Epic Fail: Fr. James Martin at the World Meeting of Families

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By Jim Russell

Homosexualist Jesuit Fr. James Martin spoke on Aug. 23 to about 1,200 pilgrims at the much-touted and Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families (WMOF) held this year in Dublin, Ireland. His talk? "Showing Welcome and Respect in our Parishes for 'LGBT' People and their Families." The talk was immediately published at the America magazine website.

For this longtime observer of the harm Martin has done to the Church — and in keeping with all things "LGBTQIA" — his effort at the "WMOF" was "MOTS" or "SSDD": more of the same; or same stuff, different day. For anyone who knows the "both/and" that the Church expects regarding the truth about homosexuality and orthodox pastoral outreach to those with same-sex attraction, Martin's slippery prose amounted to an epic failure to give the faithful, the so-deeply-wounded People of God, what is truly needed at this moment of crisis.

It cannot be stated too strongly that Martin is a wolf in shepherd's clothing. That's not an attack on him as a person, either — it's merely a fair description of what takes place when he merely opens his mouth to speak. His words are well-crafted — deliberately and deftly sleek and calculated to dance artistically through the minefield of truths that he so assiduously avoids. He wants zero to do with these truths — the core reality — of the homosexual condition. And like a pied piper, he wants everyone who catches earshot of his lilting tune to follow along, not much caring, it seems, whether his followers ever experience the fullness of truth regarding that reality, despite the fact that death can come either physically or spiritually to those who remain ignorant to the landmines Martin has them dancing around.

Martin speaks the politically correct LGBT-speak of secular culture. He relies upon secular psychology — which long ago declared homosexuality to be "normal" — to trump Church teaching regarding the disordered reality of the homosexual inclination. Instead, he fully assumes that which ought to be proven first: namely, that there exists a massive bias against
"LGBT people" in Catholic parishes everywhere.

That one obvious misstep in this pied piper's dance is based upon a further set of assumptions: 1) "gay is okay" (not in need of healing); 2) "coming out" is healthy and necessary; and 3) if you "come out" and people respond negatively, you're being "excluded" and "marginalized" by "homophobia."

That is what Martin assumes as his starting point for his talk to families — families — attending this major event. Not a single utterance about how being "LGBT" is itself a particular cross borne by so many, a cross of harm and suffering. No, the "LGBT" person and community are both ship-shape and in need of nothing except complete, utter and unmitigated acceptance.

But, wait — shouldn't we warn them of the danger involved both in their experience of the homosexual inclination as well as acting on that inclination? Yeah, if you want to be a bigot or homophobe, go ahead.

I trust that readers can read his speech for themselves, if they wish. If anyone is looking for actual Catholic teaching, however, look elsewhere, as you'll find virtually none. What you will find are the correct buzzwords Martin uses to shape the narrative: unwelcome, scandal, cruel, excluded, lepers, etc.

But haven't Catholic parishes had enough of this twisted landscape in which truth goes unnoticed, submerged in the dung heap that results when half-truths and outright lies get piled upon it? For decades, haven't Catholic parishes been accused precisely of being "unwelcome" to "gays" merely by clearly teaching the truth about homosexuality and by clearly expecting that its parishioners would all be willing to not identify themselves by their personal crosses, regardless of what their particular crosses really were? No "gay sex" community, no "adulterer" community, no "embezzler" community and so on.

Martin wants to normalize everything that comes prior to this act of emergence of an "LGBT person" into any parish — he wants to normalize the condition. He wants to normalize "coming out" as a public acclamation of the okayness of the condition. After which Martin then stands ready to accuse parish communities of being "cruel" unless they offer two holy thumbs-up signs to the those seeking to have their own acceptance of "gay" identity, in turn, unquestioningly accepted by that parish community.

This all-too-brief summation of Martin's oily spiel foisted upon people of faith gathered in Dublin will never shine full light on the corruption just under the surface of what seems at first blush to be sympathetic — even "respectful, compassionate and sensitive." But at least one more example can suffice to expose the rot at the core of Martin's vacuously sentimental approach to this issue. Do you know which parish is Martin's hope-filled beacon of "LGBT welcome" in this world?

Martin: "My own Jesuit community in New York is next to a church called St. Paul the Apostle, which has one of the most active LGBT outreach programs in the world. The ministry is called Out at St. Paul and sponsors retreats, Bible study groups, speaking engagements and social events for the parish's large LGBT community. ... And I just learned that two members of that group are entering religious orders this year."

If that last sentence spoken by the pied piper of Dublin doesn't immediately send chills up your spine, it should. If it doesn't, I highly recommend that you check out something I wrote about "Out at St. Paul" and its pet project "Owning Our Faith" back in 2015.

God help us if the best the Church can offer the world regarding homosexuality and how parishes can be more welcoming to "LGBT people" — at an event meant to encourage and strengthen families — is the worm-tongued eloquence of Fr. James Martin.

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