Response of (Then) Sister Jeannine Gramick to to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

She is charged with the following:

c. Experience becomes the criterion through which the objective norms of morality are judged and set aside.

And she responds as follows:

Clarifications and Corrections

In Building Bridges, I recount that many Catholic gay and lesbian persons have prayed to God and have come to a conscience decision that their life experience, though contrary to the church’s teaching on homogenital behavior, does not separate them from God or the Church community.

I needed to explain more fully the Church’s teaching on conscience and the proper role that experience plays in its formation. In order to form a true conscience, one needs to interpret the experience of one’s life and the signs of the times6. Catholics are guided in this endeavor by the authoritative teaching of the Church, the witness or advice of competent people, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit7.

One’s conscience can make erroneous judgments. The Church teaches that a conscience decision to engage in homogenital behavior is an erroneous judgment and that a person must work to correct this erroneous conscience8. I must take better care to clarify this and stress that Catholics are called to follow this teaching.

Read it all.

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Religion News & Commentary, Ethics / Moral Theology, Other Churches, Pastoral Theology, Roman Catholic, Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion), Theology

5 comments on “Response of (Then) Sister Jeannine Gramick to to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

  1. robroy says:

    For background see article [url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/19/world/main689441.shtml ]here[/url]. What is surprising is how long this has dragged out. Reading her quotes, she trots out the same vapid remarks, “God doesn’t make mistakes”, “Let’s have a listening process”, etc.

    By the way, she renounced her orders, so she is simply Ms Gramick.

  2. Ed the Roman says:

    She took vows of religion, and so was never actually in orders. Orders are for deacons, priests, and bishops, and…well, let’s not go there right now.

  3. flabellum says:

    This is very old news. What brings it to the forefront other than the consistent opposition of the Roman Magisterium to the distortion of theology by radical feminists and ‘gay theologians’.

  4. Words Matter says:

    I wonder how many persons afflicted with same-sex attractions she has helped reconcile to the Church by repenting their actions and seeking a healthy celibate life.

    It really is worthwhile to read her entire response. She is careful to state that she needed to be clearer about the Church’s teachings and will make the effort to be more clear in the future. However, she continues to distort language and make ontological assumptions that lead one to doubt the efficacy (from a Christian standpoint) of her ministry to help self-identified “gay and lesbian persons” find the true God.

  5. Rocks says:

    The whole thing is quite long, pages and pages, but it is worth reading.
    The attempts at parsing approach levels the Clintons can only imagine.
    Especially Fr Nugent’s responses to the CDF concerning the Profession of Faith concerning theses matters. He actually attempts to rewrite it and expects that to be accepted. He can not bring himself to use the word “evil” only “Immoral”. This was all before Benedict too, the wailing and gnashing of teeth must be deafening in liberal circles now.