(LifeSiteNews) — New Ways Ministry (NWM), which for decades has made misleading American Catholics about homosexuality and transgenderism its mission, has announced that the pro-LGBTQ bishop of Lexington, Kentucky, Bishop John Stowe, OFM, Conv., will receive the organization’s “Bridge Building Award” for his “LGBTQ+ efforts.”   

The announcement by the pro-LGBT organization, which identifies itself as “Catholic,” praises Stowe for being “a consistent and strong supporter of LGBTQ+ issues in the U.S. Catholic Church.” 

In 2010, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) declared that New Ways Ministry “has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church” to speak on the LGBT issue.   

“No one should be misled by the claim that New Ways Ministry provides an authentic interpretation of Catholic teaching and an authentic Catholic pastoral practice,” wrote Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I., then the archbishop of Chicago, on behalf of the USCCB.  

“Their claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the Church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination,” said Cardinal George.    

“Accordingly, I wish to make it clear that, like other groups that claim to be Catholic but deny central aspects of Church teaching, 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.” 

Pro-LGBTQ+ Bishop Stowe: ‘Gratingly at odds with the good work of his brother bishops’ 

“The behavior of Bishop John Stowe of Lexington—behavior so gratingly at odds with the good work of his brother bishops—can only serve to embarrass the USCCB and will continue to hamper their pastoral witness if left unaddressed by the Holy See,” asserted Jayd Henricks, writing at the Catholic World Report in June.  

“He regularly steps into the most delicate and highly-charged cultural and political issues with none of the painstaking care his brother bishops show,” said Henricks, former executive director of government relations for the USCCB. “He seems determined, in fact, to follow his own blundering impulses, and to kick against the other bishops’ pastoral approach whenever it might rein him in.” 

Stowe, who was appointed by Pope Francis to lead the Diocese of Lexington in 2015, has a long history of pro-LGBTQ+ activism within the Catholic Church.  

Earlier this year, the heterodox bishop doubled down on referring to a woman who calls herself a man and lives as a “diocesan hermit” as a man named “Brother Christian Matson.” Stowe has insisted on using male pronouns to describe the woman, despite the fact that it is canonically impossible for a “transsexual” person to live as a religious or in any ecclesial state.  

In October 2023, after Pope Francis expressed an openness to “blessings” for homosexual “couples,” Stowe amplified the Pope’s infelicitous remarks and said that such a gesture “almost signifies God’s approval.” 

In 2022, he hosted a prayer service that sought to issue an apology to individuals with homosexual inclinations on behalf of the Church titled “Service of Atonement and Apology to the LGBTQ+ Community.” 

In 2021, he participated in an event hosted by heretical pro-LGBT organization Dignity USA, which rejects Church teaching on several points of faith and morals. Dignity USA billed the event as a reaction to the Vatican’s pronouncement earlier that year that homosexual relationships cannot be blessed. The teaching, published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in March, declared that the Church lacks “the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex.” God “cannot bless sin,” it emphasized. 

Bishop Stowe gave a general blessing at the event, highlighting the “annual celebration of pride.” “Dear friends in the LGBTQ community. I offer a prayer, a blessing, for each of you during this annual celebration of pride,” he said. People who suffer from a homosexual inclination and/or gender confusion cannot rightly be called a “community,” as Father Gerald Murray has explained. 

Stowe’s speech was preceded by a “pride blessing” from Dignity USA executive director Marianne Duddy-Burke, Catholic News Agency reported. 

In June 2020, Stowe similarly released a “pride month” video in which he apologized for the Church’s teaching on homosexuality and gender confusion. A few months later, he asked parishes to place an ad for an “affirming” so-called “LGBT ministry” in their weekly bulletins. 

During 2019’s “pride month,” Stowe issued a sacrilegious “prayer” card that celebrates homosexual “pride” and includes an image of a crucifix with rainbow colors coming from it. That year, he also led an “LGBT retreat” at the University of Notre Dame. 

In 2018, Bishop Stowe allowed Fortunate Families, a pro-LGBT, self-professed “Catholic” organization working in partnership with “Lexington Catholic LGBT Ministry” and the University of Kentucky LGBTQ* Resource Center, to host dissident and openly homosexual Father Bryan Massingale. He spoke about so-called “LGBT Persons in the The Age of Pope Francis & Social Ethics.” 

Stowe is one of five bishops who endorsed heterodox Jesuit Father James Martin’s book “Building a Bridge” and was also a featured speaker at a 2017 conference for New Ways Ministry. The gathering was titled “Justice and Mercy Shall Kiss: LGBT Catholics [sic] in the Age of Pope Francis.” 

Others who have received the NWM “Bridge Building Award” are Vatican-censured Fr. Charles Curran and Fr. Martin. 

The award ceremony, which is open to the public but requires advance registration, will begin at 7:00 pm on November 15 at Trinity University in Washington, D.C.