Gay Catholic group gets VIP treatment at Vatican for first time - Reuters

[Michael]

Gay Catholic group gets VIP treatment at Vatican for first time By Philip Pullella| Reuters 

Sister Jeannine Gramick and Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which ministers to homosexual Catholics and promotes gay rights, pose in front of St. Peter's Square after Pope Francis' weekly audience, February 18, 2015.

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. 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. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Gay Catholic group gets VIP treatment at Vatican for first time - R...

[Cathleen]

This whole thing makes me sick. 
Dear God, have mercy on us all.

[Dawn Marie]

One of the heartbreaking parts of this story besides the obvious evil which Francis, the man of the Alta Vendita is doing is the sell out Georg Ganswein has done to his own soul!  May God have mercy on him.

Even without a papal shout-out, New Ways Ministry officials were nevertheless pleased that they had been invited to sit up front by Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, the prefect of the papal household who dispenses the coveted reserved tickets for Francis' audiences.

[Dawn Marie]

Seeing this I think it is safe to say he [Georg] did not give our spiritual bouquet to Benedict.  We sent it in January by way of Benedict's secretary Georg Gaenswein. 

[Dawn Marie]

The Vatican did something it has never done before by giving a group of U.S. gay and lesbian Catholics VIP seats at Pope Francis' weekly general audience Wednesday.

But in a sign that the welcome wasn't all it could have been, the New Ways Ministry pilgrims were only identified on the Vatican's list of attendees as a "group of lay people accompanied by a Sister of Loretto."

And not even that got announced: When a Vatican monsignor read out the list of the different groups of pilgrims in attendance in St. Peter's Square, he skipped over the group altogether. Francis didn't mention them, either.

Even without a papal shout-out, New Ways Ministry officials were nevertheless pleased that they had been invited to sit up front by Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, the prefect of the papal household who dispenses the coveted reserved tickets for Francis' audiences.

Gaenswein for years has also been the top aide to Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. When Benedict headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he permanently prohibited the New Ways Ministry co-founders, Sister Jeannine Gramick, and the Rev. Robert Nugent, from ministering to gays after determining in 1999 that they didn't sufficiently adhere to church teaching on the "intrinsic evil" of homosexual acts.

Nugent abided by the directive and died last year. Gramick has continued her ministry, changing religious orders to the Sisters of Loretto, and was on hand for Wednesday's audience.

"Pope Francis gives me hope," she told The Associated Press. "To me, this is an example of the kind of willingness he has to welcome those on the fringes of the church back to the center of the church."

The group's executive director, Francis DeBernardo, said New Ways Ministry had tried unsuccessfully under the previous two popes to get VIP seats for its Rome pilgrimages.

This time, the Vatican ambassador in Washington and the archbishop of San Francisco forwarded their requests onto Rome, a sign that Francis' call for the church to be more welcoming to gays has filtered down to local church leaders.

"We didn't get the shout-out, but we were very, very close," DeBernardo said.

https://catholic4lifeblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/vatican-makes-un...