These Catholic institutions seek to welcome and integrate LGBT students into the learning community.
Upcoming Programs
Through research, publication and education about homosexuality, we foster dialogue among groups and individuals, identify and combat personal and structural homophobia, work for changes in attitudes and promote the acceptance of LGBT people as full and equal members of church and society.
Welcome to New Ways Ministry,
Resources
Celebrating 35 Years of Ministry in the LGBT Catholic Community!
News and Updates
Links to Catholic LGBT organizations, Catholic reform organizations, national interfaith LGBT organizations, and resources for young adults.
Articles, press releases, and links to online resources for LGBT and questioning Catholic youth experiencing anti-gay bullying.
Announcing our 7th National Symposium!
March 15-17, 2012
Baltimore, Maryland
Plenary Session speakers: Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, Luke Timothy Johnson, Patricia Beattie Jung, Richard Rodriguez, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
Marriage Equality
Catholics Support Gay Rights
The Public Religion Research Institute's report, Catholic Attitudes on Gay and Lesbian Issues: A Comprehensive Portrait from Recent Research, found that the majority of the sixty-four million Catholics in the United States support a number of public policies that extend rights to gay men, lesbians, and their families.
Combined Federal Campaign
Marriage Equality Book Now Available!
Marriage Equality: A Positive Catholic Approach, by Executive Director Francis DeBernardo, is now in its second printing. You can download the book free online or order hard copies!
From Water to Wine:
Lesbian/Gay Catholics and Relationships
Popular POSTS
Catholic Church Doesn't Need to Take Another Battering
January 27, 2012: The Catholic hierarchy’s opposition to marriage equality during Maine’s 2009 referendum has had a “devastating” effect on the church there. Read more.
A Habit of LGBT Equality
January 24, 2012: Over the past three years, nuns’ communities in the US have been “visited” by a Vatican appointee to assess their lives and missions. Though the Vatican said that the reason for this visitation was the welfare of the sisters, Mary Johnson, a writer for Bloomberg.com and a former nun, has another theory: “American nuns frighten them.” Read More.
Marriage Equality Gaining Momentum in Two States with Catholic Governors [and Among Catholic Mayors, too]
January 22, 2012: New Jersey and Washington State both have Catholic governors, and both states will be considering marriage equality bills this legislative session. The news from both states is that both bills are gaining a lot of momentum for passage. Read More.
Bishop Gumbleton Offers Words of Hope and Encouragement
January 20, 2012: Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a longtime advocate for LGBT justice in the Catholic Church, spoke recently at a Michigan community dialogue sponsored by the state’s LGBT Faith Initiative. PrideSource.com reports that Gumbleton offered words of hope to the interfaith meeting. Read More.
A Priest of Integrity
January 19, 2012: We already reported on the news that Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul, Minnesota, is requiring the archdiocesan priests not to speak out in support of marriage equality. A news story in this past weekend’s Minneapolis Star Tribune uses Nienstedt’s directive as its lead, but it goes a little further than that by telling the story of one courageous priest who is speaking out, despite the archbishop’s gag order. Read more.
Across the Land, Catholic Support for Marriage Equality Grows
January 17, 2012: From sea to shining sea today, articles on Catholic involvement in the marriage equality issue appeared in two separate papers. On the east coast, a New York Times analysis article assesses the evolution of legislators’ opinions on marriage equality. On the west coast, an op-ed essay in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer highlights the not-well-known-enough-fact that the Catholic laity are enormously supportive of marriage equality initiatives, despite the opposition of the bishops.Read more.
Sex, Marriage and the Church, Part 1/Part 2
January 14, 2012: The headline on the front cover of Commonweal magazine’s current issue reads "Sex, Marriage, and the Church." The tremendous decline in marriages (both civil and sacramental) in our society, as well as the obvious fact that most Catholics do not accept the hierarchy’s teachings about sex and marriage, offer the occasion for such an examination. Read More - Part 1; Part 2
A Threat to Our Humanity
January 11, 2012: It’s not news that Pope Benedict XVI opposes marriage equality for lesbian/gay couples. Yet his recent comment on the topic has made headlines because of the harsh image he used.
As in the past on this topic, the pope has it wrong, but this time he has it diametrically wrong. Read More.
Is There a Catholic in the House?
January 8, 2012: We'd like to know Catholic lawmakers--local, state, federal-- around the nation who support or have supported marriage equality, transgender non-discrimination, and other pro-LGBT initiatives. Who are they?
Cardinal George, LGBT People, and the Klan
January 18, 2012: When Cardinal George apologized for his insensitive comments comparing the LGBT rights movement to the Ku Klux Klan, the reaction was mostly favorable. Students at the Catholic University of America, however, believe that the apology was not enough. When Cardinal George visited their campus on January 12th to speak at a conference on the Second Vatican Council, a group of students who want him to do more stood and prayed outside the building where he was speaking and handed out flyers calling on the cardinal to do more than apologize. Read more.
January 10, 2012: "Why Cardinal George Can Say Such Outrageous Things." Read More.
January 6, 2012: Cardinal George's Apology
January 5, 2012: National Catholic Reporter columnist Jamie Manson (who will be a focus session speaker at New Ways Ministry's upcoming Seventh National Symposium considers a possible motivation for Cardinal George’s comparison of the LGBT movement to the Ku Klux Klan in "Pushing Away the Marginalized to Reach Out to the Fringe."
December 22, 2011: The Catholic hierarchy are starting to let their claws and teeth show. Fox-TV News in Chicago reports today that Cardinal Francis George of Chicago has compared the gay liberation movement to the Ku Klux Klan. Read more.
Latest edition of BONDINGS
ALL ARE WELCOME: All in the family
January 4, 2012: In this second installment of our blog’s occasional series, “ALL ARE WELCOME” which reviews how Catholic parishes and other faith communities can become more accepting of LGBT people, we have guest bloggers, Mary Ellen and Casey Lopata, offering their thoughts on family ministry. The Lopatas have been active in LGBT ministry since the early 1990s, and they are the co-founders of Fortunate Families, a national network of Catholic parents and family members of LGBT people. Reaching Out to Families with LGBT Members
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