Fr. James Martin Lauds Pro-Gay Dissident Bp. Thomas Gumbleton

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DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - On Twitter Wednesday, Fr. James Martin promoted a film celebrating a dissident pro-gay bishop who is banned in some dioceses because of his dissent.

The notorious celebrity Jesuit priest took to Twitter to promote American Prophet, a movie "about the life of the great Bp. Thomas Gumbleton."

Bishop Gumbleton, whom Fr. Martin called "great," is a theological dissident known for his outspoken support of homosexuality.

In 2013, the retired bishop said to homosexuals living in a state of grave sin, "Don't stop going to communion. You're okay."

He said this as a direct counter to Detroit's Abp. Allen Vigneron, who had said publicly, "For a Catholic to receive Holy Communion and still deny the revelation Christ entrusted to the Church is to try to say two contradictory things at once."

In 2006, the Vatican forced Gumbleton to "retire," owing to his years of homosexualist activism.

The bishop has also been barred from speaking in the diocese of Phoenix, Arizona and the diocese of Marquette, Michigan.

Martin's promoting of American Prophet merited only backlash on Twitter. One Catholic replied to Martin, "Millstone Award of 2017."

This refers to Christ's claim in Luke 17:1–2: "It is impossible that scandals should not come: but woe to him through whom they come. It were better for him that a millstone was hanged about his neck, and he be cast into the sea than that he should scandalize one of these little ones."

Another Twitter response cited the Latin phrase Quos Deus perdere vult, prius demen[t]at, meaning "Those whom God wishes to punish, He first drives insane." In Christian tradition, the phrase suggests how sin begets disorder in the sinner's psyche, dulling the conscience, strengthing the passions' sway over the will and subverting the role of the intellect. Over time, habitual sin can gradually lead to sheer insanity.

In early October, Fr. Martin showed support on Twitter for Fr. Gregory Boyle, a fellow Jesuit who has spoken out against Church teaching on marriage and sexuality.

In a podcast in June, Martin said he would "canonize" pro-gay activist Sr. Jeannine Gramick, censured by the Vatican for her dissent. She founded New Ways Ministry, which has been condemned repeatedly by Church authorities owing to its rejection of Church teaching on homosexuality and chastity.

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