March for Life announces 2022 theme of ‘equality’

Philadelphia, Pa., Sep 20, 2019 / 10:40 am (CNA).- After the Archbishop of Philadelphia urged caution regarding the message Fr. James Martin, SJ, other bishops have weighed in on Martin’s message regarding homosexuality and Catholicism, as Martin and the archbishop have continued to exchange views on the matter.

“Father Martin’s public messages create confusion among the faithful and disrupt the unity of the Church by promoting a false sense that immoral sexual behavior is acceptable under God’s law,” Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, wrote Sept. 19.

“People with same-sex attraction are indeed created and loved by God and are welcome in the Catholic Church. But the Church’s mission to these brothers and sisters is the same as to all her faithful: to guide, encourage, and support each of us in the Christian struggle for virtue, sanctification, and purity,” the bishop added.

Paprocki’s statement came in response to a Sept. 19 column from Archbishop Charles Chaput, that urged caution about “a pattern of ambiguity” in the writing and teaching of Martin.

Chaput’s column raised his concern that “Father Martin – no doubt unintentionally — inspires hope that the Church’s teachings on human sexuality can be changed.”

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 speaks frequently on issues pertaining to homosexuality and Catholicism. He spoke Sept. 17 at Philadelphia’s St. Joseph’s University.

“Due to the confusion caused by his statements and activities regarding same-sex related (LGBT) issues, I find it necessary to emphasize that Father Martin does not speak with authority on behalf of the Church, and to caution the faithful about some of his claims,” Chaput wrote.

“Archbishop Chaput has provided a helpful caution to Catholics about Father James Martin. On the one hand, Father Martin correctly expresses God’s love for all people, while on the other, he either encourages or fails to correct behavior that separates a person from that very love. This is deeply scandalous in the sense of leading people to believe that wrongful behavior is not sinful,” Paprocki’s statement said.

“This matter is not one of opinion, it is our Lord’s own teaching, as we hear in Luke’s Gospel: ‘Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,’” the bishop added.

Bishop Rick Stika of Knoxville also weighed in Chaput’s column.

On Twiter, Stika praised Chaput’s “column on the theological and moral errors of Fr Martin. He praises his outreach but challenges his moral and theological thoughts. He also states clearly that this is a great error. I would add the pain it causes by setting people for pain as morally it can never be accepted by the Church. The Archbishop also adds that the vicious attacks on Father is wrong and sinful. It is one thing to disagree but another to be vicious and hide behind a handle.”
 

Martin himself responded to Chaput’s column in an op-ed at CatholicPhilly, the news portal of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

“I think my main response to his column is that it’s difficult to respond to critiques that I am ‘implying’ things about church teaching, when I am assiduous in my writings and talks about not challenging church teaching on matters of sexual morality (or anything, for that matter).”

“One of the reasons that I don’t focus on same-sex relations and same-sex marriage, which I know are both impermissible (and immoral) under church teaching, is that LGBT Catholics have heard this repeatedly. Indeed, often that is the only thing that they hear from their church,” Martin wrote.

“What I am trying to do instead is encourage Catholics to see LGBT people as more than just sexual beings, to see them in their totality, much as Jesus saw people on the margins, people who were also seen as ‘other’ in his time,” the priest added.

“I remain grateful for the Archbishop’s asking people not to engage in ‘ad hominem’ attacks, and I appreciate the careful tone of his letter and have always appreciated his kind communications with me,” Martin concluded.

Chaput responded Martin’s column.

“I appreciate Father Martin’s typically gracious comments, which are consistent with the man,” Chaput wrote.

“They do not, however, change the need for my column. I’m sure Father Martin would agree that ‘official’ Church teaching (as opposed to some alternative, imagined, unofficial system of belief and practice) is simply what the Church believes based on the Word of God and centuries of experience with the human condition.”

“Moreover, the point is not to ‘not challenge’ what the Church believes about human sexuality, but to preach and teach it with confidence, joy, and zeal. Biblical truth liberates; it is never a cause for embarrassment,” Chaput added.

The archbishop noted that he and Martin agree that “persons with same-sex attraction are children of God and well loved by him. Thus they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. The Church must earnestly seek to do that while remaining true to her convictions.”

“But it is clearly not true that the ‘only thing’ Catholics with same-sex attraction hear from their Church is a message of rejection. Or if it is, perhaps the responsibility can lie as much with the listener as it does with the Church. We each have the freedom to choose. Listening, like teaching, is an act of the will.”

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A view of the baldacchino underneath the central dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

ACI Prensa Staff, May 26, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Monsignor Alberto Royo Mejía is the promoter of the faith in the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. His current function is, in fact, the same one that was formerly performed by the so-called “devil’s advocate” in the canonization processes. 

When and why was this name changed? Who exactly is, in effect, the “devil’s advocate”?

ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, was able to speak in Rome with Royo, who holds a doctorate in canon law and is a priest of the Diocese of Getafe in Spain, where he has been judicial vicar, episcopal delegate for the causes of saints, and pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in the town of Parla, south of Madrid.

Origin of the term

Royo explained to ACI Prensa that the name “devil’s advocate” is actually a popular designation, since Sixtus V did not establish this function using this term but rather “he was called that because he had to be the ‘bad guy in the movie,’ after all.” The role of the “devil’s advocate,” now the promoter of the faith, is to prepare in writing all possible arguments against the canonization of the individual.

“In a civil or criminal proceedings it would be what we more or less know as the prosecutor: the one who has to search for the truth in a special way, because here the only thing we are looking for is the truth, as in every proceeding, as in every investigation,” he emphasized.

The Spanish priest thus defined the canonization processes as “an investigation” whose objective is “to discern the will of God about a candidate for the altars.”

The priest explained that in this discernment “it’s essential that someone help search for the truth, because sometimes due to excessive affection, devotion, distraction, or other types of reasons, the [candidate] can be presented in an inappropriate way, because research or historical documentation are missing.” And it’s because “all people have defects; there is no saint who does not have any defects.” 

For these “defects” to come to light and be investigated, the “promoter of the faith,” the ancient “devil’s advocate” whose figure “emerged when Sixtus V established the Roman Curia,” is indispensable, he said.

However, the Spanish priest said that “today he is no longer called ‘devil’s advocate’ but rather the ‘prelate theologian.’ He continues to call himself a promoter of the faith, but the popular designation is no longer that of devil’s advocate — although the idea is the same.”

Evolution of the canonization process

In 1984, Pope John Paul II introduced a series of reforms to facilitate the canonization process and bring the system more in line with modern times.

According to the promoter of the faith, this was done “by a natural evolution of the process,” since, over the centuries, “the process had become increasingly legal and, nonetheless, the need was seen to also make it historic, since it was very similar to what the marriage annulment process or any process in the Church was like.”

“In fact,” he noted, “for centuries the work that the relators do today [which is a new figure that John Paul II established], was done by the auditors of the Rota, with which, between a process of canonization and a process of the Roman Rota [a tribunal] there was very little difference.”

Royo further explained that with the development of historical sciences, the need was seen to delve into the historical context of the causes.

“The development of psychological sciences also had a lot of influence. The psychology of a servant of God, of a candidate for the altars, influences the person… all of this was not taken into account before,” the priest explained.

For this reason, “a series of figures came into play who are today, for example, the relators,” he said.

“The relator is an intermediate figure between the diocesan phase, the material that arrives in Rome and the study done by the promoter of the faith.”

“The very valuable work of the relators is to prepare the cause,” he continued. “They already see the difficulties, the problems, and what must also be highlighted in each servant of God.” 

According to Royo, the relators “systematize the work and, when it reaches the promoter of the faith, and therefore the theological consultants, the cause is already very refined and very prepared.”

“This has greatly expedited the causes,” he pointed out, since without this figure the process “was like a very tight funnel” in which the causes “were stuck … because only the promoter of the faith was in charge of studying them all.” 

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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Pope Francis meets on April 29, 2023, with children and adults who are visually impaired and have other disabilities at a Catholic institute in Budapest, Hungary, dedicated to Blessed László Batthyány-Strattmann. / Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Mar … […]