Vatican City, Sep 1, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV met in a private audience with Father James Martin, S.J., at the Vatican on Monday.
Martin, who is in Rome to lead a Jubilee pilgrimage for his LGBTQ ministry, Outreach, also had one-on-one audiences with Pope Francis on at least two occasions.
The Vatican does not customarily comment on papal audiences with individuals and the Holy See Press Office did not immediately respond to a request for information about the meeting.
Responding to a request for comment from CNA, Martin wrote: “I was honored and grateful to meet with the Holy Father this morning in an audience in the Apostolic Palace, and heard the same message I heard from Pope Francis on LGBTQ people, which is one of openness and welcome: ‘Todos, todos, todos.’ I found the Pope serene, joyful and encouraging.”
The Jesuit priest, an author and editor at large at America Media, is the founder of Outreach, which describes itself as an “LGBTQ Catholic resource” operating under the auspices of America Media.
Writing on X on Aug. 29, Martin said he is in Rome until Sept. 8 to lead an Outreach pilgrimage with 40 people for the 2025 Jubilee of Hope.
Martin’s ministry to people with same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria has been criticized by some Catholics, who say his approach minimizes or even conflicts with the Church’s teaching on sexual morality. He has also been criticized for promoting initiatives that some say affirm same-sex orientation as an identity.
The priest was also supportive of Pope Francis’ 2023 declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which allows priests to offer private, non-liturgical blessings to same-sex couples.
Despite the controversy over Martin’s ministry, Pope Francis encouraged it both in private meetings with Martin and in letters.
In 2021, Martin published a handwritten note he had received from Francis, in which the pope thanked him for his “ability to be close to people” and also told him, “to continue this way.”
Francis in 2022 also sent a written response to a letter from Martin with three questions about the Catholic Church and the LGBT community.
After his first meeting with Francis, in 2019, Martin wrote on Twitter (now X), that he “felt encouraged, consoled and inspired by the Holy Father today.” The Jesuit priest also met one-on-one with Pope Francis in 2022.
Pope Francis also personally nominated Martin to participate in the Synod on Synodality assemblies held at the Vatican in 2023 and 2024.
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” and frequently speaks on issues pertaining to homosexuality and Catholicism.
Martin is one of 21 consultors for the Dicastery for Communication. He was nominated in 2017.
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Waiting to see who all of the new dicastery appointments will be and, of course, whether the James Martin role as an insider consultant has a shelf life or not (now going on eight years).
Waiting for the other shoe to drop on whether the homosexual lifestyle remains a category of its own seemingly exempt from the moral law. Oh, wait, we already have that other shoe! And it’s an encyclical rather than a press release. St. John Paul II said this about moral judgments as distinguished from autonomous “decisions”:
“A separation, or even an opposition, is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid and general [!], and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final decision [no longer a ‘moral judgment’] about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called ‘pastoral’ solutions [!] contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a ‘creative’ hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept [thou shalt not!]” (Veritatis Splendor, n. 56).
And, “This is the first time, in fact, that the MAGISTERIUM of the Church [caps added] has set forth in detail the fundamental elements of this [‘moral’] teaching, and presented the principles for the pastoral discernment necessary in practical and cultural situations which are complex and even crucial” (n. 115).
And, “The Church is no way [!] the author or the arbiter of this [‘moral’] norm” (n. 95).
I just binned the photo I had on display at home of ppLeoXIV; my Year of Hope just turned to Despair.
Shameless media wh$re trying to keep the lmnop lie alive…. Pope should not be meeting with him… He’s not worthy of such an event… Pray for Leo… And for Martin’s soul..
More of a reserved report from CNA than ABC7. The impression from both is affirmation of Pope Francis’ policy. The Vatican will expectedly say similar. Whether this policy leads to openness to the sacraments, if it already hasn’t encouraged that – or whether there will be a clear affirmation of change of manners and penance is the unanswered question. A question that deserves a clear response in favor of the latter.
Yes, the welcome elephant in the living room: Amoris Laetitia (Ch. 8), and then the kissing car[di]nal’s surprise Fiducia Supplicans which didn’t even pretend to be a creature of synodality (“synod-laity”!), and all at least seeming to elide on the broader problem of sacrilegious reception of the Eucharist (CCC 1374).
Communion sandwiched between the folksy Woodstock sign of peace and then social-hall donuts.
I’ve been reading a lot of James Alison lately, because I’ve renewed my acquaintance with René Girard. James strikes me as a theologian who gets alot right and then gets one thing catastrophically wrong. His “Knowing Jesus” is wonderful, as is Raising Able and the Joy of Being Wrong. SS attraction is nowhere in those three.
He seems to truly love Jesus and the Church.
I’m praying for him.
More on the saga of James Alison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Alison