Fr. James Martin: The “Mastermind” Behind the Two Testimonies in the Vatican’s Synod Report on Homosexuality (Diane Montagna’s Substack): “Jesuit Father James Martin was a key figure behind the inclusion of two testimonies in the Study Group No. 9 report on homosexuality, released earlier this month by the Vatican’s General Secretariat of the Synod.”
African Member of Synod Group Did Not Help Draft Homosexuality Text (National Catholic Register): “The lone African member of a Vatican study group that published a controversial text on homosexuality in its final report did not participate in its drafting, raising further questions about the document’s representativeness and relevance.”
The Moral and Political Wisdom of C.S. Lewis (The American Mind): “The great Christian apologist and literary critic C.S. Lewis provides a surprising amount of moral and political wisdom despite not being a political thinker in any formal sense of the term.”
The Project of Christian Humanism (What We need Now – Substack): “Redemptor Hominis was the first encyclical written by John Paul II and with good reason. Its Christocentric theological anthropology was near and dear to everything he believed most constitutively as a Catholic thinker. “
Cardinal Eijk: Same-Sex Synod Report Must Be Forcefully Refuted (National Catholic Register): “By elevating such testimonies without doctrinal commentary, the report effectively normalizes homosexual relationships within a Church context.”
Save our Catholic colleges (The Pillar): “Having spent a lifetime in politics and higher education, too many Catholics value the former more than the latter.”
Benedictine College Responds to Leaflet and Email Campaign Targeting Church Teaching on Judaism (Benedictine College): Benedictine “In late April, Benedictine College was repeatedly leafletted with anonymous flyers from a group calling itself ‘Coalition of Catholics Against Jewish Supremacy.’”
Our Strange Catholic Moment (First Things): “At present, the trend in conversions shows no signs of offsetting broader decline. And yet something is stirring in the Catholic Church.”
Why Does The World’s Richest Man suddenly Care About Writers? (Onchain Journals – Medium): “Elon is betting on something counterintuitive: The attention economy has hit its floor. There’s nowhere shorter to go. The next frontier isn’t less attention but deeper attention. And whoever captures that depth captures the next decade of AI development.”
Ambassador Brian F. Burch II’s Address to the Class of 2026 (Thomas Aquinas College): “The modern university promises students three things: credentials, specialization, and the lure of a productive career. This institution proudly offers something older and far more demanding: truth, intellectual curiosity, and the formation of the soul.”
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@ African Member of Synod Group [#9]
We read: “Pope Leo XIV will then evaluate the proposals emerging from the study groups and ‘may,’ the Vatican says, ‘approve them’.”
OR, he may act consistently with this year’s Wednesday Audiences which resurrect the Documents of Vatican II rather than simply “walking together” around the hamster-wheel synodal roundtables.
Three Comments and a Summary
FIRST, “…the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether in its written form or in that of Tradition, has been entrusted only to those charged with the Church’s living Magisterium, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ” (Dei Verbum n. 8, cited in Veritatis Splendor, n. 27).
SECOND, A great opportunity and duty for the entire Church to move beyond the worst of the tautological Synod on Synodality—as well as Jimmy Martin coupled with Germania’s Cardinal Marx (who once famously announced: “the subjective is the objective truth”)—and to affirm (!) the “cry of the poor” public dissenters from Fiducia Supplicans–not only all of continental Africa, but also Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Peru, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, and parts of Argentina, France and Spain. AND, oh yes, what G.K. Chesterton affirmed of everyone since the Apostolic Succession was personally commissioned by the incarnate Jesus Christ: “the democracy of the dead.”
THIRD, “…[t]he Church’s Pastors have the duty to act in conformity with their apostolic mission, insisting that ‘the right [!] of the faithful’ [italics] to receive Catholic doctrine in its purity and integrity must always be respected” (Veritatis Splendor, n. 113).
SUMMARY: Poster-child Jimmy Martin, take a seat, or whatever.
@ Cardinal Eijk: Same-Sex Synod Report Must Be Forcefully Refuted
“By elevating such testimonies without doctrinal commentary, the report effectively normalizes homosexual relationships within a Church context” (Cardinal Willem Eijk).
Whether the document was doctored to present homosexual union as perfectly fulfilling, wonderful – the issue is not about feelings and expressions of ‘marital’ bliss – the union of two same sex persons is an egregious sin, a disordering of nature as ordained by God.
Fr James Martin’s gambit is to convince the Church that homosexuality must be a gift from God. The question now is everyone’s expectation, What will Leo XIV do? Is silence keeping it warm on the backburner for a later date, or does Pope Leo empathize in agreement?
What is certain that doing nothing and waiting gives the worldwide homosexual trend approbation and momentum. Pope Leo has announced that Pope Francis’ legacy was to leave the world great joy and hope. This moment will reveal where he stands. My hope and prayer is that he will firmly pronounce that homosexual relations are both disordered and gravely sinful regardless of feelings. Feelings cannot be the measure of what is good or evil. Reason is the measure of a truth, truth is the rule.
Our Strange Catholic Moment (First Things) discusses a ‘fermenting’ of American Catholicism. Fewer Catholics participate in sacraments, but conversions are on the rise.
Vance has made Catholic concepts visible in the public square with his talk on Just War Theory and “ordo amoris.” Trump and Leo’s public disagreement on war shone public light on the spectrum of theologically prudential, debatable Catholic positions.
At a First Things ROFTERS group a few years ago, I deigned to offer negative criticism of Francis’ synodal movement. A Protestant deigned to criticize my (Catholic) criticism of the Pope. Protestants may not follow the pope but they expect Catholics to do just that. Discussion ensued.
Now, in a gathering of young folks with disabilities, hosted in and by a Covenantal Protestant church, two Catholics started and ended prayer with the sign of the cross. A Protestant excitement grew. An astonished happy few had apparently never seen such a thing, but they loved it, especially the part of the Holy Spirit stretching out horizontally among us all.
Yes, something or Someone is giving our mix a stir and sprinkling in the yeast.
Meiron – Where do you situate Vance’s defense of mifepristone access in his efforts to make “Catholic concepts visible in the public square”?
Ordo and war were two Catholic concepts Vance made visible in the public square. Both Francis (on ordo) and Leo (on war) countered Vance’s positions.
Did either of those popes counter Vance when he spoke about mifepristone?
Would liked this version of Extra to include something of the killing of the ISIS no. 2 leader in Nigeria by US and Nigeria military. ISIS was targeting Catholics along with others, it was a travesty. Trump working with Nigeria put a dent into this persecution. So think it deserves some article on this event.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s failure to discipline and laicize James Martin, SCH should forever stain his legacy. He is a cancerous tumor in the body of Christ.
Athanasius: You are so right. Why in the world is Martin allowed to support anti Catholic ideas as if they are okay. One has to pray for the Bishop’s to do Gods will. However, their lack of will to call evil an evil makes one wonder about the process of selecting Bishops. It seems there is a Catholic deep state opposed to Catholic Doctrine, not just on homosexuality but also in opposing abortion.
Nothing for the pope to discern, martin and Et.al. are heretics and the same sex issue is mute!
I think you hit the nail on the head with the deep state. It’s not an isolated incident; it’s a clear and consistent pattern of hostility to the deposit of faith.
Metastatic Martin.
Google search terms: can a local bishop remove a jesuit from the priesthood
AI Overview begins (links omitted):
A local bishop cannot remove a Jesuit (or any Catholic priest) from the priesthood. According to Catholic canon law, priestly ordination leaves an indelible spiritual mark. Once a man is validly ordained, he remains a priest forever.
While a local bishop cannot remove a priest’s sacred orders, he holds specific powers regarding Jesuits in his diocese:
Removal from Ministry: A bishop can revoke a priest’s “faculties” (the official authorization to celebrate Mass, hear confessions, and perform sacraments) within his diocese. If a Jesuit is acting in a harmful or scandalous way, and the Jesuit’s religious superior fails to act, the bishop can formally forbid the priest from ministering or even remaining in the diocese.
Removal from a Parish: If a Jesuit is appointed as a parish pastor, the local bishop can remove him from that specific administrative/pastoral office just as he would a diocesan priest.
Dismissal from the Order: Expelling a Jesuit from the Society of Jesus (the religious order) is the jurisdiction of the Jesuit Major Superior (such as a Provincial) and the Jesuit leadership in Rome, not the local bishop.
Dismissal from the Priesthood (Laicization): The process of removing a man from the clerical state entirely (returning him to the lay state) is called laicization. This permanent penalty can only be granted or decreed by the Pope himself.
For more details on ecclesiastical governance and the bounds of episcopal authority, you can review the Code of Canon Law concerning institutes of consecrated life.
Now write on the blackboard 100 X that a diocesan prelate does not possess the authority to laicize a member of a religious order.
If Martin confirmed someone, not in his jurisdiction, without diocesan permission, he may be laicized.
https://www.newsandtimes.com/politics/2025/11/fr-martin-can-be-defrocked-for-illegal-confirmation/
Can be, but probably won’t.
Come Holy Spirit.
Concerning the position of Fr. Martin and his open arms stance towards all without speaking the truth of the Gospel the message is scandalous. It seems to me, if Pope Leo, God bless him, with his clarion call toward unity does not proclaim the truth with love, he is not guiding us, the Faithful, toward the Truth proclaimed by Christ through His Church. The message of the Gospel given to us by Christ is to proclaim the Truth with love. This is especially is directed toward those in Sacred Holy Orders. Proclaiming unity without truth can only lead to chaos and widespread doubt.
It takes courage and heroic virtue to proclaim the Truth of the Gospel message in this time of relativism and Catholic light. It is not easy to do so. Following Christ and His Church needs men, bishops, priests and deacons with hearts like Saint Paul and the humility of their Savior, Jesus Christ in their souls.
When will Pope Leo demonstrate true Christian charity by admonishing James Martin SJ??????????????
@ The Project on Christian Humanism
Vatican II adopted instead a high-risk approach of seeking to find the overlapping points of contact with the world in order to “engage” that world constructively with its own message (Chapp on John Paul II).
Remainder mainly my own perspective. Focus is shown to be on the human heart, understood as the deep interior mystery of Man – from a Christocentric perspective. Risk because of the pull toward secularization, required because a simplistic reduction of the Christian message to condemnations. This was the determination of Vat II to engage the world on its own terms in areas where there’s agreement. I add due to natural law.
Ratzinger, and later as Benedict XVI agreed and fine tuned the new approach, which as paradigmatic remained consistent with revelation.
Proceeding pontiffs took a different turn, Francis more paradigmatic in assimilation with secular humanism, Leo XIV to date similar though not as aggressively promoted.
Pope Leo’s first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas should clarify where he will wish to lead the Church in context of his three predecessors. This writer perceives this anthropic effort the key to Pope Leo’s Christology and its relation to Man in the world
@ Our Strange Catholic Moment
Regardless of essayist Schmitz’ observation that the surprising influx of conversions to Catholicism doesn’t at all affect the continued Apostasy [let’s face the reality except for some regions]. What Schmitz sees as well as I are better informed Christians. Catholics who’ve studied and seriously considered reason why they should a radical change.
As converts as frequently said elsewhere bring to Catholicism what most lack. And with that capability to profess the faith intelligently and attractively [Pope Leo uses the word attractive as essential to doctrinal appeal although subject to his understanding perhaps too securalized, which should be clarified in his upcoming Anthropic encyclical Magnifica Humanitas].
Marked evidence of the positive effectiveness of converts are the websites that promote the faith and their editors. It is now justifiably said that if you wish to know the faith visit those websites read the articles and comments.
Although one very effective website is Ewtn’s lifelong Catholic Raymond Arroyo’s The World Over and the informative and storied, entertaining Papal Posse. The forces of darkness at a time past attempted to shut them down. A sign of their bold witness.