Walking across Fr. James Martin's LGBT bridge

Over on Father heretic James Martin's Facebook page, he is promoting his new book "Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity", as if the Catholic Church wasn't already respectful, compassionate and sensitive to people who are suffering with homosexuality. 

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

Father Martin says all that, all over this social media outlets and now again with his latest book on the subject. Great! 

The Catholic catechism is also perfectly clear that homosexual "acts" are intrinsically disordered and of grave depravity.

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, 141 tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." 142 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.

What Father Martin NEVER says is the issue here. He overlooks all the Catholic catechism has to say on the matter of homosexual acts being a sin and the need to repent of sin.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.  

2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices.

Currently there is an on going discussion on Martin's Facebook page over his neglect to mention the Church's complete teaching on homosexuality.

Comments from Fr. James Martin's Facebook page:

Matt Beard writes:  Fr. James Martin, what is your aim here? If your argument is that the Church built by Jesus Christ should welcome all people in His spirit of charity, then you are absolutely right. That is fairly obvious and should be uncontroversial. Looking down this thread, however, I see lots of comments suggesting that the Church should essentially redefine the entire theology of marriage. Both Scripture and Tradition - the joint deposit of our Catholic Faith- prohibit such a move. It should be noted that heterosexuals are by no means immune to sexual sin. Pornography, masturbation, contraception, and fornication are all mortal sins that would strip a straight person of the right to receive Holy Communion without first going to Confession. The Church has long taught that a person's sexual orientation is morally neutral, but his sexual behavior is not. Helping people identify and avoid their sins is at the very heart of the Church's mission to save souls. It is not compassionate, pastoral, or acceptable for the Church to abdicate its mission, even with the best of intentions. Christ Himself loved and welcomed sinners, but He always admonished them not to sin any more. The Church, too, must speak the truth in love.

Fr. James Martin responds:



Upon seeing this, the question came to my mind "Then what?" 

What happens after the "encounter"? Jesus told people to "go and sin no more" does Father Martin say that?

I decided to find out, so I purchased Fr. Martin's "Building a Bridge" book today and downloaded it on my Kindle for $12.99 from Amazon. Then I sat down and began to read. The book is short, made up of 'Why I am Writing" and the "A Two-Way Bridge" chapters divided into "Respect: The Church and others TO LGBT people", "Compassion: The Church and others TO LGBT people", "Sensitivity: The Church and others TO LGBT people" and then the same chapters flip now going from LBGT people TO the Church, ending with meditations and scriptures and finally a prayer. 

Let's start at the beginning. 

"Why I am Writing" by Fr. James Martin 

Quote: "So when New Ways Ministry, a group that ministers to and advocates for LGBT Catholics, asked just a few weeks after the Orlando tragedy if I would accept their "Bridge Building Award" and give a talk at the time of the award ceremony, I agreed." 

First, New Ways Ministry has been constantly condemned by the Holy Catholic Church ( http://www.usccb.org/news/2010/10-028.cfm ) and Fr. Martin knows it. Promoting them in public and in his book is just outrageous. 

USCCB writes: New Ways Ministry is an organization based in Mount Rainier, Maryland, that describes itself as "a gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian and gay Catholics and reconciliation within the larger Christian and civil communities." From the time of the organization's founding in 1977, serious questions have been raised about the group’s adherence to Church teaching on homosexuality. In 1984, the archbishop of Washington denied New Ways Ministry any official authorization or approval of its activities. At that time, he forbade the two co-founders of New Ways Ministry, Sr. Jeannine Gramick, SSND, and Fr. Robert Nugent, to continue their activities in the Archdiocese of Washington. In the same year, Sr. Gramick and Fr. Nugent were ordered by their superiors to separate themselves from New Ways Ministry. Although they resigned from leadership posts, they continued their involvement in New Ways Ministry activities until 1999, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared that because of errors and ambiguities in the approach of Sr. Gramick and Fr. Nugent they are permanently prohibited from any pastoral work involving homosexual persons.
         In reference to his decision not to grant any approval or authorization to New Ways Ministry in the 1980s, Archbishop James Hickey of Washington cited the organization's lack of adherence to Church teaching on the morality of homosexual acts. This was the central issue in the subsequent investigation and censure of the founders of New Ways Ministry, Sr. Jeannine Gramick and Fr. Robert Nugent. This continues to be the crucial defect in the approach of New Ways Ministry, which has not changed its position after the departure of the cofounders.

And "No one should be misled by the claim that New Ways Ministry provides an authentic interpretation of Catholic teaching and an authentic Catholic pastoral practice. Their claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the Church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination. Accordingly, I wish to make it clear that, like other groups that claim to be Catholic but deny central aspects of Church teaching, New Ways Ministry has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church and that they cannot speak on behalf of the Catholic faithful in the United States."[clipped for length]

Fr. Martin is very clearly in this book promoting New Ways Ministry, even giving them kudos for their help. Also, his award from New Ways Ministry is what inspired his book title. New Ways Ministry is giddy with Fr. Martin who attempts to give them credit that Christ's Holy Catholic Church has been denying them for years because they are spreading heresy and confusion among the LBGT communities. This should be a red flag to any knowledgeable Catholic- most certainly the clergy who put their stamp of approval on this book- scandalous! Talk about giving the laity mixed signals! 

"Respect" (Chapter One) 

Quote: "Respect also means acknowledging that LGBT Catholics bring unique gifts to the church- both as individuals and as a community. These gifts build up the church in special ways, as St. Paul wrote when compared the People of God to a human body (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). Every body part is important: the hand, the eye, the foot. In fact, as Paul said, it is the parts of the body that "we think less honorable" that deserve even greater respect. Many LGBT people have indeed felt "less honorable" in the church. So, following St. Paul, it is to these members and to their gifts that we should pay even greater respect. "Those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor," he writes.Just consider for a moment the many gifts brought by LGBT Catholics who work in parishes, schools, chanceries, retreat centers, hospitals, and social service agencies. Let us "honor" them, as St. Paul says." [clipped] 

So we are to "honor" people who are called by God "abominations" for the acts they are committing? Clearly, I am not speaking of chaste and celibate people, but rather homosexuals engaging in homosexual acts- which the catechism clearly states is sinful. I bring this up, because Martin has continually praised homosexual unions (I wrote about it in my post "Fr. Martin another Pied-Piper of Hell" back in 2015) over the years. 

Martin then goes on to bemoan the handful of times LBGT have been fired from positions in the Church because they have caused scandal by their homosexual unions (he declares this is "a sign of unjust discrimination" #2358 in the catechism). 

He worries about the hurt feelings of the LBGT people, but not the scandal homosexual unions cause the rest of the laity. He goes on to ask the question "Do we give pink slips to those who practice birth control?" How would anyone know who is or isn't using birth control? A "married" (as if!) homosexual couple are PUBLIC sinners, flaunting their immoral grave sin for all to see. The Church has a moral duty to correct them and NOT allow them to scandalize the faithful. Martin doesn't like correction, in fact, not once in his entire book does he call homosexual acts sinful nor does he tell the LBGT community that they must repent of homosexual acts because it is a mortal sin. 

Martin twists so many scriptures by leaving out the obvious point...Jesus accepts sinners in love...blah, blah, blah. Jesus of course loves sinners, we are all sinners, but what Jesus said was "go and sin no more". That phrase is never mentioned in Martin's book, or from what I can see on any of his social media outlets. 

Martin wants to "encounter" the sinner and leave them in their sin! I can think of nothing more cruel! It's like spitting in Jesus' face. Jesus loves us all and he wants us to enter Heaven, to do that we must ALL repent of all our sins, whatever they may be. If not, we have only one destination to look forward to. Hell. 

Fr. Martin talks about being "sensitive" to LBGT people by changing our language. 

Quote: "One way to be more sensitive is to consider the language we use. Some bishops have already called for the church to set aside the phrase "objectively disordered" when it comes to describing the homosexual inclination (as it is in the Catechism #2358)."

That is ridiculous! Homosexual acts ARE disordered. The natural order which God made man and woman is for each other- to procreate. That is what is natural to God's creation of man and woman. To be "inclined" to same sex acts is by definition disordered to the natural order! 

It doesn't matter that Fr. Martin says this is "...needlessly hurtful. Saying that one of the deepest parts of a person-the part that gives and receives love is "disordered" in itself is needless cruelty".

It is not 'needlessly hurtful' nor 'needless cruelty'! And too bad if the truth hurts! Lies that lead to Hell will be a whole lot more painful! Martin is clueless as to what true love is. Love is not the lust of sex, love is about wanting to get yourself and others to Heaven because that is what Jesus wants for each of us. Eternity with him. There is only one way that can happen- repenting of all our sins, not wallowing in them and crying about hurt feelings because the Church won't condone your sins.

I could go on and on, but I am going to end with what screamed off the pages of this book to me from the first introduction pages to the end of the book. 

It's when Martin brings up the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) which he rightly points to as a story of true compassion. 

Unfortunately, he twists it the wrong way and completely overlooks the point. The Good Samaritan didn't merely "encounter" the poor beaten and robbed man, he helped heal him of his wounds by biding up his wounds and seeing to his care until he was healed. He didn't leave him in the near death state he found him in. 

The Church has always done this for Her wounded. To cure the wound, the Church must tell the person what is sin, so the person can confess the sin and turn from it. Repentance is what we are called to, each one of us! If the person continues in the sin, the wound is never healed. 

Homosexual relationships are one-way tickets to Hell if not repented of, the exact same way fornication and adultery for a heterosexual is.

Fr. James Martin's book spouts about "encountering one another" and "accompanying one another", again I ask to where?  His book never answers, you just keep walking back and forth over this bridge to no where, because sin and the need to repent are never mentioned. 

Just keep on "encountering" each other until Judgement day, see where that bridge leads you.



In Christ, 

Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner 


Links: 

USBBC on New Ways Ministry: http://www.usccb.org/news/2010/10-028.cfm