Women Religious and LGBTQ Catholic Ministry
Photo © Seydisfjordur Kirkje,Naturfreund, pixabay
BY JEANNINE GRAMICK, SL
L
esbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) ministry in the United States Catholic Church began, developed, endured, and flourishes today because of women religious. This is an unknown story that needs to be told. Countless sisters have embraced LGBTQ ministry in assorted ways. For more than 40 years, sisters have opened their motherhouses and retreat centers for LGBTQ programs. Many have signed petitions, demonstrated, or written letters of complaint when LGBTQ people are fired from Catholic institutions. Some have marched in solidarity in gay pride parades. The backbone of financial support for LGBTQ Catholic ministry has been women religious and their congregations. A number of communities are conducting educational programs for their own members about sexuality and 8
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gender issues. Sisters have long been part of the LGBTQ struggle as trusted allies. In the 1980s, women religious convinced Archbishop Weakland to support civil rights for lesbian and gay persons in Wisconsin, paving the way for it to become the first state with civil rights protections. In this same decade, a provincial leader of the School Sisters of Notre Dame sponsored a meeting for sisters who served as chaplains for Dignity, a Catholic lesbian/gay organization. In these early days, there was no public consciousness of transgender, intersex, or non-binary people. A number of sisters have healed the spirits and saved the lives of many transgender people. Members of the Eucharistic Missionaries of St. Dominic, Racine Dominicans, Dominican Sisters of Peace, and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet have companioned transgender people and their families on their sacred journeys. Through a ministry of presence and accompaniment, women religious have welcomed transgender folks into their lives and been welcomed in return. The sisters’ basic message is that God loves them for who they are. Women religious are conscious that this ministry is also needed within their own communities. For the last 20 years, New Ways Ministry, the organization I co-founded with Fr. Robert Nugent, sponsored educational conferences for lesbian religious, their congregational leaders, and formation and vocation personnel. Last year, when the anthology, Love Tenderly: Sacred Stories of Lesbian and Queer Religious, was published, the authors received overwhelming support from their religious congregations. All of the above pastoral support on a private level has been accompanied by public backing. In 1974, the National Coalition of American Nuns became the first Catholic group to assert that it is
immoral, and should be illegal, to discriminate against any person because of their sexual orientation. Three years later, the Sisters Council of the diocese of Rochester, NY, affirmed the need for ministry of the lesbian and gay community. In 1993, the National Board of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) publicly affirmed the rights of lesbian and gay persons to full and equal protection under law at every level in our nation. The year before, the General Assembly of the Sisters of Loretto publicly disagreed with the document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which opposed civil rights legislation for gay and lesbian persons. In their employment policies, the Loretto Sisters include sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, and personal support for marriage equality. At a high school they operate in San Francisco, the Sisters of Mercy publicly backed a teacher who came out as transgender in 2016. Shortly thereafter, the Sisters of St. Agnes in Fond du Lac, WI, organized a public prayer vigil after a rampant shooting of LGBTQ people at the Pulse nightclub. All of these activities, both private and public, are merely a bird’s-eye description of the countless ways women religious have long been in the forefront of LGBTQ ministry.
The Early Days My own story is a good case study that shows the tenacity and early embrace of LGBTQ ministry by women religious. In 1977, the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) assigned me to full-time lesbian/gay ministry. Many gay Catholics felt alienated from a church they loved. Some experienced being thrown out of the confessional and being told by a priest that they were going to hell. Others were told by their parents never to come home
again. SSND sought to fill the gap by providing official pastoral care to accompany these ostracized persons and their families on life’s journey. From time to time, my religious leaders had to respond to argumentative letters or phone calls, and they did so admirably. The most serious objections came from United States bishops who protested directly to the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious. On three occasions, the Vatican requested the School Sisters to investigate the ministry and to recommend sanctions. Each time SSND leaders supported the continuation of the ministry and recommended no sanctions. One bishop complained that New Ways Ministry was sponsoring a retreat for lesbian sisters. The Vatican’s Congregation for Religious, deciding that the nuns were using the word ‘celibate’ as a ‘slogan,’ informed the SSND Superior General that New Ways Ministry should cancel the retreat. I remember that phone call well: “Now, Jeannine, Mother Georgianne told me to pass along this information to you. Listen carefully. I’m merely relaying the message.” The retreat was held quietly without any challenge to the Vatican. There was no public controversy, and the unreasonable request was circumvented. Women religious find “wiggle room” to go around a brick wall, instead of going through it. As in this case, there is no outright challenge or public confrontation of authority. Instructions are simply sidestepped or explained away. Women religious have used creative circumvention to achieve many transformations. And isn’t this the way that moves change? Without flourish or fanfare, people merely disregard rules or laws that simply make no sense.
Standing Up to the Vatican The most serious obstacle to this ministry began in the 1980s when Washington, D.C.’s James Cardinal Hickey requested my removal from the ministry. The
General Administrative Team of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cleveland, who had known and worked with the cardinal personally, volunteered to effect some reconciliation, but the cardinal refused. The SSND superior general asked to meet with his theologian to discuss his objections. The cardinal, unwilling to do so, preferred to take his case to the CDF. During a formal Vatican investigation in the 1990s, the succeeding superior general challenged the process a number of times. For example, after objecting to the lack of input, SSND was allowed to submit a list of names to fill one position on the commission. When none of the suggested people were appointed, the Vatican responded that they merely agreed to accept a list of names, not necessarily to select anyone from the list. During the investigation, my provincial leader challenged the inclusion of nongay items on the inquisitional agenda. This same provincial had previously informed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that SSND approved this ministry, asking that her letter be sent to all United States bishops, but there is no evidence that her letter was communicated. Finally, in 1999, the Vatican issued a notification to prohibit me from any LGBTQ pastoral work. An overwhelming number of members of LCWR wrote to the CDF to object to their evaluation and penalty. LCWR encouraged their members to engage in conversations with local bishops about the issue of homosexuality and many leaders did so. For more than two decades, SSND was able to shield me in the ministry they had embraced. When this protection was no longer possible, the Sisters of Loretto offered shelter. For the next eight years, the Loretto presidents received a series of letters from the Congregation for Religious suggesting my voluntary or forced departure from religious life if I continued in LGBTQ ministry. But the
Loretto community stood firm. The letters ceased after 2009 when the Vatican launched its investigation of all United States women’s congregations. Since the election of Pope Francis, the atmosphere at the Vatican has dramatically shifted. In an exchange of letters with New Ways Ministry, Pope Francis said that his “shepherd’s heart” has “good feelings” about LGBTQ ministry.
Persistence from Women Religious Besides showing the tenacity of women religious, this case study reveals how shabbily women religious have been treated by the patriarchal church. Their pleas may be dismissed, but like the woman in the Gospel who persistently knocks on the door of the unjust judge, women religious continue to find ways to do the works of mercy. Without the support of visionary women religious, I would not have been able to continue my ministry for 50 years, and I would not be writing this article today. More importantly, the acceptance of LGBTQ people today by more than three-fourths of the Catholic faithful has largely been due to the efforts of United States women religious. While they clearly have less power than male priests and bishops, women religious have used their institutional standing to achieve enormous good. As representatives of the Catholic Church, albeit lowly ones, they have comforted innumerable LGBTQ Catholics, assuring them that they are loved by God just as they are. Women religious are the real unsung heroes of LGBTQ Catholic ministry. Jeannine Gramick, a Sister of Loretto, taught college mathematics before she co-founded New Ways Ministry, an LGBTQ+ Catholic ministry, in 1977. For more than a dozen years, she served as an Executive Coordinator of the National Coalition of American Nuns. A M AT T E R O F S P I R IT
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Photo © Sharon McCutcheon, unsplash
“Women religious have used creative circumvention to achieve many transformations. And isn’t this the way that moves change? Without flourish or fanfare, people merely disregard rules or laws that simply make no sense.”