Rome's no doesn't stop Mass at New Ways conference; ministry marks 25 years of service to gays, lesbians - Nation

National Catholic Reporter, March 22, 2002 by Chuck Colbert

In the 25 years since its founding, New Ways Ministry has never been informed by any church officials that it was under investigation or sanction by the church. So its endorsers greeted with astonishment and anger the news that a Vatican official had requested the local bishop here to forbid the celebration of the Eucharist during the group's fifth national symposium, whose theme was, "Out of Silence God Has Called Us."

New Ways Ministry describes itself as a national Catholic ministry of justice, dialogue and reconciliation for lesbian and gay Catholics and the wider church community. But according to Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, New Ways "does not promote the authentic teaching of the Catholic church."

So Bertone wrote to Louisville's Archbishop Thomas Kelly directing him to forbid eucharistic celebrations during the March 8-10 gathering. "Because of the confusion and scandal which will inevitably arise from this event, this congregation asks your excellency to inform organizers of the symposium that they do not have permission to celebrate the Eucharist as part of their conference," Bertone wrote.

New Ways Ministry leaders, after conferring with canon lawyers, decided to celebrate the Eucharist at the conference with retired Bishop Leroy Matthiesen of Amarillo, Texas, presiding.

"I was not given any instructions from the Vatican or Archbishop Kelly not to do the Mass," Matthiesen said. "The example of Jesus was not to exclude but to include." He added that presiding "seemed such a natural thing to do."

Kelly, who did not attend the symposium, encouraged participants to attend Mass at the Cathedral of the Assumption, located a few blocks from Gait House, the hotel where the conference was held.

After consulting with canon lawyers, New Ways leaders determined that, in accord with Lumen Gentium, a Second Vatican Council document, they did not need permission to celebrate the Eucharist. "The local ordinary [bishop], not the Vatican, is the regulator of the Eucharist in a particular diocese," the group said in a news release.

The congregation "was trying to deny permission" when such "permission was not needed," explained the organization's executive director Francis DeBernardo.

A number of symposium endorsers and participants expressed anger that the Eucharist was used as a "weapon" or "reward," DeBernardo said. He explained, however, that intercessory prayers would be offered during the Mass for church unity. DeBernardo said that it was the organization's hope that all church members, "specifically gay and lesbian Catholics, will always feel welcome at the table of Jesus."

More than 500 persons attended the Mass at the symposium, and most received Communion.

It did not go unnoticed that Matthiesen wore a rainbow-colored alb, or that rainbow-colored banners graced the background of the conference stage. Rainbow colors are a symbol of the gay and lesbian community and gay pride.

"I experienced a feeling of unity and solidarity," said Fr. Richard P. Lewandowski, pastor of St. Camillus de Lellis Parish, Fitchburg, Mass., and campus minister at nearby Fitchburg College.

Hailing from the Worcester, Mass., Lewandowski said he has been deeply affected by the continuing saga of clerical sexual misconduct in the Boston archdiocese.

The situation in Boston was indeed on the minds of symposium participants, with many expressing sadness and astonishment as the ever-expanding scandal of clerical sexual abuse of children spreads outside the New England region to other parts of the country.

"Something has to be done," Lewandowski said. So throughout the symposium, he asked dozens, if not hundreds, of attendees to sign two pledges of "Catholic solidarity."

One is for "our solidarity, prayers and support to the priests and people of Boston." The other solidarity poster pledged similar prayer and support to all "gay bishops and priests" during this "defining moment for the universal church," he said.

Like Lewandowski, many of the symposium's participants were priests. Some of them are gay. One symposium focus session was on the issue of gay men in the priesthood and religious life, a timely topic, given the recent statement of Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls on the ordination of gays. Navarro-Valls told The New York Times that "people with homosexual inclinations just cannot be ordained. That does not imply a final judgment of people with homosexuality. But you cannot be in this field."

Nevertheless, Franciscan Fr. Ralph Parthie oversaw two workshops sessions in which priests, gay and non-gay alike, discussed everything from "how to deal with a homophobic bishop," to coming out of the closet to one's sell to fellow priests, families and friends and even parishioners. Parthie has ministered to and with gay priests and religious for 20 years.

A similar focus session dealt with lesbian nuns and their struggle to "integrate their lesbian members more fully." The focus of the New Ways conference was to address gay and lesbian ministry in the church, with the aim of developing wide-ranging programs and policies of interest to lesbian and gay Catholic and their families.