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Fr. James Martin critiques ‘homophobic’ pastors at WMOF

“LGBT people are more than their sexual lives,” he said, “and if you talk about chastity with LGBT people, do it as much with straight people.”

Jesuit Fr. James Martin, author and editor at large of America magazine, greets attendees at a book signing following an Aug. 23 presentation at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin Aug. 23. (CNS photo/Gina Christian)

Dublin, Ireland, Aug 23, 2018 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Fr. James Martin, SJ addressed Thursday more than 1,000 people at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin.

His Aug. 23 talk, “Showing Welcome and Respect in our Parishes for ‘LGBT’ People and their Families,” encouraged Catholics to “welcome LGBT persons and their families,” into parish life.

The priest said those with “homophobic” pastors, “either silently or overtly,” are “out of luck.”

Parishes, he said, should strive to listen to LGBT parishioners; “trust that the Holy Spirit will guide them in their formation as Christians and Catholics,” rather than “simply repeating Church teaching without considering their lived experience.”

Martin’s speech warned: “Don’t reduce LGBT people to the call to chastity we all share.”

“LGBT people are more than their sexual lives,” he said, “and if you talk about chastity with LGBT people, do it as much with straight people.”

Martin is the author of “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity.” The book drew praise from Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, and organizer of the World Meeting of Families.

However, critics say the book does not directly address Catholic teaching on celibacy and chastity or engage with Catholics who identify as LGBT while observing the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. The book was criticized by Cardinal Robert Sarah, Archbishop Charles Chaput, and other Church leaders.

New Ways Ministry, a dissenting Catholic group that has been the subject of warnings from the U.S. bishops and the Vatican for confusing Catholic teaching, awarded Fr. Martin in 2016 for having “helped to expand the dialogue on LGBT issues in the Catholic Church.”

Martin’s Dublin talk outlined six “fundamental insights” that he believes parishes should consider in order to better serve those Catholics who experience same-sex attraction.

He said that such Catholics are “as much as part of the church as Pope Francis, the local bishop or the pastor;” that they did not choose their sexual orientation; that many have been treated as “lepers” by the Church and have high rates of suicide attempts and homelessness.

He added that “LGBT people bring special gifts to the Church, like any group,” saying that those with same-sex attraction have compassion for those who are marginalized, because they have experienced marginalization.

He last noted that Catholics who experience same-sex attraction long to know God; and that they are loved by God.

In light of those points, Martin suggested that Catholics examine their own attitudes towards LGBT people and their families to determine whether they harbor underlying feelings of discrimination.

He also said that parishes should acknowledge the LGBT community as part of a parish by mentioning them in homilies or in other presentations; and apologize to them if they have experienced harm from the church.

“You can apologize. It doesn’t solve everything, but it’s a start,” he said.

Martin challenged parishes to advocate for those with same-sex attraction, and to foster a culture of exclusivity.

“By excluding LGBT people, you are breaking up God’s family; you are tearing apart the Body of Christ,” he added.

“This is part of what it means to be a Christian: standing up for the marginalized, the persecuted, the beaten down. It’s shocking how little the Catholic Church has done this.”

The priest’s presence at the World Meeting of Families caused considerable controversy before he took the stage. Ahead of the talk, more than 16,000 people signed a petition calling for the Jesuit priest to be disinvited from the event.

There were also protests by LGBT groups outside of the complex where the World Meeting of Families is being held. Shortly after Martin spoke, about a dozen members of an LGBT group called the “Rainbow Choir” performed two songs–“Something Inside So Strong” and “We Are Family”–outside of the facility.

Jessica Webbley-O’Gorman, who was with the Rainbow Choir, told CNA that the choir decided to perform after LGBT groups were not permitted to participate in the World Meeting of Families.

Ursula Halligan, an Irish journalist who was one of the organizers of the protest, also questioned the absence of LGBT families from the event. Initially, promotional material for the World Meeting of Families included images of a same-sex couple. These images were later removed.

Prior to the event, the Irish government exerted pressure on the World Meeting of Families, with one government minister warning it should not express “intolerance” of LBGT groups or same-sex couples.

“There should be a welcome for all. And never again should public statements or remarks which seek to isolate certain families be tolerated,” said Katherine Zappone, the Irish Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, according to the Irish Times.

Cardinal Farrell responded by saying that the event would revitalize family life and would not exclude anyone.

“This encounter… is to promote the Christian concept of marriage, and the Catholic concept of marriage, and will focus on that. All people are invited, we don’t exclude anybody,” the cardinal said.


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20 Comments

  1. ““LGBT people are more than their sexual lives,” he said”

    Why, then, is he insisting on calling them a “community” and identifying them by those initials? He, and they, are the ones who are screaming from the housetops, “This is the innermost part of me, this is the sin I am tempted to commit, or am committing, this is the one facet of myself with which I choose to label myself!” Those who claim to be part of that “community” are the people who are advocating sinful behavior and attempting to force others to knuckle under and say it isn’t sinful. I don’t see thieves or murderers or perjurers or any other group saying “I am a Murderous Person and I insist you recognize people like me as a special group and make us welcome.”

    ““welcome LGBT persons and their families,” into parish life.”

    If by this you mean that persons suffering from the mental disorder of homosexuality and their parents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, grandparents, cousins, should be welcomed into parish life – of course. They, like all of us, should be welcome, to worship God and to gain strength to live in accordance with His will.

    If thy this you mean that someone suffering from that mental disorder and another person of the same sex who claim to be married to one another should be welcomed as a married couple – no way.

    The very fact that he is using the word “homophobic” tells its own tale. A moral judgment about sinful behavior is not an irrational fear.

    “have high rates of suicide attempts and homelessness.”

    So do many other groups suffering from mental illness.

    Father Martin ought to refresh his memory on the ways in which one can be complicit in the sins of others:

    By counsel
    By command
    By consent
    By provocation
    By praise or flattery
    By concealment
    By partaking
    By silence
    By defense of the ill done

    Looks as if he some of those covered.

  2. Entire argument is premised on the idea its OK to be gay. But it’s not. It’s problematic when it’s not sinful. Martin is a false teacher. No matter how he hedges in the pages of America Magazine. And if he is not a wounded and resentful homosexual himself, he does a good impersonation. His whole program epidimizes much that is wrong in the Church today. But who am to judge?

    • Reporting on what Fr. Martin said is not cheerleading, as you seem to be suggesting. It’s a news report. Obviously.

  3. Hence I said, “How long before,” and not “CNA is NCR now.”

    Nonetheless, for the benefit of the obtuse, the article could have used a few more sentences on Cardinal Farrell than:

    [Cardinal Farrell responded by saying that the event would revitalize family life and would not exclude anyone.

    This encounter… is to promote the Christian concept of marriage, and the Catholic concept of marriage, and will focus on that. All people are invited, we don’t exclude anybody,” the cardinal said.]

    • Re: Cardinal Farrell

      Whom else should be held responsible by the laity for the invitation of Fr. James Martin, other than Cardinal Farrell? Shouldn’t CNA be reporting those facts as well?

  4. As many have predicted, the WMOF is shaping to be a WMLGBT.

    R: Fr Martin’s ““LGBT people are more than their sexual lives,” he said, “and if you talk about chastity with LGBT people, do it as much with straight people.”

    The reality is, for LGBT people their sexual lives is pretty the main point of their life, otherwise why tell people that you are LGBT? Isn’t that like identifying yourself as a kleptomaniac even though at other times you do more than just steal?

    Furthermore, for the straight, there is an expression of sexuality that is good – in marriage. For the gay, there will never ever be an expression of their sexuality that is good. From the get go, the act itself is already disordered and depraved, whereas for the straight, the context of the act is what makes is bad.

    I hope that Fr Martin is intelligent enough to get that difference. Sadly, I do think that he is intelligent enough to get that difference. It is more a case of hardness of heart.

    • Cardinal Farrell, LBGT Family Concept as FAMILY? As a Christian/Catholic, I was taught to always do God’s Will before mine. To put God and others first before ‘me’. They need to practice the virtue of what FAMILY means. F A M I L Y ‘Forget about me, I love you.’

  5. Increasingly it appears that James Martin regards himself as his own hero, willingly walking out into the chaos posing the fearless martyr. His routine is all generated out of narcissism. He craves celebrity. He’s a one man show. He is no friend of men and women shouldering same-sex attraction. He does not rise above the level of a drug dealer pushing dope on a street corner. Can one really see this act as much more than constructing a façade of legitimacy for what he experiences as his own inadequacy? The herd of clergy supporting him, most often covertly, are engaged in the same project. It would be merely sad if it had not risen to this level of unabashed stridency given credence by the Bergoglian pontificate.
    We are in days rife with the stench of deception.
    All critiques of James Martin’s fraudulence – which itself has unspoken support from the Bergoglian mendacity – need be offered with the awareness that he is fueled and provided credence by contributors and commenters who betray a thoughtless contempt, an unchristian comportment, a prejudice toward men and women who shoulder the cross of same-sex attraction.
    Such dispositions are not of Christ and betray a lack of awareness of the true nature of the condition and disregard the sacredness of the human person. No cross is confronted in human existence which cannot be the means for sanctification. To add to anyone’s burden with hateful comments or even unspoken prejudicial disposition is sinful. It can and does contribute to a sense of despair and hopelessness in the one who finds their self in such a crosshair. It can propel them on a course to eternal damnation. Our purpose as Christians is to prevent that. We need engage this topic with care – it is a minefield. We can blow with the target of a contemptuous prejudice.
    Counterproductive in the extreme is any exhibition of unchristian contempt and prejudice fueling the gravely and grossly misguided heretical Martin. Drive with care.

  6. That the Pontiff appointed Fr James Martin SJ as Comm Dir and Cardinal Kevin Farrell formerly an intimate associate of Cardinal McCarrick to the Dicastery for Laity and Family both advocates for a ‘softer’ approach to homosexuality both assigned as major presenters in Ireland cannot be dismissed as a neutral open embrace of family nonetheless in the traditional Catholic sense but as Sol suggests indicates the trend to embrace the legitimacy of same sex union. It belongs to New Paradigm ideology raising question of the Pontiff’s resolve to address clerical homosexual behavior.

  7. “Cardinal” Farrell should be under investigation for his years under 2 of the most notorious sex abusers and frauds in the contemporary Church: as (according to his brother Brian) right hand man to Marcel Maciel (in the Legion of Christ); and then in 1984 jumping ship over to McCarrick (in the ADW), ascending to Acting Director of Catholic Charities in 1988, and then Aux Bishop, living in same apartment with McCarrick for 6 years.

    A real “family man,” most likely in the sense that Governor Keating confronted in 2002-03, when the mafia Bishops like Mahony and McCarrick and Wuerl were stonewalling and lying to the entire Church.

  8. As to Rev. Martin: better men like Joseph Sciambra and Daniel Mattson have already challenged him.

    Martin’s response: silence (so far).

    Just like another SJ we all know…

  9. The hierarchy of the Church has been hijacked by a homosexual cabal — one that has infiltrated the Church at the highest levels — that is viciously assaulting orthodoxy from within the Church. Having said that, I want to share some information from the web site medlineplus.gov regarding how gender development can go wrong:

    46, XX INTERSEX: The person has the chromosomes of a woman, the ovaries of a woman, but external (outside) genitals that appear male.

    46, XY INTERSEX: The person has the chromosomes of a man, but the external genitals are incompletely formed, ambiguous, or clearly female.

    TRUE GONADAL INTERSEX: The person must have both ovarian and testicular tissue. This may be in the same gonad (an ovotestis), or the person might have 1 ovary and 1 testis.

    COMPLEX OR UNDETERMINED INTERSEX DISORDERS OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT: Many chromosome configurations other than simple 46, XX or 46, XY can result in disorders of sex development. These include 45, XO (only one X chromosome), and 47, XXY, 47, XXX – both cases have an extra sex chromosome, either an X or a Y.

    More information on these conditions can be found here on the medlineplus.gov web site:

    Intersex

    Obviously gender development can go wrong from the womb such that one isn’t a normal male nor a normal female. It seems entirely reasonable to conclude that it is incorrect and facile to assert that homosexuality is always chosen, especially when one considers that there must be other ways gender development can go wrong from the womb that aren’t yet directly observable by science, yet lead to (at least to what appears to be) same-sex attraction at the phenotypical level.

    Either way, whether one was born that way, or whether one has chosen it due to one’s being deceived by poisonous, vile propaganda, homosexuality, however one acquired that condition, is a disorder.

    Once one has that disorder, the condition of having the disorder is not sinful. Fornication, whether it be homosexual or heterosexual, is what is sinful.

    Of course we should be compassionate to everyone with a disorder, but we must do that without signaling approval of fornication. This is where Fr. Martin and others members of the homosexual cabal that has hijacked the hierarchy of the Church go terribly wrong.

  10. Regarding previous comments on sex chromosome disorders, none of the mentioned ones have been associated with homosexuality, with one caveat: individuals with so-called ambiguous genitalia, in whom the appearance of their external sex organs does not match their sex chromosome make up. Fifty years ago medical experts recommended that these individuals be give the gender that best matched the appearance of their external genitalia or what could be surgically reconstructed. Years later, after observing the emotional consequences of this approach, the same experts concluded that it woul be best to assign the gender that matches these individuals’ chromosome make up (female if XX, male if XY). It would be natural for individuals whose assigned gender does not match his/her sex chromosome composition, to feel attraction for an individual of the same gender but normal karyotype. Such a relationship, on the surface, would appear homosexual when in reality it is not. With the present state of knowledge, it cannot be said that sex chromosome composition leads to homosexual attraction*. Perhaps such attraction resides in another chromosome, but this has not been shown.
    * Consider individuals with XO chromosome composition, so-called Turner syndrome, not a rare condition and the most common of the conditions mentioned, in which only one sex chromosome (X) is present, without another X and without a Y. These individual are emotionally female, and do not show a predisposition to homosexuality.

  11. Regarding previous comments on sex chromosome disorders, none of the mentioned ones have been associated with homosexuality, with one caveat: individuals with so-called ambiguous genitalia, in whom the appearance of their external sex organs does not match their sex chromosome make up. Fifty years ago medical experts recommended that these individuals be assigned the gender that best matched the appearance of their external genitalia or what could be surgically reconstructed. Years later, after observing the emotional consequences of this approach, the same experts concluded that it would be best to assign the gender that matches these individuals’ chromosome make up (female if XX, male if XY). It would be natural for individuals whose assigned gender does not match his/her sex chromosome composition, to feel attraction for an individual of the same gender but normal karyotype. Such a relationship, on the surface, would appear homosexual when in reality it is not. In real life, the situation is not as clear, since management of individuals with ambiguous genitalia generally includes surgical reconstruction and hormone therapy, the latter of which may have an effect on sexual drive. With the present state of knowledge, however, it cannot be said that sex chromosome composition leads to homosexual attraction*. Perhaps such attraction resides in another chromosome, but this has not been shown.

    * Consider individuals with XO chromosome composition, so-called Turner syndrome, not a rare condition and the most common of the conditions mentioned, in which only one sex chromosome (X) is present, without another X and without a Y. These individual are emotionally female, and do not show a predisposition to homosexuality.

  12. “LGBT people are more than their sexual lives,” he said, “and if you talk about chastity with LGBT people, do it as much with straight people.”

    The entire LQBTQIA+ “culture” is built upon the foundation of their sexual lives. They celebrate it. They are enthusiastic in extolling the “virtues” of the gay lifestyle.

  13. It needs to be stated plainly that Martin is a pervert whose promotion of homosexuality in the priesthood and the Church is a disgrace and an outrage. He needs to be laicized and excommunicated and his pseudo born-this-way science dismissed as the claptrap it is.

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