ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 2, 2023 / 18:30 pm (CNA).
Jesuit Father James Martin, who will attend the first session of the Synod on Synodality as a participant appointed by Pope Francis, said that “without a doubt, there are many chaste and celibate gay priests in the Church. It’s important that that be said.”
In an Oct. 1 interview with the Spanish newspaper El Periódico, Martin stressed that “it is crucial to point out that these priests lead a chaste and celibate life, like their heterosexual colleagues, and dedicate their lives to service in the Church. It’s probably always been this way.”
In his opinion, “it is impossible” to know their number “due to the stigma that still exists” for which “many have suffered in silence due to ridicule.”
The priest, known for his pro-LGBTQ activism within the Catholic Church, said that those who prepared the Instrumentum Laboris for the Synod on Synodality have told him that “half of the dioceses around the world have mentioned the need for greater welcoming and inclusion” of these persons.
“This is not limited to the West,” Martin added, “but is spread throughout the world. However, it’s not surprising either. As more people identify as LGBTQ, more families, parishes, and dioceses are affected. Therefore, there is a natural and growing interest in understanding how to provide pastoral care to the LGBTQ community.”
Asked if his goal is “mission impossible” because of the presence at the synod of very conservative Catholics, some of them high-ranking, Martin commented: “My goal is to listen to the Holy Spirit, and I think that should be everyone’s goal.”
‘I don’t know what to expect’
Regarding the possibility of tensions within the first session of the Synod on Synodality, Martin said “it’s probably inevitable, but we should not fear tensions” because, for example, “the first synod in the history of the Church was the Council of Jerusalem, which took place around the year 50 A.D. There was a lot of tension at that time, but the Holy Spirit was still able to act.”
Regarding the possibility that some of his postulates will be accepted in this first session of the Synod of Synodality, Martin said: “To be honest, I really don’t know what to expect. I think that at this first meeting we will focus on how to dialogue with each other and listen to each other.”
As for why he thought that some of the more conservative voices in the Church are in the American clergy, Martin replied: “Perhaps it’s because many people admired Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI, as is also the case with me. However, now Pope Francis has taken a different approach. Fundamentally speaking, there has been no change, but some people may be confused.”
“What I find truly disconcerting,” Martin continued, “is that in the United States, some of the same people who argued that a pope should never be criticized during the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict, now do so every day under the pontificate of Francis.”
Asked how he views the criticism by some U.S. clergy of the German Synodal Way, the Jesuit priest replied: “I don’t see it as a fight. Both churches are responding to what they see as the needs of their people. It’s true that some German Church leaders may have a more progressive approach in some respects, but fundamentally there is no difference. After all, we all recite the same Creed on Sundays.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Does Father Martin have any research data behind his comments about the number of chaste SSA clergy?
I’m guilty of making unqualified statements too but I’m not a priest nor a public figure being interviewed.
Father Martin’s statement is likely correct but he should acknowledge it’s his personal opinion unless he has additional information to back it up.
Perhaps the priest has heard the word, “No”?
To fully understand Martin’s role at the Synod, it is necessary to fully understand the MINDSET of Pope Francis…
Namely (as a mere bystander, I humbly propose), his proposition that instead of dynamically “handing on the deposit of faith,” this deposit itself, within the patience of time, is more of a polarizing space. A polarity within a dynamic tension (no longer deposit) with the different and more concrete pole of the particular. Almost as if the Incarnation of the Creed—two natures in one Person—is no longer the “concrete universal.”
But instead, only the universal in tension with the concrete… Situated morality becomes Situation Ethics, butt with orthodoxy not rejected, but still retained and reaffirmed, as an OPTION within the broader or ostensibly higher mix. This Francis proposition/mindset is favorably and well set forth by one of his tribe, Ivereigh, in this article posted in 2017 on CRUX: https://cruxnow.com/book-review/2017/11/new-book-looks-intellectual-history-francis-pope-polarity.
Regarding Fr. Martin, then, homosexual activity is the “third option” of a transcendent synthesis which does not replace, but which continues to include on the menu the more “rigid” and binary human sexuality (therefore, the new synthesis/ dispensation is not Hegelian). For the real Catholic Church, however, this particular “third option”—and others of its kind: a male alongside female priesthood, authentic alongside bigamous marriages, the “hierarchical communion” alongside redefined synodality, etc.–is really the THIRD RAIL.
Butt, Francis, long before becoming pope, was of the mind that the Church itself [!]—by its very nature (if there still is a “nature”)—is instead more like a “catalyst” (my word, but recalling his early chemistry background) of the Holy Spirit always on the move with the particular, as in “walking together.” Rather than, say, standing STEADFAST together! Evangelii Gaudium: “time is greater than space!” Can we not see, then, that Francis’s hypothesis probably brands even the Faith & Reason polarities(!) as “backwardist” stuff?
Where Francis would have us make “decisions” in the concrete, for example, the Catechism and Veritatis Splendor (VS) already clarify that–with a well-formed conscience (!)–each of us is personally(!) responsible for making concrete(!) moral “judgments” (VS, nn. 56, 95), particularly(!) with regard to moral absolutes (“Thou shalt not…”).
But, then, “who am I to ‘judge’”? Now meaning, let us “decide,” synodally! Now, with the laity recruited as a useful pawn in a theological parlor game—like a black star, Fernandez even absorbs the dubia as synodal!
Ivereigh (in the linked CRUX) then also reasons that Chesterton is also into the polarity thingy, with: “G.K. Chesterton once described a heresy as a good idea gone mad.” CHESTERTON, who said this of what’s truly mad:
“The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason [….] that his mind moves in a perfect but narrow circle. A small circle is quite as infinite as a large circle; but though quite infinite, it is not so large [that is] the insane explanation is quite as complete as the sane one, but it is not so large.” The small circle: the tautological and self-validating (!) Synod on Synodality. With Chesterton, are the lunatics in charge of the asylum?
Or instead, this: “The Catholic Church is the only thing that frees a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.”
Every priest is human and has his own struggles. No doubt there are many priests who struggle with disordered sexual attractions, but any priest who identifies himself by these attractions, (e.g., “I am gay.”) is going to find it very difficult to live out his priesthood.
It is sad that Fr. Martin falls into the pop culture error of seeing a person through the lens of his or her disordered desires. Christ came to free us from all that.
Well said! If we love someone, we want union with God for them, not sin that can turn us away from God.
How does Fr. Martin know if someone else is chaste? He says many are. So does that mean more are not? Perhaps he knows priests who are not chaste? And to be sure, he knows many priests who have homosexual attractions. Why doesn’t he say if he is chaste? St. Paul had a lot to say in Sacred Scripture about chastity. And he used himself as an example. Perhaps Fr. Martin can preach from his own experience? Is all of this about his own experience?
Fr. Martin has no data. But there is sound data that shows that over 80% of sexual crimes in the Church against children are committed by men with boys. Obviously, legitimizing pererastry is next step on the agenda after “blessings” for same-sex unions. It’s just a matter of time, which is greater than space.
The problem for me is not that same sex attracted priests will be sexually active, it is the immature and childish behavior that they bring into the priesthood. I have witnessed this firsthand and lament the forced revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual so many years ago.
It sounds as though homosexualists can find you guilty in conscience of whatever they decide to identify in you as disfavouring them as to be against faith even; while at the same time it is impossible for the faithful to point out their folly and faux that they themselves have declared integral in their identity.
It is anathema and upholding it is worse anathema.
If they are chaste single men then they are not gay.
A celibate Priest or layman with SSA can be a good Catholic. SSA is a cross to bear. Those who have it deserve our support and encouragement.
Regarding being harassed by “ssa”, you shouldn’t be saying merely that it’s your cross and Bob’s your uncle; you must want to have a very reactive mind and heart against it.