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Fr. James Martin SJ on the Colbert Report, Sept. 24, 2013. Colbert Report

PETITION: Support Catholic Bishop who is calling for a boycott on LGBT 'Pride'. Sign the petition here.

June 3, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — At roughly the same time Bishop Thomas Tobin sent out a tweet — now heard around the world — warning Catholics against participating in LGBT “Pride” events during so-called “Pride Month,” pro-LGBT Fr. James Martin, S.J. sent out his own tweet to his “LGBTQ friends” that implied that God created them “gay” because they are “wonderfully made.”

And while Tobin’s defense of Church teaching brought down a firestorm of hate-filled criticism and accusations, Fr. Martin’s implied assertion that God makes people gay skated by virtually unchallenged.

“To all my many LGBTQ friends, Catholic and otherwise: Happy Pride Month,” said Martin. “Be proud of your God-given dignity, of the gifts God has given you, of your place in the world, and of your many contributions to the church. For you are ‘wonderfully made’ by God (Ps 139).”

Exactly one year ago, the Jesuit priest posted a similar tweet whose message is clearly antithetical to Bishop Tobin’s recent warning about participation in “Pride” events.

“Catholics need not be wary of June’s Pride Month. It’s a way for LGBT people to be proud that they are beloved children of God,” wrote Martin.

Bishop Tobin had tweeted before dawn on June, “A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ ‘Pride Month’ events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.”

An astounding 88,000 mostly negative replies have been posted to Bishop Tobin’s tweet, calling his comments “disgusting,” accusing him of being a “hate-filled hypocrite” and spreading “poisonous thinking.”  

A pro-LGBT protest was also quickly organized for Sunday evening outside the Providence Diocese’s Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, timed to coincide with an evening Mass. The event reportedly attracted over one hundred attendees, including drag queens and some attired in garb meant to mock the Catholic Church.

Bishop Tobin’s tweet was “ratioed,” a term that describes a tweet that has received far more “Replies” than “Likes.” At this moment, Bishop Tobin’s tweet has garnered 88,000 “Replies” and 24,000 “Likes,” a nearly 350% disparity. 

At the same time, Fr. Martin’s tweet has received about 1,300 “Replies” and 30,000 “Likes,” a positive ratio of nearly 2,500%. 

Martin’s pro-LGBT track record

Last summer at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Ireland, Fr. Martin said active homosexuals “should be invited into parish ministries,” specifically mentioning them becoming “eucharistic ministers” in order to make them feel welcome and accepted in the Catholic Church.

“As I’ve mentioned, there is a tendency to focus on the sexual morality of LGBT parishioners, which is wrong, because, first, you often have no idea what their sexual lives are like; and, second, even if they are falling short, they are not the only ones,” he said.

Despite his reputation for promoting homosexuality, the Vatican appointed Fr. Martin as a communications consultant in 2017.

After Fr. Martin accepted an award from the dissident pro-gay group New Ways Ministry, he published a book on how the Church should be more accepting of the homosexual lifestyle. The book was inspired by his talk. Four U.S. Catholic bishops have endorsed it.

The Jesuit’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 to suggesting that the Church is full of “homophobia” and “marginalizes” the same-sex attracted.

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

In February 2017, Fr. Martin tweeted his support for transgender bathrooms. “It doesn't hurt anybody” for boys to be allowed in girls’ bathrooms and vice versa, he claimed.

Fr. Martin says homosexual priests should “come out” about their sexual proclivities but has publicly declined to say whether he himself is gay.

Two different “faiths”

Fr. Martin’s pro-LGBT ministry sets him at odds with Church teaching and seemingly presents a version of the Catholic Church that is radically different from the one handed down to believers from Christ and the apostles.

The Catholic Church has perennially taught that homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity” and “intrinsically disordered.” Such acts are “contrary to the natural law” in that they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.”

The Church teaches, moreover, that God does not create any man or woman with attraction to the same sex, calling such an inclination “objectively disordered.” As is the case with anyone who commits grave sins, be they rape, murder, substance abuse, sacrilege, etc., Christians hold that as followers of Christ they must love the sinner while hating the sin. The Church teaches that people who struggle with same-sex attraction are to be treated with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity.”

Catholic author and pro-marriage and family activist Leila Miller posted both the Bishop Tobin and the Fr. Martin tweets on Facebook and issued a challenge: “These tweets represent two different faiths. Pick one.”

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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.