EDITORIAL Prophets troubles dont mean
theyre wrong
There is more grief than defiance in
Jeannine Gramicks heart as her conflict with the Vatican and her own
order, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, inexorably unfolds toward a final
confrontation and conclusion.
Whatever happens to Gramick, her troubles are similar to those
that prophets have always had when they get ahead of the church as teaching
institution. Catholic history shows that, over the long term, such troubles
rarely mean the prophets were wrong.
In this case Gramick and Salvatorian Fr. Robert Nugent had a
conscience-driven mission to create a ministry, New Ways Ministry, to lesbians
and gays.
The two wanted to accompany, to console, to learn, to discuss
broadly. In other words, Gramick and Nugent were doing what scholars and
missionaries and founders of religious orders and compassionate people and
humanitarians and saints do, asking, Whats going on here, and what
ought we to think about it, and what ought we to do about it?
Like society, Catholics -- who know that Jesus came to help us
with living and dying -- were newly faced with a particularly controverted
aspect of life. The journey and the exploration needed some Christian
compassion and common sense. Gramick and Nugent provided both. This was not a
situation much aided by dogmatic rulings, such as the official teaching that
homosexuality is intrinsically disordered -- rulings that failed to
resonate with either gays or lesbians or their parents and friends.
Thats because many of those parents and friends, like this
church and other churches, also have been wrestling with what homosexuality
actually means. After all, the closet door has been open for only a
generation.
Vatican officials, however, did not want to wrestle further with
the issue. In 1984, Gramick and Nugent were ordered to pull out of New Ways
Ministry. They agreed, but remain engaged in the work in the larger sense.
That was not enough. In July 1999, Rome ordered Nugent and Gramick
to stop pastoral work with homosexuals, period. Again, both reluctantly agreed,
though Gramick in particular vowed to discuss openly the injustice she felt had
been committed.
Finally the two heard no from Rome again, through pressure on
Gramicks and Nugents religious congregations. Both were banned from
writing or speaking about gay issues or even discussing the investigation and
its conclusions.
This time it is Gramick, previously acquiescent (though under
duress), who has said no. She will not comply. She has thrown the issue back
into the lap of her order.
So where are we? For those not directly involved, there is some
comfort in distance and historic detachment, in bringing it all into
perspective.
Aided by Gramick and Nugents courageous work, a new
situation has developed in recent years: Homosexuality has been brought out
into the open. Western society, in some instances with furious argument, at
other moments with tentative gestures to mollify unspoken anxieties or with
hesitant degrees of acceptance, struggles to come to grips with this new
era.
The Catholic church, wearing its highest teaching hat, wants to
say that it already knows what homosexuality means. Its been dealing with
homosexuality for 2,000 years. Its a disordered state, and thats
it.
Well, of course, that isnt it. Humanity has been wrong on
many issues for 2,000 years -- the role of women and slavery come immediately
to mind. And the church, frequently, has been wrong when society has been wrong
-- for the church is in the society, never ahead of it, and usually reaches
backwards for guidance.
What we have with Gramick and Nugent, the Catholic church has seen
before. Jeannine and Robert have lit a candle that cannot be blown out.
Its light can only be shaded, shuttered.
But everyone knows it is there. The work Gramick and Nugent have
begun must be carried forward. Homosexuality is a subject that existed too long
in the dark. The Catholic church has a responsibility to bring its best and
brightest open minds to bear on the topic, to explore homosexuality in the
light of new knowledge and not to condemn it on the basis of the old.
It will be a long wait. But long waits for church teaching to be
clarified are also part of the Catholic tradition.
National Catholic Reporter, June 16,
2000
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