Last Thursday, before the bombshell that dropped on Saturday, Fr. James Martin, S.J., gave a much-anticipated (and protested) talk at the Vatican’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Ireland. The title of the talk was “How Parishes Can Welcome L.G.B.T. Catholics”. In his talk, Fr. Martin addressed familiar themes to those who have read his 2017 book, Building a Bridge. Whether one agrees with him or not, Fr. Martin’s is an influential voice in the current conversation about how the Church should minister to “LGBT Catholics”.
In his talk, Fr. Martin called for a more pastoral response to those who consider themselves LGBT. He rightly denounced the tragic way LGBT Catholics and their families have at times been treated in the Church. The stories he tells reveal shameful spiritual abuse of God’s children. As the Catechism makes clear:
[Those with deep-seated homosexual tendencies] must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. (par 2358)
We need to ensure that people are treated justly, and with true pastoral charity. Sadly, though, the horror stories Fr. Martin recounts are not the only ones that could be told. Consider, for example, what Joseph Sciambra reported in his recent First Things article. He described conversations he had with priests about his same-sex attraction, beginning when he was sixteen. The first priest he spoke to told him that God had made him gay, and that he should act “responsibly.” A few years later, he went and talked with another one.
He offered the same advice the first priest had, but he added that I needed to settle down with one partner. I tried that, too. But I don’t believe I made any major lifestyle changes on the basis of what these priests told me. For the most part, my mind was already made up: I believed I had been born gay. Whether or not some God had made me that way, I didn’t really care. In one sense, these priests had made my life easier by confirming what I already thought. Yet at sixteen, when I talked to that first priest, I had secretly wanted him to say something else. I had wanted him to be strong—I had wanted him to rescue me from myself.
In his texts and tweets, however, Fr. Martin never seems to acknowledge horror stories of this sort.
Sciambra’s experience is not unique. My brother Dan Mattson, who wrote the 2017 book Why I Don’t Call Myself Gay: How I Reclaimed My Sexual Reality and Found Peace, told me that a priest to whom he confessed his same-sex sins advised him to “Go find a boyfriend.” Such priests, no doubt, believe they are helping men like Joseph and my brother. But it’s not true. They wanted, and deserved, the truth. Instead they were encouraged to keep on sinning. Sciambra concludes his article with these sobering and accurate words:
. . . imagine the damage Fr. Martin’s words will do to the countless young people who earnestly attend the World Meeting of Families. If the Church wants to show true respect, compassion, and sensitivity to homosexual persons, it must offer them the words of Christ—not Fr. Martin’s false comfort.
The major theme of Fr. Martin’s talks, tweets, and articles is a celebration of all things LGBT (including even Gay Pride events). His efforts seem focused on helping the Church “get with the times” regarding matters LGBT, with a heavy emphasis on avoiding any potential hurt feelings among those who don’t believe the Church’s teaching. He is even on record asking priests to “come out as celibate gay priests,” to normalize “being gay”.
Given what he has written and said, I don’t doubt that Fr. Martin would have responded much the same way that these priests responded to Joseph and my brother. Take, for example, the advice he gave in his WMOF talk. The second “fundamental insight” he offers is “They do not choose their orientation.” I suspect he would recommend that Joseph and Dan acknowledge that God made them gay. But Joseph and Dan don’t believe that.
Given the ideological circles in which Fr. Martin runs and the ministries he supports, it is easy to infer how he would answer almost any question about sexual morality. That’s because what Fr. Martin writes and says seems guided more by GLAAD than by God, and is more aligned to the thinking of the World than the Word.
Fr. Martin has, simply put, adopted and “baptized” the talking points of LGBT activists. He’s foisting on the Church recommendations that the world has developed in reaction to the Church’s age-old teaching about human sexuality. That’s why I would half-expect Fr. Martin to claim, as many others have, that Joseph and Dan must surely suffer from “internalized homophobia” simply because they are unwilling to describe themselves as “gay” and are unwilling to believe that God made them that way.
Dan recently experienced a host of such comments in response to his First Things article, in which he argued that the Church shouldn’t ordain men like him (i.e., those who are same-sex attracted). Several commenters spewed venom, while others offered him hope that he might someday come to love himself. They seemed not to have sufficient imagination, and perhaps Fr. Martin lacks it too, to believe that Catholics like Joseph and my brother might actually find the Church’s perennial teaching on human sexuality Good News.
This week I find myself wondering again whether Fr. Martin has read Dan’s book. I suspect not. But he should. In the Church today, we are grappling, obviously enough, with grave sins committed by “gay priests” and bishops. Despite his notoriety, Fr. Martin doesn’t help us think deeply about the relevant questions. At all. That’s because he doesn’t talk seriously about chastity, or what it takes to live chaste lives. He focuses instead on feelings.
Dan’s book, on the other hand, engages deeply the Church and the salient questions of our day. His book is not sentimental. It is a hard-hitting treatment of the ideology that drives much of the current debate about matters LGBT. His argument is compelling, and his summary of Church teaching, drawing as it does on Scripture, the Church Fathers, Magisterial Teaching, and the witness of the Saints, is rich and deep. Simply put, his book offers important answers from Scripture and Tradition to the culture’s press for acceptance and celebration of all things LGBT. It also provides an answer to Fr. Martin from the perspective of the Church.
Dan and Joseph, like the Courage/EnCourage International apostolate of which they are members, like the Catechism, like the Scriptures, embrace the beautiful vision of human sexuality offered us by the Lord through the Church. Is it a difficult teaching? Of course it is. But it’s not the only one. As we read last Sunday, Peter, thinking with the Church, got it right. “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life.”
A few months back, when I first heard that Fr. Martin had been invited to gave a talk at the World Meeting of Families, I, like many priests and lay faithful, was disheartened. And angry. That’s because he simply does not think with the Church. I had long-suspected, as many have, that Fr. Martin has been propped up by gay-agenda promoting bishops and cardinals. Archbishop Viganò’s recent allegations help makes sense of why and how that might have happened. (May the truth all come out.)
Prior to the news about McCarrick, Pennsylvania, and the release of Viganò’s “testimony,” the question I found myself repeatedly asking was “What’s next?” I had concerns about the World Meeting of Families, of course, and it seemed clear that the upcoming Synod on Youth could easily be manipulated to make the Church’s teaching more “palatable” to the youth. Sadly, over the past few years, it has often seemed that the “innovators” had the wind at their backs.
Today, however, precisely because of the scandal we are suffering, the winds have changed. Jesus, who told us never to fear, is truly at work, exposing lies, secrets, and actions of shepherds who have “shepherded themselves on their sheep.” My prayer is that the Barque of Peter will, indeed, be righted once again and travel safely in the winds of the Spirit. May all our shepherds, from highest to the lowest, do what every good Jesuit commits himself to do: Think with the Church!
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Thank you for this article, Father.
We have St. Andrew’s parish here in Portland, Oregon. They have been pushing the gay agenda for 20 years. Celebrating anniversaries of gay couples. Walking with a church banner in the gay pride parade, etc. And I read that we’re not the only US city that has a Catholic parish like that. It’s very discouraging.
Very sad. I’ll pray for you guys
Attacking a Priest that is trying to include the marginalized into the Mystical Body of Christ is anathema. God is Love. Period. Amen. God Bless!!!–Jim
“trying to include the marginalized into the Mystical Body of Christ” is a very odd way to say “encouraging people to commit mortal sin and claiming that the Church is incorrect and it isn’t a sin.”
You can speak of Gay Straight Alliances and Gay roups on Catholic campuses but eventually you get to the point of what is the church position on gay marriage and/or gay fornication. Seems to me these are sins just as heterosexual fornication outside of marriage are sins. The church should welcome everyone but its position on gay marriage should not be weakened by PC considerations. Did not Jesus condemn sodomy as sinful? The church has defended heterosexual marriage (encyclical No Longer Two) for centuries.
You can’t be preaching “pro-life” which is between a man and a woman and also pro LGBT gay marriage support which is against pro-creation two man cannot make a baby? Fr. Please repent and get right with God before judgement day. There are priests in hell for teaching wrong doctrine that’s not according to the word of God.
Amen.
If you are sincere regarding your Catholic faith, then I feel for you. You are in a difficult position. Maybe you have the added cross of sacrificing your sexual tendencies for the faith. It is true that homosexuality, Paul is clear in his dealings with the Greeks, has no acceptable place in Christianity. Where does it stop? No such thing as sodomy? Transgenderism is Ok? Does pedophilia just need additional understanding? After all, we’re all God’s children and he understands even if my fellow humans don’t. If this is all true, then there is no longer a need for the word “sin”.
Prior to Supreme Court Justice Kennedy writing the inventive majority opinion of Obergfell v. Hodges (the gay “marriage” ruling), a number of states already had voted in this direction under the “civil rights” (rites?) branding. The first with a public vote (and the first in world history) was Washington State, where a state legislative action was contested by a failed public initiative for reversal. As for the kind of sympathizing deceit peddled there and today by Fr. James Martin, get this:
“During testimony at a public legislative hearing in Washington State in 2012, your author witnessed a key speaker in favor of a proposed gay “marriage” bill. Here was a quite handsome young man in white shirt and tie whose parents divorced when he was twelve. Betrayed with poor nurturing, the young man is stuck in a zone where he chooses to live in a physically intimate relationship with a same-sex father figure. He would do this rather than be a father himself in a real marriage between a man and a woman. And he wants validation under state law. His being deprived of real nurturing is the problem, and yet we are tutored that as the solution this pattern should be (and is now) legalized—and imposed on all of society as the new worldview. Only moments before in the crowded front of the chamber two sympathetic male staffers, also in white shirts and ties, embraced each other with prolonged excitement, each chortling aloud without blushing, ‘I have ‘straight’ love. . . .'”
That some of the careerist leadership inside the Church would naively, stupidly, or cleverly enable the Martin culture-war agenda is an incompetence and betrayal of historic proportions. But with the Vigano disclosure, it’s now less the beginning of the end than the end of the beginning—-at last, real cause for hope!
The above is an excerpt from my recent book on the culture wars: “A GENERATION ABANDONED—Why “Whatever” Is Not Enough.” Here’s the link for the Catholic World Report author interview:
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/03/29/a-generation-abandoned-why-whatever-is-not-enough
Eerr yes, but there are many people,who are born with or have ssa,,they have largely been ignored,suppressed or ridiculed ,I am one of them, we are a problem because we exist. I have seven siblings who are all heterosexual, I have absolutely no idea why I am the way i am,it has also caused me much suffering, I am glad this issue is finally in the open.
I also believe in the teachings of Christ, the example of his holy mother and saint Joseph .
God bless thes voices that are faithful and not misleading.
Thanks for the gutsy article. I’m with you brother.May the truth win the day. God bless you.
Father the catachism is in error about the nature of homosexuality. It calls it a disorder, which is psychological language. It needs to say a sinful evil desire. The current catechism was written by homosexuals trying to change the nature of what God calls evil.
Both you and the catechism are wrong. Homosexuality is a natural variation in God’s world. It occurs in naturally in a wide variety of species in the animal kingdom, including homo sapiens. It’s simply part of the natural order as Jesus observed in Matthew 19. Jesus went on to say that acceptance of homosexuality would be difficult, and He was right. For those of us who “have ears for His words,” I hope they hear and find peace with themselves and their world as I have. Meanwhile, I’ll pray for your enlightenment. Acceptance of God’s plan is the key to your internal peace.
“It’s simply part of the natural order as Jesus observed in Matthew 19.”
No, He didn’t. He said nothing at all about homosexuality in Matthew 19.
“Jesus went on to say that acceptance of homosexuality would be difficult, and He was right. ”
You seem not to understand that, when reading the Bible, one reads what is there, rather than making things up that say what you want them to say. He did not say anything at all about homosexuality in Matthew 19.
Thank you. John G. Well said, we can’t be afraid to speak the truth. We cannot divide the body of Christ. Unison means to live the Bible not our own sexual desires. Does a married gay person go to confession, receive Jesus in the blessed sacrament and then go back to the sexual relations with a person they can’t naturally get pregnant? Disorder!
Thank you and may God bless you, your brother and family abundantly.
It is GOOD that the RCC and her community of intellects are resorting to true Magisterium teachings to rebut the lies that have pushed the Church into these crises, but, it isn’t enough.
If the truth is going to be used to push Satan back into his domain, and out of our Church and culture, we need to also use secular arguments (scientific objective truths) to help reveal the Truth of Jesus Christ to secularists.
Aberrant behaviors, including and especially homosexuality, is thoroughly contradictory to the optimal fitness of all species (at every level from the individual, to the family, to the community, to the population and the species.
The fitness of homo sapiens is inextricably linked to the fitness of the individual, the population, and the community, therefore, anything that promotes the unfitness of the individual (eg. homosexuality) within any given social structure (family, community, population) is a threat to humanity. This is an incontrovertible scientific fact, and it must be taught to the population, concurrent with all of God’s truths.
We must use all the tools (talents) in our toolbox, as gifted to us, by God to effectively battle and conquer Satan.
Sexuality is a creation of Almighty God and is sacramentalized in Holy Matrimony. In that context it is an efficacious sign instituted by God to confer Grace.
In that light James Martin’s attempt to equate same-sex attraction and expression with well-ordered heterosexuality can be seen as not merely heretical but sacrilegious as well. In fact, perhaps that understanding could be rendered to the adoption of heterosexual expression outside of monogamous marriage as well. Saint Paul’s equation of the disorder in question with idolatry has a certain resonance in our own time.
Even if in light of “contemporary experience” the competent authorities understood that this human dilemma required an adjusted mode of address, one would expect the discussion and research to be accomplished with the greatest discretion. As it is, contemporary experience has proved full well that the Church’s estimation of the disorder is sound. That the ecclesiastical superiors of this rogue priest have not called him to order – we are well beyond the point where a punitive intervention is required – bespeaks their own disorientation and the abandonment of the Gospel imperative for lives of virtue. Their complicity in giving leash to the justification to immorality makes them as guilty of pastoral malpractice as James Martin.
Now the chickens are really coming home to roost. Their deposit most frequently is not nutritional, and are not up to our necks this week.
Fr Martin is a homosexualist and deceiver. He should not be a RC priest.
What in the world is a homosexualist? I am 66 years old and have never come upon such a term.
A homosexualist is a cheerleader for intrinsically disordered sexual deviancy between members of the same gender. James Martin LFGBTSJ is the pied piper of sodomy aka a sodoclericalist.
Rather strange that Fr. Martin seems to feel that he is God’s anointed with the assigned mission to change moral thinking in the Church. Last person I recall hearing about with that sort of mind set was John Brown and he garbled the message pretty badly.
homosexuality and suicide are one of the blasphemies against the Holy Spirit; it will never be forgiven.
Judgement of others is above your pay grade.
James Martin is “not thinking with the Church” because he is homosexualist heretic and avid promoter of a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance. He should be laicized and excommunicated as such.
I am disgusted by the author’s obstinate misunderstandings of sexuality and ungodly homophobic language. First, the personal anecdotes of two people who have power to think rationally and make their own decisions are not representative of the LGBT+ community as a whole, so one should never use them to make general and wide reaching statements such as those made here. Pope John Paul II acknowledged that homosexual orientation is usually not a matter of choice, which brings me to the second point, the unacceptable use of homophobic language. All human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. I am horribly upset that an author who writes under the name of “Fr. Steve Mattson” – presumably a priest, and someone who should be the face of Christ to others would write in such a way. He shudders at the concept of normalizing “being gay” meanwhile multiple Pope’s have already acknowledged that it is. Gay people are real. God created them. No one has a right to treat them differently than anyone else. Treating them as less and using disrespectful language towards that group of people does not stem from the gospel. That is not Jesus’ mission at all. My Lord and savior didn’t brutally die on the cross for people to judge others, make assumptions, and say that they can’t be normal. Jesus touched the leapers. He ate with the sinners and tax collectors. What this author wrote is the opposite of that. I’m also upset that a so called “moderated” discussion board would allow even worse evil, homophobic language to remain on a site that bears the name “Catholic” in any way. God bless you all. Lord knows I will pray for you because this has to change.
Love the sinner. Hate the sin. Christ forgave sin AND THEN COMMANDED, “Sin no more.” Everything I find about James Martin is that he loves the sin. Would you welcome murders and rapists in the Church who promote murder and rape? I don’t see people having extra marital affairs bragging about it at Church. Yet James Martin seems to be proud of the LGBT people who promoted their sinful activity instead of repenting for sin. LGBT affairs are sinful. Can any true Catholic or Christian of any denomination promote a sinful lifestyle? No. To do so is in direct opposition to Christ. Therefor, not a Christian!
Sexual attraction is not equal to murder and rape. Adrian, please consider taking a good Catholic moral theology class. As a conservative Catholic theologian (graduated from the most conservative Catholic university in the midwest, I have a bachelor & master’s degree in theology), I can tell you that everything “Dan” has stated is correct. The rhetoric that is pushed by many unfortunately mis-formed and misinformed well-meaning Catholics and nothing more that religiously justified bigotry, and in my assessment, is at gave danger of being sinful. Our holy popes have all instructed us to preach the mercy of God and focus on that message. All I hear from the tone of this article and from many of these responses is anger and veiled disdain and disgust towards Gay people. That is not the Good News of the Gospel nor is it the way of Jesus. There is no “love the sinner, hate the sin” in the Way of Jesus showed us. There is simply “Love the sinner” and allow the Spirit to transform hearts. We have no right to “hate” anything or anyone. When your focus is on loving others and allowing God to work, you have no need to focus on hating anyone or anything. Live the Gospel, be merciful and compassionate, and allow the Spirit to move. Hatred is the lie of Satan to cause division and distraction and to push us away from the Truth of Christ. Peace to you all.
You seem to be pitching a fit over “disrespectful language,” and yet you adopt the vicious and spiteful word “homophobia,” which is an invention of those who want to insult people who object to perverted sexual behavior on moral grounds by accusing them of having an irrational fear.
Jesus CURED the lepers and told the sexually deviant woman (adultery is deviant to the norm of monogamous marriage)to “go and sin no more.” He didn’t “celebrate ” disease or call for an end to marriage so that this woman could fill embrace her lifestyle without public condemnation.
Here’s a story, I have homosexual tendencies,scince I was a little boy,probably from four years old.i have absolutely no idea why I am like this but it has been a heavy cross.mainly because growing up in the 60s and 70s,the sense of being different and not being very “masculine” had to be suppressed,for an adult to do this is hard but for a child was traumatic.it could never be spoken about there was no help or advice,one had to conform to the accepted norm.
Not all men are rugby players. It is good that finally people with same sex attraction are being listened to.
HOWEVER! ….spiritually james martin is a dangerous man,he seems to love the sinner and the sin,all people are called to celibacy outside of marriage,heterosexual or homo.there are also many people who are forced into celibacy through disability,looks,weight,age,who suffer as well.
Our Lord, never said it would be easy,but that he would make it so if we turned to him.martins promise seems to be comfort on earth dismissing the fact that this is the journey and that the eventual joy will be in heaven.he also mentions lgbtq frequently,we don’t seem to hear much of Jesus And his blessed mother,both of whom were pure and celibate as well as st .joseph,our ultimate examples.
The church is not homophobic,I have spoken to many good faithful priests who have never been more than kind and understanding ,whilst offering gentle advice,I am thankful that through the sacraments ,especially confession and good priests I have found Christ and although suffering am actually happy.
That’s my story ,to all you gay people out there don’t listen to martins lies,pick up your cross,walk in Christ’s footsteps and set your sights on heaven,and get yourself a miraculous medal!
Joe, Your comment clearly makes total sense to me. I think even divinely inspired. God Bless You!
God bless you…. I totally agree with you! I don’t understand why when people think love they immediately associate a gender attraction. I believe the love Jesus taught was was a brotherly/sisterly love. If a person is attracted to the same sex then instead of pursuing it sexually the better route would be to try to understand why…God has His reason for this…everyone has their own unique mission in life and the person needs to discover their mission through prayer and spiritual guidance.
Concerning Fr Martin…. the bible tells us that we must point the sin to the sinner (in a loving manner). Since he is a priest and condones the sins rather than help these people understand the error(by using prayer,Jesus and the bible) I feel he is a real danger to the Church. I will keep him in prayer.
Joe, you have stated your points ever so eloquently!!!
Just to flag up having same sex attraction is not a sin! …..other aspects of it are,.there are many good holy priests with ssa,who are faithful and celibate .just because a person has ssa does not mean they should be dismissed from the priesthood, otherwise we would be seriously depleted from some very holy souls
True. But it is a serious sin for him to lead others astray.
A homosexual can never be a priest. God does not call these people to the priesthood.
Who told you this? Did God call you on the telephone and let you know this?
Just remember that at some point, a gay person might come to a catholic, protestant, orthodox page in search of hope and come across your disgusting comments, leave and never come back.
That will be on each and every one of you.
Go take the plank out of your own eye, then come and try to take the speck out of your brothers eye.
While I am a Christian belonging to a tradition other than Roman Catholicism (something that might render my observation irrelevant in your eyes), I have to say that your castigation of Fr. Martin is full of hate. The Jesus I know errs on the side of love – as does His Father.
And “love” is NOT indulgence and/or gushy sentimentalism. It is NOT the person, but what they do, that’s disgusting. And that, according to Scripture AND Sir Thomas More, who also said that he “didn’t hate the perps as persons, but what they did”. YHVH and Yeshua do HATE sin, but love the sinner! I am NOT of the RCC, either. Baruch B’Shem Yeshua, and Shabbat Shalom.
Than you reject God’s teaching on homosexuality. And His warning of wolves leading His people astray.
The Jesus I know, and His Father, don’t err.
You must have missed statements like this, if you think that promoting evil is just hunky dory with God:
Luke 17:1-2 – 1AND he said to his disciples: It is impossible that scandals should not come: but woe to him through whom they come. 2It were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones.
Amen!
True. But it is a serious sin for him to lead others astray.
Fr. James Martin is proof enough that Vatican II was a mistake.
We can know through both our Catholic Faith and reason, To deny that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, and of Marriage, is to deny The God Of Genesis. It is not possible to deny Genesis and remain in communion with Christ, and His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
“It is not possible to have Sacramental Communion without Ecclesial Communion”, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost. (Filioque)
Just as every element of Love will serve to complement and thus enhance the fullness of Love, so, too, will every element of Truth serve to complement and thus enhance the fullness of Truth.
“Caritas In Veritate; Veritas In Caritate.”
At the end of the Day it may remain a Great Mystery, but it is no mystery that we exist because Perfect Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity exists.
If it were true that it was Loving and Merciful that we remain in our sins, and not desire to overcome our disordered inclinations, Through Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy, we would not need Our Savior, Jesus, The Christ.
I was at Mass at St. Ignatius in Baltimore, MD (Feb.17) and was in total shock when the LGBT community was mentioned in the prayers of the faithful, and on top of that, the pastor mentioned Fr. Martin SJ specifically in his prayers and praised all his ‘good works.’ My stomach is still upset (and it is now March). I want to write to whoever supervises this pastor– but it seems the current Archbishop of Baltimore also leans this way. Would it be the provincial for the Jesuits? I am particularly worried since St. Ignatius is also a school for boys, and we now know about gay priests and abuse(!).
Why not hear from a writer celebrated by the homosexual “community” itself? In his works the novelist Andre Gide wrote vicariously about his struggles in a bisexual double life. Gide was opposed to sexual license and favored self-control and “sublimating sexual energy into desirable moral and artistic qualities.” However, his biographer says this:
“[Gide]emphatically protests that he has not a word to say against marriage and reproduction (but then) suggests that it would be of benefit to an adolescent, before his desires are fixed, to have a love affair with an older man, instead of with a woman. . . the general principle admitted by Gide, elsewhere in his treatise, that sexual practice tends to stabilize in the direction where it has first found satisfaction [!]; to inoculate a youth with homosexual tastes seems an odd way to prepare him for matrimony” (Harold March, Gide and the Hound of Heaven, 1952).
Now, this example favoring experimental corruption is anecdotal, but now more than seventy years later and on the dark side of the 1960s, we are awash in a sexually-experimental culture. Gide, surely, speaks only for himself.
But who are we to judge? Better to simply go with the flow and–by U.S. Supreme Court fatwa–to redefine supporters of traditional marriage as homophobic.
It seems a little silly to infer what Fr. Martin would say based on one’s own understading of a situation. People who struggle sexually are thirsting for the love and direction of the church. I read Fr. Martin’s book, and I didn’t see anything suggesting that we disregard the teachings of the church; he seemed only to state that the people who struggle in this way are some of those in most need of our prayers today. Notice when he says that people who are homosexual “did not choose this attraction.” That is not the same as saying that God fashioned them in this way. Perhaps, due to unfortunate conditioning circumstances, their sexuality was permanently damaged by sin, whether their own or that of another. Although maybe not sexually, I think we can all relate to that.
Eric, The Church loves ALL sinners and the direction of the church is for all sinners who love God to repent for their sin. John 8:10-12. I am sinner and am ashamed of all my sins against God but I am proud of my children and the love between my wife and I that enabled the Lord to see fit to produce evidence of our love for each other – this is God’s wonderful gift to all humanity. All other forms of human sexuality outside of male husband and female wife are just another form of the lies of Satan who tells the lonely that lust and love are the same, “Partake of the fruit from the tree of life and be truly free”.
People saying same sex attraction is not a sin only the behaviour.. I’m afraid that Jesus has set the bar higher than that.
“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
These are Jesus’ own words. So it isn’t just about sins of the flesh but also eyes, mind and heart.
Jesus said “Be perfect”
You are correct we née to pay attention to our thoughts and desires as well. Because Jesus said that those who have evil thoughts will not obtain Heaven.
When I grew up, the family bible was a “Red Letter” edition, in which all the words of Jesus were identified in red. I always like that edition, because I could readily see the word of God, and prioritize them above all the other words in the Bible. None of the words in red ever condemned homosexuals, or homosexuality. In fact, as I’ve grown and come to understand the Bible’s translation, I see how Jesus was compassionate toward gay people around him, and blessed them for their faith, and never expressed concern for their sexuality. He went on to say in Matthew 19 that acceptance of gay people would ultimately be a problem, and He was right. In the end though, His other words are clear: Judgement is not our purview. That is God’s job. Our job is to love our neighbors. Nothing more; nothing less. God bless you all. I’ll pray for your enlightenment.
“I see how Jesus was compassionate toward gay people around him, and blessed them for their faith, and never expressed concern for their sexuality. He went on to say in Matthew 19 that acceptance of gay people would ultimately be a problem, and He was right.”
“Gay people around him?” Where is that mentioned.
No, he did not say in Matthew 19 that acceptance of “gay people” would be a problem. He didn’t talk about homosexuality in Matthew 19 at all.
This is disgusting, and any person especially a priest will answer for this disgrace, remember what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah if this isn’t stopped. We have a crisis going on here and we have to make things right with God. These people are truly depraved sick individuals, preying on children don’t you see that! I will tell you once this happens to a child they are never the same again, in fact, the victims can’t stand to even be touched. So you better fix the corruption in the church!
Well, when I was a young Catholic boy in the 50s and 60s the church teachings never discussed human sexuality. The priests who I an acolyte for nor the NUNs who taught us in school. Perhaps because of that no-no my parents hardly could say anything about sex. I believe that the cover ups and the secrecy of a theocracy portraying with duplicity a moral and stunning sense of holiness not bathed in reality. I wish I could say anything to be constructive and aid, some way, in a recovery. We should begin with transparency and trust. Much of the polarization is caused by questionable evangelism. Not everybody is capable of this complicated and life changing task.
It seems that my faith and my morphed political party has abandoned me.
God please save this republic and provide us with a path to that “shinning city on a hill:.
In the 1950’s and early 1960’s and before sex education was, rightly, left to the parents to discuss; they, after all, are the primary teachers of their children.
I do not see that anything has improved by the change, which is now that everybody talks about sexual matters everywhere always. I think you were a lot better off than today’s children.
You are wrong father
There is no god in this world
If God were there, the world would have been better
But people are greedy and crafty all around
And God also supports such people
Your god is a liar
You are a liar
God can forgive anything. We have to come to Him and ask for it. Even until death, he continues to wait. Not one sheep shall be lost. But humans in their foolishness refuse God and would rather obey their own will. Just like Adam and Eve. We must fight our desires every day of our lives. Prayer and penance as Our Lady requested at Fatima.
See II of Catechism of Catholic Church, paragraph 2357, which says homosexuality is a sin against chastity and”intrinsically disordered” and a “grave depravity.” Cafeteria Catholics quote paragraph 2358 and ignore the explicit teaching of the previous paragraph. In paragraph 2396, homosexuality is summarily called a “grave sin.” This technique for justification was recently made by the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, when a controversy arose and the bishop was asked for a comment. It is easier to pick and choose than to publicly pronounce the entire truth.
The prevalence, not merely of ideas such as those promoted by Father Martin, but an ideology representing a Disney world, globalist worldview, where Christian doctrine is denigrated to liberalism, is a true disgrace. It is why so people are fleeing the Catholic church in particular, in vast numbers. After the pedophile priest scandal which revealed the moral bankruptcy of the Church hierarchy, Catholicism will probably be on the auction block of defunct ideas.
I agree. One more false shepherd misleading the flock!
James Martin should be laicized. He is not fit to wear a collar.