Australian bishop, Maryland governor to address dissident gay Catholic group

March 15, 2012

Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Catholic layman who signed into law a measure that legalized same-sex marriage in Maryland, and Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, a retired Australian bishop who has been criticized by his brother bishops for his dissent from Catholic teaching, will speak at an upcoming conference of New Ways Ministry. The organization has been censured by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for its dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

“In no manner is the position proposed by New Ways Ministry in conformity with Catholic teaching, and in no manner is this organization authorized to speak on behalf of the Catholic Church or to identify itself as a Catholic organization,” Cardinal Edwin O’Brien said in a statement on the conference.

Lay speakers at the conference include former Maryland Lieutenant Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; Barbara Johnson, a lesbian who was recently denied Holy Communion; Luke Timothy Johnson, a New Testament scholar at Emory University; and Susan Ross, chair of the theology department at Loyola University Chicago.

Priests and religious who are addressing the conference include

• Father Joseph Brown, a Jesuit at Southern Illinois University
• Father Fred Daley, a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse, who will speak on “Gay Priests: Coming Out While Staying In”
• Sister Sandy Yost of University of Detroit Mercy, who will speak on “Lesbian Nuns: Journeys of Integration”

 

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Further information:

• O'Malley to speak at conference for gay and lesbian Catholics (Baltimore Sun)
• Statement on New Ways Ministry (Archdiocese of Baltimore)
• US bishops reaffirm: New Ways Ministry not a Catholic organization (CWN, 3/17/11)
• Statement Concerning Bishop Geoffrey Robinson (Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference)