Church ends "New Ways Ministry".

Rome--The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has ordered the American priest Robert Nugent, SDS (Salvatorians), and the American Sister Jeannine Gramick, SSND (Notre Dame School Sisters) to end their 22-year-ministry to homosexuals, called "New Ways Ministry."

"Persons who are struggling with homosexuality' stated the CDF "Notification" of July 13, 1999, "no less than any others have the right to receive the authentic teaching of the Church." But instead, Father Nugent, 62, and Sister Gramick, 57, "have caused confusion among the Catholic people and have harmed the community of the Church."

The CDF called their teachings both "erroneous and dangerous." After a series of exchanges and proposals over a long period of time, the CDF states that "they continue to reject the Catholic teaching affirming the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts and the objective disorder of the homosexual inclination. Hence they are barred for life from ministering to homosexuals and also barred indefinitely from holding office in their religious congregations."

The Notification spells out in detail the history of efforts by American bishops, then the Vatican Congregation for Religious, and, finally, the CDF, in trying to come to agreement with the two people who founded New Ways Ministry in 1977. Already in 1984 their ministry was prohibited in the Archdiocese of Washington. But through a series of negotiations and promises-in reality evasions and subterfuges-the two continued their work, including the publishing of two books now condemned, for another 15 years.

Full text of the Notification may be found in L'Osservatore Romano, July 14, 1999 and in Origins, July 29, 1999.