abandoned a religious community because he felt that being gay was incompatible with being religious.
"He said the Catholic Church didn't want him," said Gramick. She explained that as a sister, she wanted to show him that the Catholic Church did indeed want him.
Her order assigned her to gay and lesbian ministry. Gramick was involved in counseling, educational programs, workshops and retreats.
In 1977 Gramick and Nugent co-founded "New Ways Ministry" in Ranier, Md., to reach out to gay and lesbian Catholics.
The Vatican began its investigation into Gramick and Nugent's ministry in 1982. Some Catholics, including James Cardinal Hickey, archbishop of the Diocese of Washington, disagreed with aspects of their ministry.
"These voices made their way to the Vatican," she said. First the Vatican requested a report from Gramick's provincial. Gramick quoted from the report, which said, "We think it would be counterproductive to diminish this ministry in any way."
Gramick and Nugent resigned as leaders of "New Ways Ministry" in 1984 but they continued to hold workshops and retreats about homosexuality across the nation.
The Vatican requested another report in 1985, and again the local report said that no action was necessary.
Then, in 1988, the Vatican appointed its own commission, which spent years in investigations and hearings, and released the decision to ban Gramick and Nugent's ministry in July 1999.
Church leaders wanted Gramick to publicly affirm her support for the Church's position on homosexuality.
"Public ministers have a duty to know what the Church teaches and to articulate it very clearly," said Gramick.
Public ministers are not required to articulate their individual beliefs. Gramick refused to answer an audience member's question, "Do you accept the Church's teaching on homosexuality?" just as she had refused to answer the same question from the Vatican.
"I choose not to make my conscience public," Gramick said.
The Church position is that people are called to follow their conscience, even when it doesn't agree with the Church.
"Now, we don't preach that a lot. That's why I say it [conscience] is one of the best kept secrets in the Catholic Church," Gramick said.
A disagreement based on conscience, however, must be seriously considered.
"It's a very strongly held personal conviction of truth or what is right," said Gramick. She explained that it requires prayer, serious consideration of official Church position, reading scriptures and consulting with holy people — both priests and lay people.
In the end though, one thing matters.
"A conscience decision is between you and God," said Gramick.
After much prayer and reflection, Gramick reached a decision.
"I still believed that God was calling me to minister to lesbians and gays," she said.
Gramick disagreed not only with the decision to limit her ministry, but also with the Vatican's process.
"That's hardly speed in the procedure," Gramick said of the 17-year ordeal.
She also cited the principle that to the degree possible matters should be handled on the local level, rather than by higher authorities. Those on the local level most intimately know the facts of a situation.
"We will feel much more invested in our Church," said Gramick noting the benefits of decentralization.
By disregarding the local reports, the Vatican did not adhere to this principle, Gramick said.
Gramick has a masters in math from Notre Dame and a doctorate in teaching from the University of Pennsylvania. The lecture was sponsored by the Progressive Students Alliance, College Democrats, the University Counseling Center, Call to Action, GALA and OUTreachND.
All News Stories for Thursday, March 2, 2000
