Psaki rebukes EWTN reporter who asked why Catholic Biden opposes Texas abortion law

Pope Francis waves to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during his Angelus address on Oct. 15, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Oct 17, 2023 / 18:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis met Tuesday at his residence with leadership from the U.S. LGBT organization New Ways Ministry, which was previously denounced by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office for causing confusion on sexual morality among the Catholic faithful.

It’s unclear what the topic of the meeting was, but the organization said in an Oct. 17 statement that it lasted 50 minutes and its controversial co-founder, Sister of Loretto Jeannine Gramick, thanked the Holy Father for “his openness to blessing same-sex unions, as well as for his opposition to the criminalization of LGBTQ+ people in civil society.”

None of the Holy Father’s comments in the meeting were reported in the organization’s statement. CNA asked the organization what was discussed in the meeting but did not receive a response before publication.

New Ways Ministry was founded in 1977 in the Archdiocese of Washington by Gramick and Father Robert Nugent, who were both “permanently prohibited from any pastoral work involving homosexual persons” after an investigation into their work, the Vatican’s doctrinal office ruled in a 1999 notification.

No authority to bless

Gramick’s words of gratitude to the pope on his alleged “openness” to same-sex blessings refers to a response that the Holy Father gave to five cardinals in July of this year after they requested answers to a set of questions known as “dubia.” 

Several mainstream media outlets were fast to report that Pope Francis was “open” to giving blessings to same-sex couples after the publication of the response in October but were too quick to the trigger, as the Holy Father had already affirmed in 2021 that the Church has no authority to do so.

Additionally, theologians who spoke with the National Catholic Register last week said the pope’s focus was not on same-sex unions but instead on same-sex-attracted persons who may be in some kind of same-sex relationship.

Vatican investigation

Gramick and Nugent began running workshops in Washington, D.C., for “Catholic pastoral workers and others interested in gay and lesbian issues,” the organization’s website said. But they also co-wrote and edited books together, which became the subjects of the Vatican investigation.

The Vatican’s 1998 investigation heavily focused on their book “Building Bridges: Gay and Lesbian Reality and the Catholic Church,” which “summarized their activities and thinking,” the notification said.

The Holy See ultimately concluded that there were “serious deficiencies in their writings and pastoral activities, which were incompatible with the fullness of Christian morality,” the notification said. 

Their case was referred to the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which queried them on their positions on sexual morality.

In their responses, “Sister Gramick and Father Nugent demonstrated a clear conceptual understanding of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality but refrained from professing any adherence to that teaching,” the notification said. 

That notification, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, said that their positions “regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts and the objective disorder of the homosexual inclination are doctrinally unacceptable because they do not faithfully convey the clear and constant teaching of the Catholic Church in this area.”

In 2010, under the leadership of the late Cardinal Francis George, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement emphasizing that New Ways Ministry “has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church and that they cannot speak on behalf of the Catholic faithful in the United States.”

Corresponding letters

Tuesday’s meeting comes following a few years of correspondence between Gramick, the organization, and the Holy Father, according to New Ways Ministry’s statement.

In April 2021, the organization’s executive director, Francis DeBernardo, wrote to Pope Francis explaining the organization’s mission, the statement said.

On May 3, 2021, Pope Francis responded to a letter from DeBernardo and said that he read the letter, which helped him to better understand the organization’s history, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

“It helped me a lot to know the full story you tell me,” the Holy Father wrote. “Sometimes we receive partial information about people and organizations, and this doesn’t help. Your letter, as it narrates with objectivity its history, gives me light to better understand certain situations.”

In a June 2021 letter to DeBernardo, the Holy Father thanked him for his “heart, open to your neighbor” and wrote of Gramick that “I know how much she has suffered,” according to the National Catholic Reporter.

“She is a valiant woman who makes her decisions in prayer,” the letter said.

The correspondence has continued since then, “always receiving cordial and affirming handwritten notes in return,” the organization’s statement said. 

“This meeting is remarkable because it reflects the steady acceptance of Catholic officials to LGBTQ+ issues and ministry,” the statement continued.

New Ways Ministry has not only gained an audience with Pope Francis but also with Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary at the Synod of Bishops, who gave a lecture to the organization in 2022 titled “Synodality: A Path of Reconciliation.”

The decision to offer the “Father Robert Nugent Memorial Lecture,” given in honor of the priest, who died in 2014, was denounced by Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect emeritus of the Apostolic Signatura, in comments to the National Catholic Register as “simply wrong.”

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Father Paul Hartmann, who has been appointed associate general secretary of the USCCB. / Archdiocese of Milwaukee

Washington D.C., Feb 11, 2022 / 15:00 pm (CNA).
Fr. Paul Hartmann, a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, has been named the As… […]

Elias Elsayah at Chris and Sam’s Barber Shop in Norwood, Massachusetts / Joe Bukuras/CNA

Washington D.C., May 19, 2021 / 10:31 am (CNA).

Six days a week on busy Washington Street in Norwood, Massachusetts, Catholic barber Elias Elsayah can be found clipping hair and changing lives. 

Now a barber for eight years, Elsayah converts the hearts of many with his own miraculous conversion story. From their chair at Chris and Sam’s Barber Shop, his customers have a clear view of pictures of the Image of Divine Mercy, St. Charbel Makhlouf, and St. Pio Pietrelcina, as well as multiple images of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“Elias proclaims the good news to you no matter what,’” Elsayah’s pastor, Fr. Joseph Daiif of St. Theresa Maronite Church in Brockton, Massachusetts, told CNA. 

Mark Farah, a candidate for seminary, told CNA that one year after sitting in Elsayah’s chair at the barber shop, he has moved from living as a “secular” college student to now awaiting admittance to the seminary for the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. 

“If I hadn’t heard Elias’ story of God’s mercy and grace, I believe I would still be living a sinful life,” Farah said.

Matthew Lima said that the first time he sat in Elsayah’s chair at the barber shop as a young man struggling with his faith, Elias preached to him about the power of the rosary.

“I will admit after sitting on his chair and listening to his words and how it helped his life I thought I will give it a try,” Lima told CNA. “I did and I felt so much better praying on the rosary and just carrying it around with me at all times to keep my faith and my mind at ease.”

Chadi Matta, Elsayah’s friend and co-worker, told CNA that although Elsayah is now committed to his faith, he once lived a much different life. 

“Elias was a womanizer,” said Matta. “Everyone either knew him or knew of him.” He recalled how Elsayah, now 43 years old, would bring countless women to his house and lived a reckless lifestyle.

“I remember going to his apartment where he had two friends living with him,” Matta told CNA. “I thought they were living life with no rules. I always heard them talking about girls and the party life they had.”

Elsayah, who emigrated from Lebanon to the United States at 27 years old, said he was making money in sinful ways for ten years. He said that his first steps back towards the Church happened when a friend introduced him to the homilies of a priest in Lebanon, Fr. Ralph Tanjar.

“The first time I listened to the priest’s homily, he was focusing on confession and what happens when people don’t go to Mass and confession,” Elsayah said. “So, it touched my heart a little bit, and I started getting curious.”

Elsayah, who had never received any sacraments except for Baptism, began to listen to Fr. Tanjar’s homilies. Then, a friend gave him a book by St. Alphonsus Liguori on the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

“So, I started reading it and I started praying the rosary little by little because in his homilies he concentrated on the rosary a lot,” Elsayah said of St. Alphonsus. 

When Elsayah was 34, he went out to clubs with some of his friends and was assaulted on the head with a metal bat. Matta told CNA he remembered getting a call from Elias’ friend that night he had been hospitalized in the intensive care unit. 

“The sight of him in the bed unconscious, the bandages, the machines all terrified me,” Matta said. 

Before going unconscious, Elsayah said he surrendered his life to the Lord while being rushed into the hospital. Elsayah told CNA that the doctors miraculously found no internal bleeding in the MRI scan. 

“It was all drug-related,” Elsayah said of the attack. “This guy wanted to kill me.”

When Elsayah turned 35, he recalled one scary afternoon where he felt glued to his bed and smelled repulsive fumes. He said he lost the ability to move and speak. 

“I wanted to scream. I couldn’t. I got scared,” he said. “And I looked up, and saw three devils above my head with black fumes. It’s hell!”

Elsayah prayed to the Virgin Mary and begged for her help. “As soon as I said her [Mary’s] name, it was gone and disappeared,” he said. 

Elsayah said the experience reflected the grave state of his soul. His disgust of his sins moved him to make his first confession, which lasted four hours. Elsayah marked the confession as a turning point in his faith life, but noted that he still carried the effects of many sins with him. 

Over the next four years Elsayah said he began to cling to the rosary and the sacraments. 

At age 39, Elsayah attended a Mass by visiting priest Father Saliba Kozah, from Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon parish in Boston. Kozah, who passed away in February 2021, was a well-known priest in Lebanon and in the local Maronite community. 

Elsayah noted how he was not supposed to be at the Mass that day because of a fishing trip he had planned with his friend.

“My friend says don’t go on the trip, there’s a monk coming from Lebanon and he’s a saint. You’ll only see men like this once in your lifetime,” Elsayah told CNA. 

Elsayah wanted to go on the fishing trip “but something in my head told me don’t go,”  he said. “So, I cancelled my trip and I went to the church.”

Elsayah told CNA that during an event after the Mass, he asked Kozah a question on confession. Elsayah said Kozah replied by yelling, “You! You need to confess again!” 

Elsayah told Kozah that he had confessed the previous week. Kozah responded, telling Elsayah that he committed the same sin again. Elsayah claimed that Kozah “read his soul,” although at the time he was embarrassed and wondered why he was the only one present to be called out by the priest.

Elsayah said he felt humiliated and questioned to himself “Why in front of all these people? Why Lord?” Kozah responded, “Don’t be embarrassed. Be happy. The Holy Trinity told me about you.”

Elsayah told the priest in confession that he was living in sin with a woman to whom he was not married. He said that Kozah replied, “This woman, she’s your sister in Christ. You’re not allowed to touch her until you’re married to her in the Church.” 

“Fr. Saliba told me ‘if you die you’ll go straight to hell. No salvation, don’t let anybody fool you.’ Then, he gave me absolution,” he said.

Elsayah said that this confession changed his life forever. He began pursuing a life of purity, and his relationship with his girlfriend ended. He said his obsession with women was overcome through the grace from confession.

His own conversion story has spurred others to change their own lives. Rob Canfield told CNA that he was undergoing a midlife crisis as a 56-year-old father of four when he met Elsayah.

Canfield said that hearing Elias’ story at the barber shop helped him better appreciate his faith. “Elias is unwavering in his trust in the Word and there is a peace in that trust that I am still learning to appreciate,” Canfield said.

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