[NYer]

About two dozen people, including several priests and nuns from the diocese of Rockville Centre, are registered, he said.

New Ways Ministry was founded in 1977 by Sister Jeannine Gramick and the Rev. Robert Nugent to advocate for gay Catholics. After the nun and the priest were ordered to stop their work with the ministry by the Vatican, the Mount Rainier, Md.-based group has continued under lay leadership.

The Church is out of step? It's time to give these folks their walking papers.

[Salvation]

Looks like the bishops doesn't know or refuses to obey what the Vatican and the Church are saying!

[trisham]

"It makes it more difficult to help people see that there is a tradition in the Catholic church of acceptance of lesbian and gay people," he said. "And it also shows that the thinking of the Vatican's leaders on homosexuality is very much out of step with what American Catholics, not to mention scientists and social scientists, think about homosexuality."

*******************

I find it very difficult to believe that the majority of American Catholics are in favour of promoting this kind of thing.

[Unam Sanctam]

the program does not challenge church orthodoxy

So, are they proclaiming and supporting the call to chastity for those with same sex attraction disorder? Didn't think so. Are they proclaiming the need to avoid sinful homosexual activity and the near occasions of sin? Didn't think so. At most there will be a tacit silence on these points with a nudge and a wink, I'm sure. At worse, such activity will be approved and celebrated.

[AnAmericanMother]

OK, here's the $64K question:

What authority does the diocesan bishop have over a Jesuit facility? The head of the Jesuits used to be known as the "Black Pope" and was answerable only to Rome.

What's the situation now? Can the bishop rat this group out to Rome?

[Coleus]

They are turning to Paganism.

Saint Ignatius Retreat House, Inisfada - Manhasset, NYINISFADA INTERFAITH ZEN CENTER
St. Ignatius Retreat House, 251 Searingtown Road, Manhasset, NY 11030; Phone: (516) 621-8300; e-mail: roconnell8@aol.com; inisfada@inisfada.net; www.kennedyzen.tripod.com.

Six-day zen retreat with Robert E. Kennedy, S.J., Roshi, June 10-16, 2005, $345 ($300 shared). Silent meditation and zen practice beginning on Friday with dinner and ending on Thursday with lunch noon. Cushions and/or chairs provided. Some experience with zen practice recommended. Please register directly with St. Ignatius Retreat House. For questions about zen, please contact roconnell8@aol.com .

[murphE]

This is the same retreat house that offers "Zen for Christians" on a regular basis.

[FormerLib]

"Our mission is simply to try to help Catholic institutions learn more about the reality of gay and lesbian Catholics," DeBernardo said. "We focus on how you develop programs at a local level so that gay and lesbian people will feel welcome in a Catholic parish."

I should think that the Roman Catholic Church already has many programs in place to guide sinners toward repentance. Why do they need another one tailored to just this group?

[TotusTuus]

The executive director of St. Ignatius Retreat House said he was unaware of the bishop's objections,...

Yea, right. I believe that (not).

... but noted that the Jesuits were renting space to the group, not sponsoring the content of the workshop.

The old, tiresome political game of plausible deniability. The Bishop does not have direct control over the space that the Jebbies rent out, and the Jebbies aren't directly sponsoring the event, which is lead by laity.

Eventually it will all wash out in the end - even if that end is the end of time. The media attention is what is most important for this group. As has been pointed out, only several dozen people are registered including several Priests and Nuns.

The Bishop most certainly DOES have control over ordering them not to attend. Bishop Thomas Olmsted in Phoenix, several months after arriving, was in a position to exercise his episcopal duties by ordering several Priests to withdraw their names from a document they signed concerning similar issues and written up by a coalition of various "liberal" churches, ecclesial communities, and synagogues.

Bishop Olmsted did not shrink away from that holy duty.