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Fr. James Martin SJVideo screenshot

June 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Fr. James Martin, S.J., the most outspoken force within U.S. Catholicism for the normalization of homosexuality and transgenderism within the Church, wants you to know that he thinks all Catholics should celebrate “pride month.”

In a video tweet posted on the second day of this year’s so-dubbed “pride month,” Martin claimed that it’s “a celebration of the human dignity of a group of people who have been for so long treated like dirt.” 

The Jesuit appears oblivious to the fact that far from being “treated like dirt,” June is a month-long orgy of adulation for self-identified homosexual and transgender individuals by nearly every single major global and national corporation, secular media, social media, tech giants, the White House, the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon, every single U.S. professional sports league, and even children’s cartoon TV shows, all of which without reservation champion LGBTQ ideology.

Despite the fact that Martin’s premise is untrue, he goes on for nearly two minutes, telling Catholics, “It’s especially important for churches to celebrate pride.”

“Just because you celebrate pride doesn’t mean you have to agree with what every video, every article, or even every float in a parade has to say,” claims Martin, yet the LGBTQ movement rejects the Catholic Church’s most fundamental teaching on the nature of man and woman as God created them. 

Martin promotes a serious lie in his short presentation, asserting that Catholics should convey to young people who announce that they are LGBTQ that “you know that God wants them to accept who they are.” God does not create people gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, pansexual or anything other than males or females created for complementary monogamous relationships, bound together in Holy Matrimony. 

Martin has long sought to undermine clergy and laity who continue to embrace the Church’s wisdom and best pastoral practices regarding same-sex attraction, asserting at the 2018 World Meeting of Families that “most L.G.B.T. Catholics have been deeply wounded by the church.”

The Jesuit used his platform at the Vatican-run gathering of Catholics to brazenly lobby for the Church to normalize homosexuality and transgenderism, going as far as urging the pastors to invite self-identifying LGBT individuals to serve as Eucharistic ministers.

Martin’s record of pro-gay activism is lengthy and ranges from his many speeches and media appearances promoting homosexuality to his retweeting of a complaint that priests can’t “bless” gay unions and suggesting that the Church is full of “homophobia” and “marginalizes” the same-sex attracted.

He supports men kissing each other during the sign of peace at Mass, says that a Catholic attending a same-sex “wedding” is like attending a Jewish wedding, and suggests that his critics are secretly homosexual themselves.

At a meeting in the nation’s capital earlier this year, Martin addressed 150 Catholic college and university presidents, urging them to promote “inclusion” on their campuses by promoting “LGBT-affirming liturgies,” permitting students to choose their own pronouns, and holding “Lavender Graduations.”

Full text of Fr. James Martin’s video tweet

Can Catholics celebrate “pride month,” when the LGBTQ community marks its place in society, especially since pride is, after all, one of the seven deadly sins?

Well, first of all remember that there are two definitions of pride.

The first is satisfaction that comes from your accomplishments which can morph into vanity which is bad. But the second kind of pride is a consciousness of your own dignity, and that’s closer to what pride month represents: a celebration of the human dignity of a group of people who have been for so long treated like dirt.

And for the religious person it’s a celebration of them as beloved children of God.

It’s especially important for churches to celebrate pride since a great deal of the rejection and even violence that the LGBTQ community has faced has been motivated by religion, or at least what people think that religion teaches.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church asks us to treat LGBTQ people with respect, compassion, and sensitivity, and participating in pride events or at least supporting our LGBTQ friends is one way to do this.

And just because you celebrate pride doesn’t mean you have to agree with what every video, every article, or even every float in a parade has to say. 

It’s more about supporting the fundamental human rights of this community: The right to live in safety, the right to be treated as equals, and the right to be fully welcomed into society. 

Besides, complaints about the use of the word “pride” don’t seem to happen in other situations. People say, “I’m proud to be Catholic,” or “I’m proud to be an American,” and no one objects to it or says that it’s vanity.

“Pride” is not about vanity, but human dignity.

Maybe the best way to think about pride is to imagine what you’d say to a young person who finally summoned up the courage to tell you that they were LGBTQ. You know that God created them, you know that God loves them, and you know that God wants them to accept who they are. So you would probably say, ‘I am so proud of you for being able to say that.’

That’s the kind of pride that we celebrate this month, so happy pride.

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Doug Mainwaring is a journalist for LifeSiteNews, an author, and a marriage, family and children's rights activist.  He has testified before the United States Congress and state legislative bodies, originated and co-authored amicus briefs for the United States Supreme Court, and has been a guest on numerous TV and radio programs.  Doug and his family live in the Washington, DC suburbs.