New Ways Ministry Publications

New Ways Ministry is a Catholic outreach that educates and advocates for equity, inclusion, and justice for LGBTQ+ persons, equipping leaders to build bridges of dialogue within the Church and civil society.

Featured below are six of our latest publications to help promote awareness, dialogue, and reconciliation. We hope that these resources empower you to advance an intersectional understanding of gender identity, sexuality, and spirituality, in your homes, churches, schools, and dioceses.

New Ways and Next Steps: Developing Parish LGBTQ+ Ministry is based on New Ways Ministry’s years of educating Catholic leaders about LGBTQ+ issues and helping parishes and schools discern pastoral projects to welcome and affirm LGBTQ+ people. Whether a parish is just initiating a ministry or already has one that needs fresh ideas, Francis DeBernardo brings pastoral ministers on a journey of discernment to help them discover the best path LGBTQ+ ministry should take in their local communities.

New Ways and Next Steps is not a prescriptive text. It does not provide a “recipe” for what parishes should do. Instead, the book helps parish leaders devise a pastoral plan that is best suited for their unique parish situation.

In addition to providing both a historical and contemporary grounding in Catholic teaching about welcoming and affirming LGBTQ+ people, the book also offers background information on key topics in this ministry, with chapter titles such as “LGBTQ+ Faith Journeys,” “Examining the Local Faith Community,” and “Responding to Opposition.”

A Home for All: A Catholic Call for LGBTQ Non-Discrimination makes the case for why and how Catholics should support non-discrimination initiatives for LGBTQ people in both church and society.

This new publication was created for Catholics in the pews, pastoral ministers, and educators to understand why their Catholic faith promotes equality for LGBTQ people, despite some church leaders’ opposition.

In addition to the main text, the book contains 24 testimonials supporting LGBTQ non-discrimination from a diversity of Catholic leaders, including bishops, cardinals, theologians, women religious, community organizers, and social justice advocates.

The world came to know the Franciscan priest Mychal Judge through the bravery and self-sacrifice he displayed during the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001. But long before his lifeless body was carried out of the rubble, and before he was officially designated “Victim 0001” of that day’s attacks, Fr. Judge was, to a great many people, a beloved priest known for his compassion and faith.

In Mychal Judge, Francis DeBernardo offers a spiritual biography that will move and fascinate readers. It details the personal history and experiences—including his Irish-American upbringing, his struggles with alcoholism, his care for the marginalized, and his ministry to firefighters—that formed the man who ultimately died running into the North Tower to try to save and minister to the terrified and the dying.

Here is a spiritual biography that not only includes details of his personal history and experiences but also addresses the topic of his gay identity. Whether meeting him in these pages for the first time or getting to know him better, readers will encounter in Fr. Judge a figure they will not soon forget.

Mychal Judge

Love Tenderly: Sacred Stories of Lesbian and Queer Religious is an anthology written by twenty-three vowed women religious who embrace their sexual identity as lesbian or queer.

While telling their stories of self discovery and acceptance they explore questions related to vowed life, falling in love, and advice they would give to a lesbian or queer woman considering religious life.

Readers will be inspired and challenged to deeper consideration of their own psycho-sexual-spiritual journey.

Blessed Parents: Experiences of Catholic Parents with Lesbian and Gay Children is an anthology of stories from Catholic parents from Italy who have LGBTQ children. The stories were originally published in Italian by a ministry for Catholic LGBTQ people called Tenda di Gionata (Jonathan’s Tent), and were presented to Pope Francis during a private audience in 2020.

These stories reflect the same worries, questions, fears, courage, hope, faith, and love that so many Catholic parents of LGBTQ people experience on their journeys, whether the parents are in Italy, the U.S, or other parts of the world. Though across different cultures with different customs, what shines through these stories is the universal love that all parents have for their children.

This book contains a wealth of resource information for Catholic parents: a bibliography of the books on sexual orientation and gender identity relating to Catholicism, a list of U.S. Catholic organizations that deal with LGBTQ issues, and a number of high-quality video and audio resources for parents.

Marriage Equality: A Positive Catholic Approach explains how Catholics can and do support equal marriage rights for LGBTQ couples in an accessible question-and-answer format. Find out why Catholics support marriage equality because of their faith, not in spite of their faith, what theologians are saying, how church and state are related, and who ultimately decides in matters of conscience. The text is accompanied by testimonials from affirming Catholics.