Fr James Martin: The Real Scandal

If you’re looking for a Catholic priest who inspires people—and makes them laugh and think—James Martin, SJ, is your guy. At the Ignatian Solidarity Network’s annual conference, he’s greeted like a rock star by swarms of young Catholics who devour his books and remember him as Stephen Colbert’s “chaplain” on the Colbert Report. To say this is unusual is an understatement. Millennials are leaving the church in droves, turned off in part by an institution that has made opposition to same-sex marriage central to Catholic identity in the public square.

This generation of Catholics remains inspired by the church’s rich social justice tradition, has no patience for the culture wars, and is disgusted that their religious leaders are often perceived to be fighting against the human rights of gay people. When I heard the news last Friday that the seminary at Catholic University of America canceled a scheduled talk from Martin because a network of Catholic right attack dogs launched an ugly campaign against him, I cringed. The already-thin thread barely connecting these young Catholics to the institutional church just got thinner. Self-inflicted wounds are hard to heal.

Source: The Real Scandal | Commonweal Magazine

Fr James Martin says Cafod ‘not entirely accurate’ in its account of why his London lecture was ‘cancelled’

‘It was very clear that the 2017 talk was cancelled. And it was clear why: concerns and fears over negative publicity surrounding my LGBT book’

The leading Jesuit, Fr James Martin SJ has said Cafod cancelled a planned October lecture in London because of controversy over his new book, “‘Building a Bridge,’ which calls for further dialogue between the Catholic Church and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics who feel alienated from the Church.

Speaking to The Tablet on Tuesday (19 September), Fr Martin said Cafod’s most recent statement about the keynote talk “is not entirely accurate, and I’m sorry to have to correct the record.”

Cafod, the Catholic international aid agency, has denied that it withdrew an invitation for Fr Martin to speak at an event in London.

Source: The Tablet

Bishop McElroy: Attacks on Father James Martin expose a cancer within the U.S. Catholic Church | America Magazine

Last year Father Martin undertook a particularly perilous project in this work of evangelization: building bridges between the church and the L.G.B.T. community in the United States. He entered it knowing that the theological issues pertaining to homosexuality constituted perhaps the most volatile element of ecclesial life in U.S. culture.

It was this very volatility that spurred Father Martin to write his new book Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the L.G.B.T. Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity. Using a methodology that is fully consonant with Catholic teaching, employing Scripture, the rich pastoral heritage of the church and an unadulterated realism that makes clear both the difficulty and the imperative for establishing deeper dialogue, Father Martin opens a door for proclaiming that Jesus Christ and his church seek to embrace fully and immediately men and women in the L.G.B.T. community.

More: America Magazine

Cardinal Sarah offers critique of L.G.B.T. book, Father James Martin responds | America Magazine

Cardinal Robert Sarah, a frequent defender of Catholicism’s teaching on human sexuality, rejected arguments presented in a book by a popular Jesuit writer that the church must be more respectful toward gay and lesbian Catholics. Instead, he said, Catholics have a duty to remind gays and lesbians that homosexual acts are sinful.

In comments to America, Father Martin called Cardinal Sarah’s column “a step forward,” noting that the cardinal used the term “‘L.G.B.T.,’ which a few traditionalist Catholics reject.” (Part of Father Martin’s book urges church leaders to use the more colloquial phrase “gay and lesbian” rather than antiquated phrases preferred by some Catholics, such as “persons with same-sex attraction.”)

But, Father Martin said, the essay “misses a few important points,” including a failure to acknowledge “the immense suffering that L.G.B.T. Catholics have felt at the hands of their church.”

Source: Cardinal Sarah offers critique of L.G.B.T. book, Father James Martin responds | America Magazine

A CHAT WITH FATHER JAMES MARTIN, SJ by Giacomo Sanfilippo | ORTHODOXY IN DIALOGUE

This interview was conducted on August 4. It introduces our readers to Father Martin’s Building a Bridge, released earlier this year. The first part of his book expands upon a lecture that he delivered last year to New Ways Ministry in the wake of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando.]

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In publishing this interview the editors of Orthodoxy in Dialogue ask if such a conversation as Father Martin advocates is possible and necessary in the Orthodox Church.

GIACOMO: Father Jim, thanks so much for making the time to discuss your new book with me. You and I share a concern that our respective Churches adopt a more pastorally responsive approach to questions of same-sex love. (See my recent articles herehere, and here.)

FATHER JIM: It’s my pleasure to talk with you. Thanks for giving me the chance to speak more about this outreach to our LGBT Catholic brothers and sisters.

Full interview at  ORTHODOXY IN DIALOGUE

Building bridges with LGBT Catholics – SCO News

IAN DUNN speaks to Fr James Martin about his controversial book attracting both praise and criticismFr James Martin is one of the most famous priests in America. His TV appearances and books have won him a devoted following around the world and led to him being made a communications consultant to the Vatican.He is now using his formidable skills as he sets about ‘Building a Bridge,’ as his new book has it, to gay Catholics. The book has received advanced praise from high-ranking cardinals and bishops, both in the United States and in Rome.Although it has been controversial in some quarters, the book has been praised by senior members of Church including Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, who said it is a ‘welcome and much-needed book that will help bishops, priests, pastoral associates, and all Church leaders, more compassionately minister to the LGBT community.”

IAN DUNN speaks to Fr James Martin about his controversial book attracting both praise and criticism

Fr James Martin is one of the most famous priests in America. His TV appearances and books have won him a devoted following around the world and led to him being made a communications consultant to the Vatican.

He is now using his formidable skills as he sets about ‘Building a Bridge,’ as his new book has it, to gay Catholics. The book has received advanced praise from high-ranking cardinals and bishops, both in the United States and in Rome.

Although it has been controversial in some quarters, the book has been praised by senior members of Church including Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, who said it is a ‘welcome and much-needed book that will help bishops, priests, pastoral associates, and all Church leaders, more compassionately minister to the LGBT community.”

Read more:  Scottish Catholic Observer

Priest Asks Church About ‘What Happens Next’ After LGBT People Are Welcomed? – Bondings 2.0

With an increased welcome for LGBT people in the Catholic Church, one priest is asking what comes next after hospitality is shown and doors are opened?

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Fr. Alexander Santora

Fr. Alexander Santora, pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph parish in Hoboken, New Jersey, cited as good news both Cardinal Joseph Tobin’s welcomeof LGBT pilgrims to the Newark Cathedral and Fr. James Martin, SJ’s new book on LGBT issues. But, in a piece for NorthJersey.com, he raised new questions about “what happens next?”:

“How will the LGBT community come back to a church that has no positive theology on homosexuality and no consensus on how to even begin to fashion one? Even if preachers and priests refrain from repeating the tired shibboleths against gay men and lesbians, what will they hear in church? Where do they find comfort in the Scriptures proclaimed from the pulpit? And how will the local parish minister to them?”

Source:  – Bondings 2.0