Priest Bows to Order on Gay Ministry

Father Robert Nugent, who was permanently prohibited this week by the Vatican from continuing his decades-long ministry to gays and lesbians, said that he would abide by the decision. But he said he had “never deliberately denied or placed in doubt” any Catholic teaching “which requires the assent of theological faith.”

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said Nugent’s statements and writings, as well as those of Sister Jeannine Gramick, were “erroneous and dangerous.” The two were involved with the Maryland-based New Ways Ministry, which ministers to gay men and lesbians.

The Vatican said that although there were “positive aspects” to their ministry, Nugent and Gramick had repeatedly called central elements of the church’s teaching--namely that that a homosexual orientation is “objectively disordered” and that homosexual acts are “intrinsically evil”--into question. Nugent said he had only expressed concern about whether that teaching was to be considered infallible and therefore followed without question.

Still, Nugent said that during the course of a 15-year investigation of his ministry, he had “explicitly clarified and corrected” his views that were judged dangerous or erroneous. “I acknowledged that these problems arose from a lack of precision or clarity in my expressions or an imbalance in my methodology. I also acknowledged that these had caused misunderstandings in certain quarters,” Nugent said.

Despite those efforts as well as other apologies, Nugent said his explanations were rejected by the Vatican. Because of his vows of obedience, Nugent said he would comply with the Vatican orders, which also barred him and Gramick from holding any office in their religious orders for an indefinite period.