New Ways Ministry
Homosexuality is an abiding interest at Quixote. Dignity "chaplain" Sister Jeannine Gramick, S.S.N.D. (of NARW and NCAN),189 met Dignity chaplain Father Robert Nugent, S.D.S., on Quixote's staff in 1976, and together they developed workshops "to help people overcome homophobia". In 1977, Gramick and Nugent spun off as New Ways Ministry.190 Subsequently, New Ways formed such organizations as "Sisters in Gay Ministry Associated" (SIGMA) and "Catholic Coalition for Gay Civil Rights".191 In 1979, Georgia Fuller joined Quixote to organize an "ecumenical Conference on Homophobia" in the churches.192 Sister Theresa Kane, R.S.M., was a scheduled speaker at New Ways' "First National Symposium on Homosexuality and the Catholic Church" held November 20, 1981, in Washington, to coincide with the closing of the annual NCCB meeting.193 Sister Jeannine's order, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, reportedly supplied more members to "Catholic Coalition for Gay Civil Rights" than any other women's religious community.194 Xavieran Brother Joseph Izzo of New Ways Ministry,195 a Catholic University counselor who temporarily replaced Callahan at PFE, organized Quixote's second "Conference of Gay/Lesbian Christians" in 1982 to form an "eccumenical" coalition against "the onslaught of the New Right".196
Because New Ways' message was permissive about homosexuality, the Washington archdiocese never supported or approved its activities. By 1987, New Ways had been expelled from both the Washington archdiocese and the Newark diocese. As early as 1979, the Washington archdiocese had also warned bishops and religious communities against Quixote's activities. Jesuit authorities suspended Callahan's priestly faculties for a year in 1980, and in 1987 Jesuit Superior General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach ordered Callahan to dissociate himself from PFE and "Catholics Speak Out" and stop calling himself "co-director" of Quixote Center or face dismissal. Father James Coriden wrote a letter, co-signed by the other five members of the PFE board,197 expressing shock that the group should be judged "reprehensible".198 PFE's 1989 winter newsletter reprinted Callahan's letters to and from his superiors in a twenty-page insert.199 Quixote's considerable lobbying contacts were alerted to write to Vatican and Jesuit authorities in Callahan's defense.200 As of midsummer 1990, he was still in place, and PFE said the Jesuit Order had announced no decision in his case.201
189 Jeannine Gramick, "From Good Sisters to Prophetic Women", in Ware, Midwives, 234-35.
190 Chronicles 1985,2.
191 Rueda, Homosexual Network, 337.
192 Chronicles 1985, 3.
193 Despite Archbishop Hickey's warning to all the nation's bishops and all Washington-area religious personnel, the 150 symposium participants included eighteen major superiors of religious orders and twenty formation directors; 78 percent were priests or religious. See Rueda, Homosexual Network, 359, 419, 466 n. 89.
194 Ibid., 353.
195 Ibid., 430.
196 Chronicles 1985,5. By 1988, Izzo's signature in the "by their fruits" ad was listed among non-Catholics.
197 Fathers Joseph Dearborn and Michael McGarry, C.S.P.; Jeff Bissonnette and Sisters Gretchen Elliot, R.S.M.; Ellen Lynch, C.S.C.; Judith Zielinski, O.F.M.
198 Group Hits 'Scarlet Letter'", Catholic Messenger, Davenport, Iowa, June 15,1989.
199 Priest for Equality NEWS & NOTES (Fall/Winter 1989).
200 "Hunt", in Milhaven, Inside Stories, 144.
See also: NOTIFICATION OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH and Response of Courage to the Nugent-Gramick Matter
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