Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis has barred a National Symposium on Catholicism and Homosexuality from celebrating the Eucharist during its March 16-18 meeting in Minneapolis.In a letter Feb. 23 to New Ways Ministry in Mount Rainier, Md., the sponsor of the symposium, Archbishop Flynn said that upon reviewing the planned program "I became concerned about some of the topics listed, and also about some of your featured speakers who are known to have publicly contested church teaching."
"As you well know, New Ways Ministry itself has several times been central in similar disputes," he added.
He said the plan to conclude the symposium with a Mass "makes it seem as though the symposium is a perfectly fine Catholic event."
"You do not have permission to celebrate the Eucharist as part of your symposium. Hopefully, that will at least minimize potential confusion and scandal," Archbishop Flynn wrote.
New Ways Ministry executive director Francis DeBernardo quoted parts of Archbishop Flynn's letter in a statement March 13 and, at the request of Catholic News Service, sent CNS a copy of the letter the following day.
In his statement DeBernardo said the archbishop's decision "will cause great pain to faithful Catholics who are concerned about the church's pastoral response to lesbian/gay people and their families."
"Since the letter was copied to three Vatican officials ... we believe that Archbishop Flynn's decision may have been motivated by correspondence from one or more of these individuals," he said.
The three were Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of that congregation; and Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
DeBernardo said New Ways Ministry would replace the planned closing Mass with a prayer service and would distribute a list of nearby parishes, with their Mass schedules, to the 500-plus participants registered for the symposium.
He said New Ways Ministry and its speakers "are very clear about what is presented as official church teaching, what is presented as theological reflection and what is the opinion of Catholics in the pews."
He said those registered for the symposium "are clearly part of the Catholic mainstream -- about half of the participants are priests or religious men and women; about half are lay members involved in professional ministry or are parents of lesbian daughters or gay sons."
"Almost all are highly educated people who are familiar with the issues being discussed and have the intellectual ability to make distinctions," he added. "Denying Eucharist to people who have committed their lives to the church causes greater scandal to the church than does a public discussion of homosexuality."
Archdiocesan spokesman Dennis McGrath told CNS March 15 that local media were playing the story as one about the church and homosexuals, but "this is not about sexual orientation. This is about the symposium's topics and speakers."
He said he did not know which speakers Archbishop Flynn was concerned about, but he said there were speakers on the agenda who were publicly critical of church teachings at previous symposiums in Milwaukee and in Louisville, Ky.
In a written statement the archdiocese said it was not in any way affiliated with the symposium, did not grant permission for it and does not endorse or encourage attendance at any of its events.
Neither Archbishop Flynn's letter nor DeBernardo said which speakers or topics at the symposium were of concern to the archbishop.
New Ways Ministry was founded in 1977 by Salvatorian Father Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick, who was then a School Sister of Notre Dame but is now a Sister of Loretto.
They co-directed the ministry until the mid-1980s, when they were forced to resign under Vatican orders.
In 1999 the Vatican ordered the priest and nun to end all ministry with homosexuals, saying that even after their departure from New Ways Ministry, they "continued to maintain and promote ambiguous positions on homosexuality and explicitly criticized documents of the church's magisterium on this issue."
New Ways Ministry remains a Catholic-oriented organization, but with no official church recognition or sponsorship. It describes itself as "a gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian and gay Catholics and reconciliation within the larger Christian and civil communities."
DeBernardo said three retired bishops who were scheduled to appear on a symposium panel, "Healing our wounds and building an inclusive community," had asked Archbishop Flynn to reverse his decision, without success.
DeBernardo told CNS March 15 that one of the three, retired Bishop Leroy T. Matthiesen of Amarillo, Texas, left him a phone message two days earlier saying he had been told not to come. Since the bishop called it "a directive," DeBernardo said he assumed it came from the Vatican, but he had not been able to reach the bishop to confirm that. CNS was also unable to reach Bishop Matthiesen.
The other two bishops slated to appear on the panel were retired Archbishop Francis T. Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska, and retired Auxiliary Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan of Brooklyn, N.Y. DeBernardo said they were planning to attend.
Other featured speakers on the agenda were Father Richard P. McBrien, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame; Mercy Sister Margaret Farley, a professor of ethics at Yale University Divinity School; Sister Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille and author of "Dead Man Walking"; and Brian McNaught, a Catholic gay activist and writer who in 1974 lost his job at The Michigan Catholic, Detroit archdiocesan newspaper, after he announced that he was gay.
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