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Archbishop Wilton Gregory | Fr. James Martin

ATLANTA, Ga., September 17, 2018, (LifeSiteNews) – A U.S. archbishop has invited Fr. James Martin, SJ — the most outspoken proponent of the normalization of homosexuality within the Catholic Church — to speak in his diocese.  

“Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta has graciously invited me to his archdiocese to speak,” said the Jesuit priest in a tweet, “so I will be speaking at St. Thomas More Parish (the Jesuit parish) on Sat. Oct 20 and at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on the morning of Sun. Oct 21.” 

“I will be speaking on the same topic as I did at the World Meeting of Families: ‘Showing Welcome and Respect in Our Parishes to LGBT People and their Families,’” noted Martin in a follow-up tweet.

Faithful Shepherds has listed Archbishop Gregory as not upholding Church teaching on homosexuality. News broke last month of Gregory’s appointment of a pro-gay priest who heads a gay-affirming parish to be diocesan spiritual director for victims of sexual abuse by clergy. 

The parish of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the first Catholic church built in Atlanta, maintains a “Pride Outreach,” including running a booth at Atlanta’s gay pride week. 

“The Shrine has always welcomed all of God's children. During PRIDE week each year, we celebrate God's diversity by maintaining a booth in the park,” the parish website states.

It has sent a parish group to march in Atlanta’s Pride parade for years and it is registered to participate in the 2018 Pride parade as well.

The parish also offers GLBT potluck socials to promote “a connectedness within the Shrine GLBT community,” and GLBT couples potluck socials, which are “for GLBT couples who are in committed relationships for couple support by providing a venue for socializing with other GLBT couples,” according to the parish website.

A review on the Trip Advisor travel website rates the Shrine as “very Gay Friendly.”

In 2017, Fortunate and Faithful Families held their fifth annual retreat at the Chancery of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, writes former homosexual Joseph Sciambra, who has since returned to the practice of his Catholic faith. The theme of the retreat was “Building Bridges of Love,” a take on the title of the homosexual-affirming book by Fr. Martin. 

The group is “an offshoot of the dissident Catholic pro-gay marriage LGBT ministry Fortunate Families,” Sciambra notes.

Several deacons and priests attended the Fortunate and Faithful Families retreat, and the music director from the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception led music for a Mass in conjunction with the event. 

“Many thanks to Archbishop Gregory and his phenomenal staff for their care and hospitality!” the group’s website states about the archdiocese’s involvement in hosting its retreat.

While the Catholic Church in the United States has been beaten down, gripped with story after story of predatory sexual abuse and cover-ups by priests and prelates—the vast majority of which are homosexual in nature—Fr. James Martin has continued to use his almost celebrity-status to continue to lobby for the Church to normalize homosexuality and transgenderism.

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 homosexual 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.

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

Last month while speaking at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Martin delivered his pro-homosexual presentation to a packed hall, declaring that active homosexuals “should be invited into parish ministries” specifically mentioning them becoming “eucharistic ministers” in order to make them welcomed and accepted in the Catholic Church.

Over and over again throughout his talk, Martin spoke of ‘LGBT Catholics,’ reinforcing the notion that God creates men and women gay, lesbian or transgender. 

“They do not choose their orientation…You don’t choose your orientation or gender identity any more than you choose to be left-handed. It’s not a choice. And it’s not an addiction. Thus, it is not a sin simply to be L.G.B.T. Far less, it is not something to ‘blame’ on someone, like parents,” he said. 

Martin also said that “like any group, L.G.B.T. people bring special gifts to the church.”

Martin undermined clergy and laity who continue to embrace the Church’s wisdom and best pastoral practices regarding same-sex attraction, saying, that “most L.G.B.T. Catholics have been deeply wounded by the church.”

The Catholic Church teaches that God created humans as “male and female” and gave them to each other in marriage so they could “increase and multiply.” Sexual attraction and sexual acts between a male and female are specifically created by God for the purpose of procreation. The Catholic Church is logical and consistent when she teaches that homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity” and “intrinsically disordered” since they are “contrary to the natural law” in that they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.” 

“They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

The Church also teaches that same-sex attraction is “objectively disordered” since God created members of the opposite sex to be attracted to one another for the sake of procreation.

Write to Doug Mainwaring at [email protected].