It isn’t often that I agree with every word in an op-ed in a major news outlet but I agree 100% with what Jesuit priest James Martin writes in his Washington Post op-ed:
After a gunman killed 49 people at Pulse, a predominantly gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016, I found myself disappointed that more Catholic leaders did not offer support to the LGBT community. And that the few who did found it difficult to acknowledge that LGBT people specifically had been targeted for murder.
For me, that silence highlighted a certain failure to be compassionate to the LGBT community even in a moment of tragedy. It also revealed that the LGBT community was still largely invisible to some church authorities. In response, I recorded a brief video that was posted on Facebook. It offered some support for the LGBT community during a terribly difficult few weeks.
Not long afterwards, New Ways Ministry, an organization that ministers to and advocates for LGBT Catholics, invited me to accept their Bridge Building Award. Until then, I had never done what you might call formal ministry with LGBT Catholics, besides the counseling that almost every church worker does in his or her ministry. But the Catholic Church’s response to the events in Orlando encouraged me to do so in a more public way. So, with my Jesuit superiors’ permission, I accepted the award and offered a lecture on how to build a “two-way bridge†between LGBT Catholics and the institutional church — that is, the church’s hierarchy and decision-makers. From that talk came the first half of my book, “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity.â€
Now, in the past few weeks, three lectures I was invited to have been canceled, and I have been targeted by some far-right groups whose actions betray a level of homophobia that is hard to fathom. These groups, a kind of Catholic alt-right, are increasingly attempting to substitute themselves for legitimate Church authority by passing judgments on which Catholics are orthodox and which are not. “Heresy†is a word they use as frequently as “and†and “the.â€
and I’m appalled that some alleged Catholics should take it on themselves to react in that way. Hating homosexuals is inconsistent with Church teaching. As a Catholic you don’t need to accept every item on a political agenda but you should at least conform to church teaching, honoring the magisterium if nothing else.
I haven’t followed this closely but I’m not sure that I accept Fr. Martin’s characterization of the reactions to his writings. Specifically I’m questioning whether or not he has said that chastity is not required of faithful LGBT Catholics. If that is what he is saying, than he is inconsistent with Church teaching and it isn’t exactly beyond the pale for Catholic institutions to disinvite him.
Personally I like Jason Everett’s outreach to youth, which uses the framework of Pope JPII’s Theology of the Body and presents Church teaching on sexuality in general as well the specific issue of homosexuality in an accessible way for adolescents. As far as I know, he’s been well received by conservative Catholics which would rebut the charge that there is rampant bigotry or opposition to outreach.
Agreed. I am admittedly taking what he wrote in his op-ed at face value.
” These groups, a kind of Catholic alt-right, are increasingly attempting to substitute themselves for legitimate Church authority by passing judgments on which Catholics are orthodox and which are not” is a statement that represents the logical schizophrenia of Roman Catholics. It takes logical gymnastics to at once appeal to “legitimate Church authority” and at the same time decry discriminating on the basis of Catholic orthodoxy, even in this year of the 500th anniversary of Catholic irrationality.
He starts off with a handicap being a Jesuit. Conservative Catholics don’t trust them at all.
Steve
As I’ve mentioned before I went to a Jesuit high school which is essentially boot camp for the Society of Jesus. When I read something written by a Jesuit, I read it with different eyes than most people.
He’s also a publicity hound, to put it politely. I refrained from pointing it out in my initial comment because it’s ad hominem, but it does make me suspicious that he’s likely provoked some controversy for its own sake.
Actually I want to walk back that last comment. My first reaction was to assume he was ginning up controversy to get attention but the more I read of his recent writings, speeches, and interviews I see that he really is pushing a radical agenda and at best he is coy when asked if he affirms the Church teachings.
Steve, perhaps there is reason for that mistrust. I don’t mean to besmirch all Jesuits I don’t think Fr Martin is representative (he certainly doesn’t seem to display the intellectual heft) but if a Catholic order decides not to follow the Magisterium than they might as well become Episcopalians.