Fr. James Martin: Our Lady Was a Lesbian?

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Father James Martin seems to be implying that the Blessed Mother was a lesbian. In a Facebook tirade posted Tuesday, the pro-gay priest urged Catholics to call their local bishops to complain about so-called hate groups like Church Militant in order to silence them, closing his exhortation by referring to the Holy Spirit as "She."

"Hope in the Holy Spirit," Martin wrote. "Things can always improve. And the Holy Spirit knows what She's doing."

The Holy Spirit is traditionally known as the Spouse of Mary. The angel Gabriel announced to Our Lady in Luke 1:35:

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;
therefore the child to be born will be called holy,
the Son of God.

Although the concept of being Spouse to Mary is not meant to be taken literally, the phrasing still indicates a type of spiritual marriage between Our Lady and the Holy Spirit, a similar espousal to that of a consecrated nun, who refers to herself as the "spouse" of Jesus. In both cases, it's clearly a masculine-feminine spiritual union, reflected in the marriage of man and woman. Martin's deliberate reference of the Holy Spirit as "She" implies Our Lady was espoused to a female entity, a feminine-feminine (lesbian) union. Is Fr. Martin actually saying this? We do not presume to make that assumption. But he should be aware of the implication and make clear his intent.

Pope Leo XIII spoke of this spousal relationship between Our Lady and the Holy Spirit in Divinum Illud Munus:

Let all Christian peoples add their prayers also, invoking the powerful and ever-acceptable intercession of the Blessed Virgin. You know well the intimate and wonderful relationship existing between her and the Holy Spirit, so that she is justly called His Spouse. May she continue to strengthen our prayers with her prayers.

Some argue the Holy Spirit should be referred to in the feminine because the original Hebrew word in the Old Testament, rūaḥ, is a feminine noun. But those who understand linguistics know that grammatical gender has no bearing on actual gender of the noun. The neuter Greek word pneuma is used for "spirit" in the New Testament, and in Latin (the official language of the Church) the masculine spiritus is used. Our Lord Himself referred to the Holy Spirit as paraclete, using the Greek word parakletos, a masculine noun.

Additionally, St. John uses the masculine pronoun in reference to the Holy Spirit, even though he is referring to the Greek neuter pneuma, indicating his deliberate choice to refer to the Spirit as "He" rather than "It." In short, there is simply no scriptural or historical or theological precedent to refer to the Holy Spirit as "She."

Add to that the fact that the Holy Trinity, though three distinct Persons, is One, and is always referred to in the masculine. The Holy Spirit reveals the Father and the Son, and all three Persons are One God. Thus the Holy Spirit has always been referred to in the masculine by the Church. The Church has never referred to the Holy Spirit in the feminine.

Viewed in this context, Fr. Martin's choice to refer to the Holy Spirit in the feminine has far-reaching implications. Considering his heavy promotion of gay ideology to the exclusion of nearly anything else — including his recent claim that celibacy for LGBT people is not an authoritative teaching of the Church, or that Catholics should "reverence" gay unions — it would hardly be surprising if Martin is subtly furthering his agenda by insinuating the blasphemous notion that Our Lady — espoused to a "female" Holy Spirit — is a lesbian.

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