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(LifeSiteNews) — The pro-LGBT group New Ways Ministry is celebrating the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)’s decision to allow a self-identified lesbian to serve as a foster parent through a USCCB-funded program.
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“Huge news: In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has granted an exception for an unmarried lesbian applicant to serve as a foster parent through a program administered by a Catholic organization,” New Ways Ministry tweeted Wednesday.
The dissident group shared on its website that the USCCB “told the federal government it no longer has a religious objection to working with a single lesbian foster parent” in a capitulation to Kelly Easter, the foster-care applicant who sued after her application was denied.
Easter had contacted the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement in her desire to look after a refugee child, reported Baptist News Global. She was then “directed to the only entity participating in the program in her area: Bethany Christian Services, an approved partner of” the USCCB, “which receives federal funds to provide foster care services.”
Because Bethany’s foster care program was “controlled by pass-through federal funding” from the USCCB, Easter was denied permission to offer her home for a refugee child due to her lesbian identity.
Easter went on to sue the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under which the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement operates, “for discrimination against LGBTQ foster parent applicants” as an organization that receives taxpayer funds.
She voluntarily dismissed her case, reportedly after the USCCB dropped its objection to allowing single homosexual foster parents.
New Ways Ministry described the USCCB’s decision as marking a policy change rather than being a one-time exception.
“The USCCB, which is not known for compromising or reversing position in court, opened the door for single queer parents to care for children in the foster care system. While the Conference did not opt to publicize the change, the official change of policy as recorded in court cements the ability of queer foster parents to work with Catholic agencies to support young people,” the pro-LGBTQ group wrote.
The USCCB continues to deny same-sex couples the ability to foster and adopt children, even while receiving federal funds, as the 2021 Fulton v. The City of Philadelphia Supreme Court decision upheld.
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It is unknown whether Easter intends to live chastely, or whether this was a condition of her caring for a refugee child under a USCCB-funded program. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law (CCC 2357).” The Catechism further explains that people with homosexual tendencies are called to live a life of chastity.
Researcher Brittany Klein, who was brought up by a same-sex couple, considers homosexual adoption to be “systematic child abuse,” in part because it deprives a child of either a mother or father.
The dissident group New Ways Ministry was founded in 1977 by Sister Jeannine Gramick, SSND, and Father Robert Nugent, SDS, to promote “justice and reconciliation between lesbian and gay Catholics and the wider Catholic community.”
Because they “promote[d] ambiguous positions on homosexuality and explicitly criticized documents of the Church’s Magisterium on this issue,” even after they were admonished by an Archbishop and a Vatican arm, they were banned from pastoral work in 1999 by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
Despite this order, Gramick and Nugent continued their involvement in New Ways Ministry, although they removed themselves from leadership positions. Pope Francis has gone so far as to praise Gramick for her “50 years of ministry,” as he has repeatedly congratulated religious men and women and others who endeavor to subvert Church teaching regarding homosexuality and transgenderism.
LifeSiteNews reached out to the USCCB several times for comment but had not received a response as of publishing.