JULY 21, 2017
Pope Francis-appointed pro-LGBTQ Jesuit Fr. James Martin
Editor of the liberal-left America magazine is named consultor to Vatican communications office
From the LGBTQ New Ways Ministry web site
Francis-appointed Cardinals back Jesuit’s pro-LGBT book
By Claire Chretien, April 7, 2017
A top Vatican cardinal and several other high-ranking prelates have praised a new book on what the Catholic Church's relationship with the "LGBT community" should be, written by progressive Jesuit Father James Martin.
Martin's book is titledBuilding A Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity. Religion News Service reports that in the book, Martin says "church leaders should address LGBT people by the term they call themselves."
Martin also says Church employees shouldn't be fired for going against Church teaching by endorsing homosexual acts or openly professing homosexuality because "such firings selectively target LGBT people."
Far-left dissident nun Sister Jeannine Gramick* endorsed Martin's book as a "must-read" that "shows how the Rosary and the rainbow flag can peacefully meet each other."
Fr. James Martin and Sr. Jeannine Gramick
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has banned Gramick from "any pastoral work involving homosexual persons."
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, appointed by Pope Francis to head the Vatican's life and family dicastery, called Martin's book "a welcome and much-needed book that will help bishops, priests, pastoral associates, and all church leaders more compassionately minister to the LGBT community."
"It will also help LGBT Catholics feel more at home in what is, after all, their church,” said Farrell, the former bishop of Dallas.
Farrell has repeatedly praised the controversial exhortationAmoris Laetitia, which critics say contradicts or can be interpreted to contradict Catholic moral teaching. He says it opens the door for those living in invalid sexual unions (labeled by the Church to be adultery) to receive Holy Communion.
Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin, made a cardinal by Pope Francis, endorsed the book: "In too many parts of our church LGBT people have been made to feel unwelcome, excluded, and even shamed. Father Martin’s brave, prophetic, and inspiring new book marks an essential step in inviting church leaders to minister with more compassion, and in reminding LGBT Catholics that they are as much a part of our church as any other Catholic."
Tobin has criticized the four cardinals who asked Pope Francis for moral clarity onAmoris Laetitiaas "troublesome" and "at best naive."
Martin's book is also endorsed by San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy, famous for instructing his priests to accept "LGBT families" and give Communion to adulterers, banning an outspoken pro-life priest from writing bulletin columns, and calling the Catechism's language "very destructive."
"The Gospel demands that LGBT Catholics must be genuinely loved and treasured in the life of the church. They are not,” according to McElroy's endorsement. The book "provides us with the language, perspective, and sense of urgency to replace a culture of alienation with a culture of merciful inclusion."
McElroy has suggested there is an "anti-gay prejudice that exists in our Catholic community and in our country."
"My own view is that much of the destructive attitude of many Catholics to the gay and lesbian community is motivated by a failure to comprehend the totality of the church’s teaching on homosexuality," McElroy toldAmericamagazine. Labeling homosexual acts as "intrinsically disordered," as the Catechism does, is "very destructive language that I think we should not use pastorally," he said.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that those with same-sex attraction "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity" and "every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided" (CCC 2358).
The Catechism also teaches: "Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.' They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved" (CCC 2357).
When it comes to same-sex relationships, the Catechism makes distinctions between the person, the inclination, and the act. It labels sexual activity between people of the same sex, and the inclination to commit them, disordered. It does not, however, label anypersondisordered. Being attracted to people of the same sex is not a sin in and of itself, the Catechism teaches, but acting on it would be.
In November 2016, Martin accepted an award from apro-gay group, New Ways Ministry, that has been condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the U.S. Catholic bishops. In his acceptance speech, Martin said the Church should embrace homosexuality’s "special gifts."
In the same speech, he suggested that some Catholic bishops who uphold the Church’s teaching on sexual morality might be “trapped brethren” who are secretly gay themselves. He also praised a 17-year-old for "coming out" on a retreat and equated sexual proclivities with race and age.
New Ways Ministryhas been banned from speaking in Catholic dioceses across the country. It is “a gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Catholics, and reconciliation within the larger Christian and civil communities." Part of its mission is to "identify and combat personal and structural homophobia," and "work for changes in attitudes and promote the acceptance of LGBT people as full and equal members of church and society."
When President Trump rescinded the Obama administration's transgender bathroom order, Martin tweeted his support of boys using the girls' bathroom and vice versa to over 100,000 twitter followers.
*Dissenting authors and speakers
Sr. Jeannine Gramick, SSND
Homosexuality (New Ways Ministry). Formally notified of her error by the Vatican and removed from her position.
*Theological disputes
National Catholic Reporter, February 25, 2005
Fr. Robert Nugent and Sr. Jeannine Gramick: The two spent much of their religious careers working in ministry to homosexuals. In 1984 they were forced to leave their New Ways Ministry. In 1988, they were again investigated and in 1999 the Vatican sanctioned them for not representing authentic church teaching about homosexuality.
They received sanctions from their religious congregations that essentially prohibited them from participating in public ministry to homosexuals. Nugent, a Salvatorian priest, accepted the sanctions. Gramick left the School Sisters of Notre Dame and joined the Loreto Sisters in 2004(see story).
2 of 94 readers’ comments
1. Cardinal Kevin Farrell seems to forget that the Catholic Church is Christ's Church, founded by Jesus on St. Peter & His First Apostles. It does not belong to the LGBT. Jesus laid down the rules (the Ten Commandments) & gave us the Sacraments & the Holy Mass & His promise to be with His Church until the End Times.
There is no compunction on anyone to be a member of His Church, except that if you are not you most probably won't be saved from eternal damnation. Those who willfully trashed the Sacred Liturgy in deference to false ecumenism with schismatics & those who now wish to re-write the Ten Commandments to 'accompany' & 'welcome' those who find them too hard to live up to, will definitely know all about the existence of Hell, which they now deny, as it's not in keeping with the gospel.
2. If Cardinals do not care & fail to publicly defend the teachings of the Church for which purpose they are elevated to that position, then they are not fit for purpose & should be required to resign their offices. If the reigning Pope and hierarchy have relinquished Christ's commandments & are embracing NWO Marxist/Masonic ones then they should be publicly exposed as apostates. This would be in keeping with Our Lady's statement that the apostasy would start at the top.
Top Vatican and U.S. church officials back new gay-friendly book
David Gibson, April7, 2017
The Vatican’s point man on family issues and a U.S. cardinal who is close to Pope Francis have both blurbed a new book by a Jesuit priest and popular author that calls on the Catholic Church to be more respectful and compassionate toward gay people.
They called it “brave, prophetic, and inspiring” and a “much-needed book.”
Such positive language from such senior church leaders is extraordinary and another sign of how Francis is reorienting the church toward a more pastoral focus.
“Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity,” by Rev. James Martin of America magazine, does not advocate for any changes in doctrine nor does it touch third-rail topics like same-sex marriage; nor do the churchmen who praise the book,to be published by HarperOne on June 13.
But simply using terms like LGBT to describe people is highly controversial for many in the church who insist that gay people be described as “homosexual” or “same-sex attracted” rather than by words that seem to affirm their orientation.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who was recently chosen by Francis to head the Vatican office on laity, family, and life issues, praises Martin’s writing in his blurb:“A welcome and much-needed book that will help bishops, priests, pastoral associates, and all church leaders more compassionately minister to the LGBT community.
“It will also help LGBT Catholics feel more at home in what is, after all, their church,” said Farrell, the former bishop of Dallas.
“In too many parts of our church LGBT people have been made to feel unwelcome, excluded, and even shamed,” Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin, who Francis personally picked for the New Jersey archdiocese, adds in a blurb.
“Father Martin’s brave, prophetic, and inspiring new book marks an essential step in inviting church leaders to minister with more compassion, and in reminding LGBT Catholics that they are as much a part of our church as any other Catholic.”
“The Gospel demands that LGBT Catholics must be genuinely loved and treasured in the life of the church. They are not,” writes Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, also a rising star in the U.S. hierarchy, in another endorsement.
McElroy says Martin “provides us with the language, perspective, and sense of urgency to replace a culture of alienation with a culture of merciful inclusion.”
Francis himself sparked controversy when he used the term “gay” last year in saying that the Catholic Church should apologize to LGBT people, among others, that it has “offended.”
The pope’s comments came in the wake of the shooting massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., inJune that left 49 dead, and Martin’s book also emerged from that tragedy.
Martin, whose books about Jesus and Catholic spirituality and related topics have landed on the best-seller lists, has often written about the role of gays and lesbians in the church, and about the need for the church to do more to welcome them.
But he was struck by the relative lack of compassion from U.S. bishops for gays and lesbians who were targeted in the Orlando shooting and elsewhere, and he voiced his concerns in a powerful Facebook video that went viral.
The video prompted more than the usual level of anger and criticism of Martin, and prompted him to begin writing about how to address the rift between LGBT people and church leaders.
He outlined his views in an October talk — an address that would become the basis of “Building a Bridge” — as he accepted an award from New Ways Ministry, agroup for LGBT Catholics and causes that in the past has been condemned by church leaders who said it was not authorized to represent itself as a Catholic organization. (The talk was reprinted in America magazine.)
A co-founder of New Ways Ministry is Sister Jeannine Gramick, whose views were considered so far outside the bounds of Catholic teaching that she was barred by the Vatican and her order from speaking about homosexuality. She transferred to another order and has continued to minister and speak and write on the topic.
In fact, Gramick also blurbs Martin’s book, writing: “Father Martin shows how the Rosary and the rainbow flag can peacefully meet each other. A must-read.” That she is endorsing the same book as senior church leaders is an indication of the sea change under Francis.
“I was delighted that Cardinal Farrell and Cardinal Tobin found the book helpful,” Martin said in an email to RNS. “To me, it’s a reminder that many in the hierarchy today support a more compassionate approach to LGBT Catholics.”
In his talk, as in the book, Martin called on church leaders and all Catholics to treat gays and lesbians with greater respect and sensitivity.
He said church leaders should address LGBT people by the term they call themselves, and he called for an end to the indiscriminate firings of church employees who are discovered to be gay or who make their sexual orientation public. Such firings selectively target LGBT people, he said.
But he also called on gays and lesbians to be more considerate and respectful of the hierarchy, saying both sides must listen to each other and learn from each other.
“This may be very hard for people who feel beaten down by the church to hear,” Martin writes in the book.
“One gay friend recently told me that this mockery comes not from a place of hatred, but from a sense of betrayal. But being respectful of people with whom you disagree is at the heart of the Christian way. And part of this is surely about forgiveness, an essential Christian virtue.”
The book also includes biblical passages and meditations for LGBT Catholics and their families.
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Vatican names pro-gay Fr. James Martin as communications consultant
By Claire Chretien, April 12, 2017
The Vatican has selected a prominent LGBT-pushing Jesuit priest to be aconsultor to its communications office.
The priest selected is Father James Martin, a progressive Jesuit who's the editor-at-large of Americamagazine. Martin's new book is titled Building A Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity.
In it, Martin arguesChurch employees shouldn't be fired for going against Church teaching by endorsing homosexual acts or openly professing homosexuality because "such firings selectively target LGBT people." He also says"church leaders should address LGBT people by the term they call themselves."
Several Pope Francis-appointed cardinals endorsed the book along with far-left dissident nun Sister Jeannine Gramick, who said it "shows how the Rosary and the rainbow flag can peacefully meet each other."
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has banned Gramick from "any pastoral work involving homosexual persons."
In 2016, Martin accepted an award from New Ways Ministry, a pro-gay group that has been condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the U.S. Catholic bishops. New Ways Ministry describes itself as "a gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Catholics, and reconciliation within the larger Christian and civil communities." Part of its mission is to "identify and combat personal and structural homophobia," and "work for changes in attitudes and promote the acceptance of LGBT people as full and equal members of church and society."
During his speech to the gay activists at the New Ways Ministry event, Martin saidthe Church should embrace homosexuality’s "special gifts," praised a 17-year-old for “coming out” on a retreat, and equated sexual proclivities with race and age. He said the Church should "lay to rest" its language about the “objectively disordered” nature of homosexual inclinations and acts.
The Catechism’s language is “needlessly cruel” and “needlessly hurtful,” he claimed, because it says “that one of the deepest parts of a person — the part that gives and receives love — is ‘disordered’ in itself.”
Many Catholics who feel same-sex attraction yet follow the Church's teachings disagree with Martin and this reductionist approach.
After President Trump rescinded the Obama transgender bathroom order, Martin tweeted to over 100,000 followers his support of boys using the girls' bathroom and vice versa.