(LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis has again written a letter to a Catholic nun who openly defies Church teaching on sexuality, praising her for her “50 years of ministry,” which has been mostly devoted to promoting the normalization of homosexuality within the Church.
Jesuit publication America Magazine wrote:
In another sign of support for L.G.B.T. Catholics and those who advocate on their behalf, Pope Francis sent a handwritten letter on Dec. 10 to Jeannine Gramick, S.L., the co-founder of the Catholic apostolate New Ways Ministry.
Sister Gramick is celebrating 50 years of working with and advocating for L.G.B.T. people. Noting her anniversary as the reason for his letter, the pope congratulated her in Spanish on “50 years of closeness, of compassion and of tenderness” in a ministry that he described as being in “‘the style’ of God.”
“Thank you, Sister Jeannine,” wrote the Pope at the conclusion of his note, “for all your closeness, compassion and tenderness.”
Gramick was officially silenced by the Vatican in 1999, an order which she ignored; in 2010 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) declared that New Ways Ministry “has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church” to speak on the LGBT issue.
Concerning Gramick’s book, Homosexuality in the Priesthood and the Religious Life, and the entire push for gay-affirmation in the Catholic Church, way back in 1990 the late Richard John Neuhaus wrote:
The campaign in the church for homosexual rights, as they are called, is by its own definition a frontal attack on church teaching and practice and on cultural patterns that the church is thought to have blessed in the past. Homosexuality in the Priesthood and the Religious Life (edited by Jeannine Gramick, Crossroad) is a useful guide to the campaign’s developing attitudes, arguments, and strategies. It contains eight essays by proponents of a radically changed approach to homosexuality, and fourteen chapters of testimony by lesbians and male homosexuals in the priesthood and religious orders.
Notably, Father James Martin, SJ based his book, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity, on his address at a New Ways Ministry ceremony where he received the organization’s “Bridge Building Award” from Gramick.
Pope Francis’s personal letter campaign encouraging pro-LGBT religious
Pope Francis has repeatedly congratulated religious men and women and others who endeavor to subvert Church teaching regarding homosexuality and transgenderism.
In August 2020, after a controversial nun opened a residence in Argentina for “trans women” — men who choose to “identify” as women — Pope Francis praised her work, referring to the men as “girls.”
Sister Mónica Astorga Cremona, known locally in Argentina as the “Nun of the Trans,” cut the ribbon on the new complex of 12 small apartments dedicated solely to housing men claiming to be women and their partners.
Upon hearing the news the Pope responded in a communication, according to the nun, “Dear Monica, God who did not go to the seminary or study theology will repay you abundantly. I pray for you and your girls.”
The Supreme Pontiff, according to the nun, referred to the males – reported to be between 40 and 70 years old – as “girls.”
In June 2021, on the eve of a heretical LGBT conference hosted by a Jesuit university, Pope Francis sent Martin – the loudest voice for the normalization of homosexuality and transgenderism within the Catholic Church today – a handwritten note praising his fellow Jesuit’s controversial pro-LGBT ministry, saying it “reflects the closeness of God” and is in the “style of God.”
The Jesuit shared the Pope’s handwritten letter, dated June 21, 2021 via Twitter, after the controversial Outreach 2021 L.G.B.T. webinar conference at Jesuit-run Fordham University had concluded.
The Pope’s note was written in response to a communication that Martin had sent Francis earlier, informing him of the upcoming LGBT conference organized by renegade New Ways Ministry.
Speakers at the online conference included Martin, Bishop John Stowe, O.F.M., Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, Fordham’s self-declared “gay” priest Fr. Bryan N. Massingale, and representatives of dissident pro-gay ministry Fortunate Families.
Addressing Fr. Martin’s LGBT ministry and his involvement in the June 26 conference, Pope Francis wrote:
Regarding your P.S. [about the Outreach LGBT Ministry Conference], I want to thank you for your pastoral zeal and your ability to be close to people, with that closeness that Jesus had and that reflects the closeness of God. Our Heavenly Father approaches with love every one of his children, each and everyone. His heart is open to each and everyone. He is Father. God’s “style” has three aspects: closeness, compassion and tenderness. This is how he draws closer to each one of us.
Thinking about your pastoral work, I see that you are continuously looking to imitate this style of God. You are a priest for all men and women, just as God is the Father for all men and women. I pray for you to continue in this way, being close, compassionate and with great tenderness.
And I pray for your faithful, your “parishioners,” and anyone whom the Lord places in your care, so that you protect them, and make them grow in the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Pope signed his name simply, Francisco.
The Washington Post said that the Pope’s “letter amounted to an affectionate affirmation of Martin’s ministry.” Jesuit-mouthpiece America magazine said, “Pope Francis has again encouraged the ministry of James Martin, S.J., to L.G.B.T. persons.”
In 2019, Pope Francis raised eyebrows when he met privately with Martin. At the time America Magazine interpreted the meeting as a “highly significant public statement of support and encouragement” for the American Jesuit. Martin himself saw it as “a sign of the Holy Father’s care for L.G.B.T. people.”
More recently, Pope Francis wrote America Magazine journalist Michael O’Loughlin, who describes himself as a “gay Catholic.”
O’Loughlin wrote to the Pope about the book he had authored, Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of the Fear, based on his interviews of “Catholics who worked and fought during the height of the H.I.V. crisis in the United States.”
In November, The New York Times published an op-ed by O’Loughlin, based on the letter, titled Pope Francis Sent Me a Letter. It Gives Me Hope as a Gay Catholic.
The op-ed was timed to coincide with the opening of the (USCCB fall 2021 assembly in Baltimore.
O’Loughlin said that in his letter to Francis, he told the Pope that he was “a gay Catholic journalist” and “about the many L.G.B.T. Catholics I’ve interviewed, who are barely hanging on to their faith.”
Martin, O’Loughlin’s colleague, urged his Twitter followers to read the op-ed, boasting: “Pope Francis has written a letter to my friend Mike O’Loughlin, an openly gay man, praising his book on the Catholics ministering to gay men and others during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80s. Another important step in the Pope’s outreach to LGBTQ people.”
Pope Francis has written a letter to my friend @MikeOLoughlin, an openly gay man, praising his book on the Catholics ministering to gay men and others during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80s. Another important step in the Pope’s outreach to #LGBTQ people. https://t.co/n2jqpnQUCP
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) November 15, 2021
While it has merit as a historical work documenting the experience of Catholics who worked with and ministered to HIV patients during the height of the AIDS crisis, O’Loughlin’s book is also meant to sway public opinion, and that of impressionable bishops, and even the Vatican concerning normalizing homosexuality.
Full text of Pope Fancis’s letter to Sister Jeannine Gramick, provided by America Magazine:
December 10, 2021
Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL
Dear sister,
Many thanks for your letter. It made me happy to receive the news about your 50th anniversary.
Your letter reminded me of “the style” of God… God has his own style to communicate with us. And we could summarize that style in three words: closeness, compassion, tenderness.
And I am thinking of your 50 years of ministry, which were 50 years with this “style of God,” 50 years of closeness, of compassion and of tenderness.
You have not been afraid of “closeness,” and in getting close you did it “suffering with” [compassion] and without condemning anyone, but with the “tenderness” of a sister and a mother.
Thank you, Sister Jeannine, for all your closeness, compassion and tenderness.
I pray for you. Please do not forget to pray for me. Greetings to Yayo (Obdulio).
May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin protect you.
Fraternally,
Francisco