Incremental Progress in the Roman Catholic Church: Pope Francis and Sr. Jeannine Gramick of New Ways Ministry Meet!
I’m back in the “writing saddle” again after a wonderful break in Chile with my husband, Christian Halstead, his sister and brother-in-law, and Christian’s best friend. One of the news items that popped up recently and wasn’t picked up by many in the mainstream media had to do with a meeting between Pope Francis and Sr. Jeannine Gramick of New Ways Ministry. New Ways Ministry began in 1977 with Sr. Jeannine Gramick and the late Fr. Robert Nugent. New Ways Ministry advocated for the full inclusion of LGBTQIA2S+ people in all parts of life in the Roman Catholic Church. The previous Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, was opposed to this group and its ministry. This comes as no surprise for anyone who knows Cardinal Ratzinger. For Ratzinger, being gay was a sin, and your gender was fixed at birth. While the two had been in correspondence for awhile, the meeting was very emotional, probably for both. The meeting lasted 50 minutes. Sr. Jeannine wrote: “The meeting wa