Fr. James Martin, SJ
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
That is so, so, so stupid and hurtful, and also a straight-up lie. Martin's work is all about how the Church needs to build bridges and connections to LGBT people. The Church isn't just for perfect people--all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Gay people know perfectly well that the Catholic Church thinks that they are sinful and disordered. But God calls us all, in our sinfulness and our brokenness. Everyone sitting in the pews on Sunday is a sinner, and everyone is welcome, and should be welcomed. Here is him writing about how parishes can and should welcome LGBT Catholics and their families: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/08/23/father-james-martin-how-parishes-can-welcome-lgbt-catholics Here's what he writes specifically about the issue of chastity: "Don’t reduce gays and lesbians to the call to chastity we all share as Christians. L.G.B.T. people are more than their sexual lives. But sometimes that’s all they hear about. Remember not to focus solely on sexuality but on the many other joys and sorrows in their lives. They lead rich lives. Many L.G.B.T. Catholics are parents themselves or are caring for aging parents; many help the poor in their community; many are involved in civic and charitable organizations. They’re often deeply involved in the life of the parish. See them in their totality. And if you talk about chastity with L.G.B.T. people, do it as much with straight people." Other points: "God loves them—so should we. And I don’t mean a stingy, grudging, judgmental, conditional, half-hearted love. I mean real love. And what does real love mean? The same thing it means for everyone: knowing them in the complexity of their lives, celebrating with them when life is sweet, suffering with them when life is bitter, as a friend would. But I say even more: Love them as Jesus loved people on the margins: extravagantly." "By not welcoming and by excluding L.G.B.T. Catholics, the church is falling short of its call to be God’s family. By excluding L.G.B.T. people, you are breaking up God’s family; you are tearing apart the Body of Christ." "Because Jesus’ approach was, more often than not, community first, conversion second. For John the Baptist the model was to convert first and then be welcomed into the community. For Jesus, it’s community first, conversion second. Welcome and respect come first. This is how Jesus treats people who feel on the margins. He seeks them out before anyone else; he encounters them, and he treats them with respect, sensitivity and compassion. So when it comes to L.G.B.T. people and their families in our parishes, it seems that there are two places to stand. You can stand with the crowd, who grumble and who oppose mercy for those on the margins. Or you can stand with Zacchaeus, and, more important, with Jesus." If you want to read Martin's writings--which I recommend, since he is a very good, thoughtful writer, you could start here: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/james-martin-sj?page=0 |
Anonymous
Some people think that if your message to LGBT Catholics doesn't begin and end with how sinful gay sex is and how they need to be celibate, you are doing it wrong. For a lot of people, sexual morality is central to their creed, which is kind of odd, given how little time Jesus spent talking about sex (compared to how much time he spent talking about showing mercy, love, and compassion to all, especially the poor, the oppressed, the prisoner, and the outcast). So if you're doing LGBT "outreach," your job is apparently to remind them, as if they didn't already know, that the Church says that if they have sex, it's a sin. Which is certainly not how people think that the Church ought to do outreach to divorced people, for example, or unmarried people--let alone those who commit non-sexual sins. |
Anonymous
+1000 |
Anonymous
| I'm curious why OP is asking? |
Anonymous
| He has a recent tweet admiring the marriage of Pete Buttigieg. |
Anonymous
Yes -- he flirts with tacit approval of homosexual congress. |
Anonymous
I think Fr. Marin sounds like a nice protestant priest. I don't understand why he is Catholic when he wants to bend Catholic teaching. |
Anonymous
I haven’t read his stuff and I’m personally not a fan of single sex education. But I will say that I went to a lot of guys in college who went to Jesuit schools and they aren’t all the same. The guys from Regis high school in New York were all really nice. I know Regis gives a ton of scholarships to working class New Yorkers and also doesn’t seem to have the sports culture of a place like GP. I think the privilege of the kids attending, and the emphasis placed on things like sports, affects the culture of the school a lot. |
Anonymous
If he thinks the union is sinful, why approve? Go and sin no more! |
Anonymous
| Do we think priests should public praise couples living out of wedlock? |
Anonymous
Citation please. Have you read his book? |
Anonymous
No, but it is obnoxious to speculate about another person's sexuality. |
Anonymous
Now you are moving the goalposts. You wrote above that he "strongly supported Kavanaugh." He did not. |
Anonymous
He doesn't "signal gay sex so not sinful." See above. Have you read his book? |
Anonymous
In your opinion. Single people do it all the time -- wondering if an attractive person would be attractive to them. |