Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2007 Homosexuality and the American Catholic Church: Reconfiguring the Silence, 1971-1999. Howell Williams Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: RECONFIGURING THE SILENCE, 1971-1999. By HOWELL WILLIAMS A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2007 Copyright © 2007 Howell Williams All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Howell Williams defended on October 29, 2007. ______________________________ John Corrigan Professor Directing Dissertation ______________________________ Robin Truth Goodman Outside Committee Member ______________________________ Amanda Porterfield Committee Member ______________________________ Amy Koehlinger Committee Member Approved: ______________________________ John Corrigan, Chair, Department of Religion The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii When I was an undergraduate considering graduate school, my mentor warned me that pursuing advanced studies could at times be an isolating and lonely experience. Luckily, those days have been few and far between as advisors and colleagues created a unique community that extended beyond the boundaries of campus, spilling into research and extracurricular pursuits. I am foremost grateful for Sr. Jeannine Gramick and Fr. Robert Nugent’s willingness to open their lives and files to my prying curiosity. As a non-Catholic, heterosexual religious studies scholar, I neither fit the mold for the typical Catholic historian nor a scholar interested in LGBT history. But like Gramick and Nugent, I attempt to fashion a narrative from a unique perspective. I am deeply appreciative of their willingness to let me try. Archivist Phil Runkel at Marquette University and Mark Bowman, project coordinator of the virtual LGBT Religious Archive Network, were invaluable sources for this project. Archivist Rich Wandel met me after hours at the LGBT Community Center in New York City and provided not only access to archives, but also his own account of a stint in a religious community and his participation in Dignity/New York. Mike and Hope Nelson Pope provided extravagant hospitality while on research trips in D.C. Hope literally went the extra mile(s) to get me to the airport on time. Professors John Corrigan, Amy Koehlinger, and Amanda Porterfield have been willing conversation partners throughout my graduate career and particularly during this project. I am grateful they have given this shy, quiet student time to develop her voice while also prodding her to speak more loudly. I look forward to future conversations. I count colleagues Kelly Baker, Mike Pasquier, and Michael Gueno as the most precious of friends. Their friendships along with those of their spouses have made memories of the years in graduate school sparkle with fondness. I surely will miss the camaraderie experienced in the classroom and laughter at the local pub. I anxiously anticipate reunions. When I was a young girl, adoptive grandparents Osie and the late Delbert Winget set high expectations for me. Unbeknownst to them, they also taught me that life is best lived when expectations are shattered and when one loves in unexpected ways. In an abstract sense, they led me to this project. My family, Mr. Alan and Dr. Melanie Williams, provided unending encouragement and a place to seek refuge away from the confines of my office. Most importantly, they inspired a love of learning and continue to demonstrate how to be life-long students. Steve Bryant and I met just as I was embarking on graduate studies. As partners we iii have waded through the ups and downs of graduate school together, and his love and support is beyond measure. I am deeply appreciative that he has provided me space to be creative–even joining me to wield a sledgehammer to a renovation once in a while. Thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations............................................................................................... vi Abstract ................................................................................................................. vii INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 1 1. THE NEW WAYS MINISTRY......................................................................... 30 2. POSTCONCILIAR CATHOLICISM, LIBERAL SOCIAL REFORM, AND THE JUSTICE TRADITION .................................................................................... 58 3. NEGOTIATING TRANSPARENCY AND OPACITY WITHIN THE INSTITIONAL CHURCH ................................................................................ 86 4. CAN BRIDGES BE BUILT? ............................................................................ 108 5. QUE(E)RYING POSTCONCILIAR REFORM ................................................ 131 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 154 APPENDIX A ....................................................................................................... 159 APPENDIX B........................................................................................................ 160 NOTES.................................................................................................................. 162 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................. 214 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ................................................................................. 233 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AGLO Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach CCGCR Catholic Coalition for Gay Civil Rights CCL Conference of Catholic Lesbians School Sisters of Notre Dame CICLSAL Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life GLF Gay Liberation Front LGBT Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual OSV Our Sunday Visitor NCR National Catholic Reporter NCAN National Coalition of American Nuns NCCB National Conference of Catholic Bishops NWM New Ways Ministry CDF Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith CRSI Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes SSND School Sisters of Notre Dame SIGMA Sisters in Gay Ministry SDS Society of the Divine Savior (Salvatorians) vi ABSTRACT “Homosexuality and the American Catholic Church: Reconfiguring the Silence, 1971- 1999” examines how during the latter decades of the 20th century gay and lesbian Catholic voices and reconciling ministries emerged from a specific and confusing social, cultural, and religious climate. My investigation documents an important chapter in the religious history of the LGBT community in the U.S., one in which the agency and resourcefulness of gay and lesbian Catholics stands in sharp contrast to common narratives of their victimization by the tradition’s deep homophobia. Using data collected from archives, correspondence, interviews, theological and lay Catholic journals, and newspaper reports, I construct a cultural history of a gay- affirmative Catholic ministry: New Ways Ministry (NWM). This study documents the “golden age” of gay Catholic reform, offering an important case study of how gays, lesbians, and religious actively and creatively engaged with their religious tradition. In documenting the expansion and work of a particular, tenacious community of Catholics committed to reconciling the institutional church with the people that constitute the church, my project also discloses the personal, social, and theological resources that buttressed the community’s ability to withstand the pressure directed at them. Together the co-directors of NWM, Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father Robert Nugent, navigated levels of the institutional church hierarchy, creating a language of reconciliation and setting a specific platform for LGBT issues within the church for nearly three decades. By focusing on education and civil rights issues more than the theological development of Catholic sexual ethics, NWM invited priests, theologians, bishops, religious women and men to join an assimilationist, liberal model for social reform. Avoiding radical protest and staking out a pragmatic moderate position between gay Catholics and the magisterium, this community of Catholics saw much hope for inventive political action and effective change in the church. This study explores the possibilities and limits of their work for reconciliation in the decades following the Second Vatican Council while demonstrating how sexuality (and to an extent gender) were reconstituted in the process. This project challenges American religious historical narratives that have overlooked conversations of sexuality, gender, same-sex love, and queer desire as important factors to the cultural history of 20th century American Catholicism and encourages historians of LGBT culture to reassess the role of religious movements in queer history. vii INTRODUCTION The New Ways Ministry The issue of same-sex love and desire is by no means separate from a vast, complicated history of the Catholic Church’s general teachings on sexuality. However, during the late 1960s and through mid-1980s, gay and lesbian