Sister Jeannine Gramick and her lifelong struggle to provide equal rights in
the Roman Catholic Church to gay celebrants is profiled in a new
documentary.
‘In Good Conscience: Sister Jeannine
Gramick’s Journey of Faith’
Independents Nights,
Wed., June 9
6:30 p.m.
$10
Sponsored by Independent Future Project/NY & The Film Society of Lincoln
Center
Walter Reade Theater
North Side of West 65th St., between Broadway and Amsterdam
New York, New York
212-496-3809
NewFest
‘In Good Conscience: Sister Jeannine Gramick’s Journey of Faith’
Thurs., June 10
6 p.m.
$10
Loew’s Cineplex
312 W. 34th St., at 8th Ave.,
Theater #12
917-328-3914
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By RHONDA SMITH
Friday, June 04, 2004
Sister Jeannine Gramick, the Roman Catholic nun who stands up to leaders in Rome
in her ongoing quest to build bridges between the Church and gay people, is still
as feisty and faithful as ever in a new documentary about her work and life.
“We need to forge ahead. We need to do things that are liberating to
others,” the longtime nun says in a new biographical film, “In
Good Conscience: Sister Jeannine Gramick’s Journey of Faith.” “Lesbians
and gay people have a rightful place in the church — just like everyone
else.”
The 81-minute documentary by award-winning director and producer Barbara Rick
focuses on this central message. Wherever Gramick goes — whether it’s
speaking to students at college campuses and bookstores, trying to set up a
meeting with a cardinal in Rome, or listening to angry opponents of homosexuality
at a meeting two years ago in Dallas that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
convened — she repeats her doctrine of acceptance and love.
It’s not always easy.
“I see you as an enemy of the church,” one protestor told Gramick
in Dallas. “At the same time, I love you.” Then the two adversaries
prayed together.
The film offers an understandable introduction to Gramick’s foray into
what has proved to be work at times complicated by church politics.
For those already familiar with Gramick, the documentary provides insights
beyond a look at how she became an outspoken proponent for gays and lesbians
after a man named Dominic asked her in 1971 what she was doing to help gay
Catholics.
That conversation began a lifetime of work that she continues to this day:
to “build bridges between people who are lesbian and gay and the leaders
of my Church,” as she says. It also ultimately had led Catholic officials
in 1999 to order her not to speak or write about homosexuality, or the process
that led to her near-ostracism in the Roman Catholic Church.
The soft-spoken Gramick appears in the film to have an obligation to a power
even higher than the Pope’s. “I choose not to collaborate in my
own oppression by restricting a basic human right,” she said. “To
me this is a matter of conscience.”
What viewers familiar with the nun might not know about, but should enjoy
learning, is that in many ways Gramick is an ordinary person, who just happens
to be doing extraordinary work.
Viewers watch her exercising at home early one morning, going to a hair salon,
picking up some pizzas from Dominoes, and patiently spending time with her
85-year-old father.
For her 58th birthday, Gramick is shown having dinner with friends and colleagues
at New Ways Ministry, the organization she co-founded in Mt. Rainier, Md.,
that serves as an information clearinghouse for information about gay and lesbian
Catholics.
It’s a touching look at a “rebel nun,” as her fans in Italy
affectionately describe her in the film.
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