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Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, has a 50-year record of dissent from Church doctrine on homosexuality, women’s ordination and abortion.
Sister Jeannine Gramick and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson attend the premiere of ‘Saint of 9/11’ during the 5th Annual Tribeca Film Festival at Pace University Center of the Arts April 27, 2006, in New York City. (photo: Peter Kramer / Getty Images for TFF)
When I first heard that Pope Francis had written a letter to Loretto Sister Jeannine Gramick praising her 50 years of ministry, I immediately thought it had to be a case of mistaken identity. Surely the Pope or his staff had confused her with any one of the thousands of Catholic sisters who have toiled for a half-century to teach and model the truths of the Catholic faith and who deserve such a letter.
After all, Sister Jeannine has spent the last 50 years challenging and defying Church authorities, and just last week told an interviewer, “Sometimes we have to go against what the leaders of our Church say.”
Indeed, that has been her record and mode of operation over the years, and it is a mystery how she has managed to remain a consecrated religious, given her public attacks on Church doctrine and her affiliation with radical organizations. Let us count some of the ways:
In 1977, Sister Jeannine and Salvatorian Father Robert Nugent founded New Ways Ministry to offer gay and lesbian people “messages of justice, acceptance, dialogue, and reconciliation.” After some complaints that their messages and writings called into question the Church’s teachings on homosexual acts and criticized Church documents, some bishops banned them from working in their dioceses.
Continued below.
Sister Jeannine Gramick Has Not Been ‘Afraid of Closeness’ to Radical Causes
Sister Jeannine Gramick and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson attend the premiere of ‘Saint of 9/11’ during the 5th Annual Tribeca Film Festival at Pace University Center of the Arts April 27, 2006, in New York City. (photo: Peter Kramer / Getty Images for TFF)
When I first heard that Pope Francis had written a letter to Loretto Sister Jeannine Gramick praising her 50 years of ministry, I immediately thought it had to be a case of mistaken identity. Surely the Pope or his staff had confused her with any one of the thousands of Catholic sisters who have toiled for a half-century to teach and model the truths of the Catholic faith and who deserve such a letter.
After all, Sister Jeannine has spent the last 50 years challenging and defying Church authorities, and just last week told an interviewer, “Sometimes we have to go against what the leaders of our Church say.”
Indeed, that has been her record and mode of operation over the years, and it is a mystery how she has managed to remain a consecrated religious, given her public attacks on Church doctrine and her affiliation with radical organizations. Let us count some of the ways:
In 1977, Sister Jeannine and Salvatorian Father Robert Nugent founded New Ways Ministry to offer gay and lesbian people “messages of justice, acceptance, dialogue, and reconciliation.” After some complaints that their messages and writings called into question the Church’s teachings on homosexual acts and criticized Church documents, some bishops banned them from working in their dioceses.
Continued below.
Sister Jeannine Gramick Has Not Been ‘Afraid of Closeness’ to Radical Causes
