Sr. Jeannine Gramick, SL
Father Robert Nugent
is a Roman Catholic priest
and a member of the the Society
of the Divine Savior. He was
born, educated in Norristown,
Pennsylvania, and ordained
for the Archdiocese of
Philadelphia in 1965. He was
engaged in various ministries
in Philadelphia until 1975
when he joined the Salvatorians and relocated to Maryland. He was a co-director of the Quixote Center in Mt. Rainier, Maryland, a Catholic peace and justice group, and also served for two years as Chaplain at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
In 1977, with Sister Jeannine Gramick, Nugent co-founded New Ways Ministry, a national Catholic center for research and advocacy ministry in the area of Catholicism and homosexuality located in Mt. Rainier, in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. Until 1984 he was engaged in counseling, consultation, writing, lecturing, retreats, workshops and seminars dealing with gay and lesbian issues and religion. He traveled widely both throughout the U.S. and abroad educating church professionals, pastoral ministers and parents and families about homosexuality.
In 1984, under pressure from the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Nugent was forced to resign from New Ways Ministry but continued his work as a private individual or under various auspices. He is the founder of Catholic Parents Network for parents of Catholic gay and lesbian individuals. He is the author of numerous academic and popular journal articles in Catholic and other publications, including contributions to several anthologies. He is the author or coeditor of several books including A Challenge to Love: Gay and Lesbian Catholics in the Church; Prayer Journey for Persons with AIDS; Building Bridges: Gay and Lesbian Reality and the Catholic Church and Voices of Hope: A Collection of Positive Catholic Writings on Gay and Lesbian Issues.
Nugent's pioneering work has been recognized with awards from many groups including Washington P-FLAG, Yale Divinity School, the Paulist Center in Boston, Dignity USA and several Dignity chapters. He has spoken in parishes, colleges and universities, military installations and professional organizations of chaplains. He holds degrees in theology and religious education from Yale Divinity School and the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) and a degree in Library Science from Villanova University. In 1999, after a ten-year Vatican initiated study of his work, he was forced by the Vatican to withdraw from ministry to gay and lesbian people and their families. One year later, he was silenced from speaking or writing about homosexuality.
He remains a priest in good standing and is, with Church approval, engaged in parish ministry in Pennsylvania and other locations throughout the country.
Jeannine Gramick,
a Roman Catholic nun, was
born in 1942 and educated
in Catholic grade and high
schools in Philadelphia.
She moved to Baltimore
in 1960 to join the School
Sisters of Notre Dame. She
taught mathematics in high
school in the 1960’s and was
an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in the early 1970’s.
While engaged in study for her doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Sister Gramick became friends with a gay man and began a church ministry to lesbian and gay people. She organized religious services for people with a homosexual identity who had left the Catholic Church because of prejudice against them. Gradually the people she met came to understand that God loves all persons, regardless of one’s sexual orientation, and that the Catholic Church began to welcome them with compassion and love. She has conducted spiritual retreats and pilgrimages to holy places and shrines for lesbian and gay people, their parents, families, and friends.
Sister Gramick helped to begin three organizations for Catholic lesbian and gay people. In addition, she co-founded New Ways Ministry, a Catholic social justice center working for the reconciliation of lesbian/gay people and the church.
Sister Gramick has traveled throughout the English-speaking world to address groups about sexual identity. She advances the judgment of the American Psychiatric Association that a homosexual identity is not a sickness but an alternative sexual orientation. Consequently, she promotes dialogue, discussion, and education to eradicate myths and stereotypes about lesbian and gay people. She advocates the acceptance of gay and lesbian people as full and equal members of religious, civil, and social groups. She believes that only if all people are treated with dignity and respect will there be peace and harmony in the world.
Sister Gramick has written and edited numerous articles and books. Her books include Homosexuality and the Catholic Church, Homosexuality in the Priesthood and Religious Life, The Vatican and Homosexuality, Building Bridges: Gay and Lesbian Reality and the Catholic Church, and Voices of Hope: A Collection of Positive Catholic Writings on Lesbian/Gay Issues . Building Bridges was translated into Italian and published as Anime Gay: Gli omosessuali e la Chiesa cattolica.
For more than 30 years, Sister Gramick has worked for justice and peace for sexual minorities. For approximately 20 years, her religious community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, assigned her to this church ministry. Because of opposition to her work and consequent political considerations in her church, in 2001 she transferred to the Sisters of Loretto, another community of Catholic nuns. The Sisters of Loretto support her in her ministry of education and advocacy on behalf of lesbian and gay people.
Sister Gramick is the subject of a documentary film, entitled "In Good Conscience: Sister Jeannine Gramick's Journey of Faith," by the Peabody and Emmy award-winning director, Barbara Rick.
Many groups have recognized her work in this pioneer ministry. Some of these groups include the National Coalition of American Nuns, the Loretto Community, the Paulist Community, Call to Action; Dignity USA, the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College, Pridefest America, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and the American Psychological Association. She received the 2005 Peace Prize from the Santa Claus Foundation in Turkey for her work with sexual minorities. She was named a 2006 Laureate of the International Mother Teresa Awards for her role as a human rights activist.
Sister Gramick holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Notre Dame. She served on the national boards of the National Assembly of Women Religious, the Religious Network of Equality for Women, the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Women's Ordination Conference. She is currently an Executive Co-Director of the National Coalition of American Nuns. She is strongly committed to justice and peace for humanity.
Celebrating 31 Years of Ministry in the LGBT Catholic Community!
Co-Founders
©2008 New Ways Ministry
4012 29th Street - Mount Rainier, MD 20712
Tel. 301-277-5674
info(at)newwaysministry(dot)org