Sodomite Catholic group gets VIP treatment at Vatican for first time
AND
New Ways Ministry pilgrims pose in St. Peter’s Square
following the papal audience with Pope Francis.
"a gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Catholics, and reconciliation within the larger Christian and civil communities.
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.
New Ways Ministry is a member of Equally Blessed, a coalition of faithful Catholics who support full equality for LGBT people both in the Church and in civil society."
SEE: http://the-trumpet-online.com/sodomite-catholic-group-gets-vip-treatment-vatican-first-time/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A prominent American Catholic gay rights group was given VIP treatment for the first time at an audience with Pope Francis on Wednesday, a move members saw as a sign of change in the Roman Catholic Church.
“This is a sign of movement that’s due to the Francis effect,” said Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, which ministers to homosexual Catholics and promotes gay rights in the 1.2 billion-member Church.
Gramick and executive director Francis DeBernardo led a pilgrimage of 50 homosexual Catholics to the audience in St. Peter’s Square.
They told Reuters in an interview afterwards that when the group came to Rome on Catholic pilgrimages during the papacies of Francis’s predecessors John Paul and Benedict, “they just ignored us”.
This time, a U.S. bishop and a top Vatican official backed their request and they sat in a front section with dignitaries and special Catholic groups. As the pope passed, they sang “All Are Welcome,” a hymn symbolizing their desire for a more inclusive Church.
Sister Jeannine Gramick and Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry. (Reuters)A list of participants released by the Vatican listed “a group of lay people accompanied by a sister” but did not mention that they were a gay rights organization.
“What this says is that there is movement in our Church, movement to welcome people from the outside closer to the inside,” Gramick said in St. Peter’s Square.
Several months after his election, Francis made his now-famous remark about how he could not judge gay people who are have good will and are seeking God.
But he so far shown no sign the Church will change its teaching that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.
Last October, bishops from around the world meeting in Rome to debate questions concerning family issued an interim report calling for greater acceptance of gays in the Church.
That passage was watered down in the final version of the report after conservative bishops complained. A second and final meeting on family issues is scheduled for October.
DeBernardo said Catholic gay and lesbian couples and other non-traditional families should be invited to the meeting, known as a synod, to speak to the bishops about their faith and their sexuality.
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Pope says gay people must not be judged:
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Pope says gay people must not be judged:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnT-uBAArDE
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SISTER JEANNINE GRAMICK
FRANCIS DE BERNARDO
New Ways Ministry’s LGBT Catholic Pilgrims Get VIP Seats at Papal Audience
republished below in full unedited:
In what is surely the most official welcome from Church officials that New Ways Ministry has received in its 38-year history, a pilgrimage group of 48 LGBT Catholics and supporters led by our co-founder, Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, received VIP seating at the papal audience in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on Ash Wednesday, February 18, 2015.
Sister Jeannine had written to Pope Francis in December 2014, asking him to meet personally with the group when they visited Rome as part of their ten-day pilgrimage to Florence, Assisi, and the Eternal City.
Two weeks before departure on February 12th, she received a letter from Archbishop Georg Ganswein, Prefect of the Papal Household, letting her know that he had reserved tickets for the group for the Ash Wednesday audience. She assumed that these were the general seating tickets. On the night of February 17th, when the group picked up the tickets at St. Peter’s, they learned that they were VIP seating.
When the group arrived at St. Peter’s Square in the morning, we were guided by papal ushers to the level of the Square where the pope sits. All were astonished! While we were not able to shake the pope’s hand personally, it is very significant that the Vatican responded so positively to an LGBT group by giving us such a prominent place at the audience.
When the pope passed by our group, we all sang “All Are Welcome,” a popular hymn which calls for an inclusive church. We also called out several times that “We are LGBT Catholics!”
Pope Francis greets pilgrims at the Ash Wednesday audience.
A Religion News Service story in The Washington Post noted that it was not just Vatican recognition that was significant, but that several other Church leaders helped the process along the way:
“. . . Archbishop Georg Ganswein, head of the papal household and the top aide to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, responded to New Ways’ request for a papal meet-and-greet by reserving tickets for the group at Francis’ weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square. It’s not a private meeting — which is tough for anyone to get — but it’s not nothing.
“The pope’s ambassador to Washington forwarded a similar request to Rome. Even San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone — point man for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ battle against gay marriage — had written a letter to the Vatican on their behalf.“Last December, Cordileone had a constructive meeting with Frank DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways, and Sister Jeannine Gramick, a co-founder of New Ways and a longtime advocate for LGBT inclusion in the church. But they were still surprised by the archbishop’s willingness to write a letter for them.”
Sister Jeannine Gramick and Francis DeBernardo in St. Peter’s Square following the Ash Wednesday audience.
Gibson also noted that a British cardinal has given similar prestigious recognition to an LGBT Catholic pilgrimage which is also in Rome this week:
” . . . British Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster sent a warm blessing to a group of LGBT Catholics from London who are joining up with New Ways in Rome. ‘Be assured of my prayers for each and every one of you,’ Nichols wrote. ‘Have a wonderful pilgrimage. God bless you all.’ “
A Reuters story published on Huffington Post captured the response of New Ways Ministry’s leaders just after they left the papal audience:
” ‘What this says is that there is movement in our Church, movement to welcome people from the outside closer to the inside,’ Gramick said in St. Peter’s Square. . . . “DeBernardo said Catholic gay and lesbian couples and other non-traditional families should be invited to the meeting, known as a synod, to speak to the bishops about their faith and their sexuality.”
An Associated Press video also reported their reactions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhM3UMRl830 Several of the LGBT pilgrims were visibly moved by the welcome they received and by the experience of seeing the pope in person. Several noted that they felt this was one more step in the progress–albeit, slow–that LGBT Catholics have been making in the Church for several decades. All agreed that this day will never be forgotten.
–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry
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Detroit Archbishop Blocks Pro-Gay New Ways Ministry From Speaking At Catholic Parish:
SEE: http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/detroit-archbishop-blocks-pro-gay-new-ways-ministry-speaking-catholic-parish; by Paul Bois
November 24, 2014
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
On Monday, LifeSiteNews reported that Detroit's archbishop Allen Vigneron exercised his authority over his archdiocese by blocking the activist group New Ways Ministry, a nominally Catholic organization that seeks to change the church's teaching on homosexuality, from speaking at Christ the King Parish in northwestern Detroit.
Despite the headlines, the Catholic church has not changed its teaching on homosexuality or gay marriage, but that didn't stop Christ the King pastor Father Victor Clore from violating Canon law when he decided his parish would serve host New Ways Ministry leader Francis DeBernardo giving a presentation to Fortunate Families, a group for Catholics whose children are openly homosexual.
New Ways Ministry has already been banned by the Vatican and has also been condemned by several bishops since 1984, including Pope Benedict XVI back in 1999 when he was known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Both Father Victor Clore and Francis DeBernardo have protested archbishop Vigneron's decision, citing Pope Francis as their reason.
"I'll give you a quote from one of my parishioners, who said, ‘It amazes me how Pope Francis eagerly and happily engages those who openly deny the divinity of Christ, yet DeBernardo is deemed unworthy to enter our church,’” Father Clore said. "That's pretty much my feeling, too," the priest continued. "It's treating people as if they were children."
DeBernardo told the Detroit Free Press, "The Detroit archdiocese's actions run counter to Pope Francis' more sympathetic posture toward gay Catholics.”
A spokesman for Archbishop Vigneron said New Ways Ministry is not an approved organization to address Catholic teachings on homosexuality.
"It was brought to the archdiocese's attention a few weeks back that New Ways Ministry had been scheduled to speak at Christ the King Church," Joe Kohn said in a statement. "Because New Ways Ministry had been identified as a group that might cause confusion in regards to Catholic church teaching, the archdiocese did clarify that a presentation by New Ways Ministry should not be hosted on church property."
The event was moved to clubhouse of a local condominium.
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Gay Catholics Receive Vatican Welcome:
Rob Bell to Oprah: Church Is ‘Moments Away’ from Embracing Same-Sex ‘Marriage’
February 18, 2015 by Heather Clark
SEE: http://christiannews.net/2015/02/18/rob-bell-to-oprah-church-is-moments-away-from-embracing-same-sex-marriage/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
This past Sunday, during an episode of Oprah’s “Super Soul Sunday,” Rob Bell, the former head “pastor” of Michigan’s Mars Hill Bible Church and author of “Love Wins,” a book questioning the orthodox Christian view of Hell, told the talk show host that he believes the Church is “moments away” from embracing same-sex “marriage.”
Bell had appeared on the broadcast with his wife Kristen to discuss their book “The Zimzum of Love: A New Way of Understanding Marriage.”
“I think it’s great that you all made a conscious choice to include gay marriage in [the book],” Oprah states following a clip showing Mrs. Bell reading a selection claiming that same-sex nuptials are a gift to the world. “Why [did you do that]?”
“One of the oldest aches in the bones of humanity is loneliness,” Rob Bell replied. “Loneliness is not good for the world. Whoever you are, gay or straight, it is totally normal, natural and healthy to want someone to go through life with. It’s central to our humanity. We want someone to go on the journey with.”
“When is the Church going to get that?” Oprah asked.
“We’re close,” he responded.
“I think it’s evolving,” Bell’s wife interjected.
“Lots of people are already there,” Bell added. “We think it’s inevitable and we’re moments away from the Church accepting it.”
He asserted that the Church will “continue to be even more irrelevant” if it continues to cite the Bible’s prohibitions on homosexual behavior.
“I think culture is already there, and the Church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense,” Bell said, “when you have in front of you flesh-and-blood people who are your brothers and sisters, and aunts and uncles, and co-workers and neighbors, and they love each other and just want to go through life.”
“There are churches who are moving forward and there are churches who are almost regressing and making it more of a battle,” his wife added.
As previously reported, Bell first publicly came out in support of same-sex “marriage” in 2013.
“I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man,” he said. “I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs—I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.”
Bell likewise opined that many evangelicals can no longer be classified as conservatives because their beliefs have changed with the times.
“I think we are witnessing the death of a particular subculture that doesn’t work. … You sort of die or you adapt,” he asserted. “And we have supported policies and ways of viewing the world that are actually destructive. And we’ve done it in the name of God and we need to repent.”
In light of his controversial views, some have said that Bell is leading many down a dark and destructive path.
“Plain and simple, Rob Bell’s teachings are not true to the words of Scripture,” Eric Ludy, pastor of Church at Ellerslie and president of Ellerslie Mission Society in Windsor, Colorado, told Christian News Network in 2013. “They are a sly attempt at blending the philosophies of our post-modern age with the vernacular of pop-Christianity. The end product is highly dangerous to the human soul because it is the forging of a golden calf god—a god of our culture’s making—and certainly not the God of the Bible.”
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