Sister Nathalie Becquart, the undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, delivered a keynote speech on April 3 for an online conference hosted by New Ways Ministry, a group that has drawn cautions from both the US bishops and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith because of its stand on homosexuality.

Sister Becquart—whose appointment last year by Pope Francis made her the first woman entitled to vote in the Synod of Bishops—delivered the Father Robert Nugent Memorial Lecture. Father Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick, the co-founders of New Ways Ministry, were ordered by the Vatican in 1999 to cease addressing the issue of homosexuality.

In 2010, Cardinal Francis George, speaking as president of the US bishops’ conference, said:

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. 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.