KNOCK, Ireland (LifeSiteNews) — The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference has been addressed today by heterodox Jesuit priest Father James Martin in the Marian Shrine of Knock, Co. Mayo, where Our Lady appeared to villagers in 1879.
The conference had not made any statement on the matter at the time of publication, nor responded to requests for comment from LifeSiteNews, but it is understood that at least one bishop privately expressed reservations about hosting the dissident Jesuit.
A trusted source in Ireland told LifeSiteNews that the meeting included discussions on how to implement the blessing of homosexual “couples” and even the desire to implement homosexual “marriage.”
A notoriously pro-LGBT member of the Dicastery for Communications, Martin has enjoyed increasing papal favor despite his longstanding record of promoting LGBT ideology in dissent from Catholic teaching.
He has also promoted an image drawn from a series of blasphemous, homoerotic works showing Jesus Christ as a homosexual, promoted same-sex civil unions, and described viewing God as male as “damaging.”
Martin was among many LGBT “Catholic” activists to praise the Vatican’s recently released Fiducia Supplicans document as a not-so tacit endorsement of homosexual relationships, with many modernist commentators and clergy chiding prelates and priests who recognize the declaration as an outright attack on truth, undermining Scriptural authority and the magisterium of the Church.
The document was also welcomed by Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell in early January, who indicated in his statement that priests should not refuse to bless homosexual couples or those in sexual relationships outside of marriage.
Today’s meeting took place in Ireland’s most famous shrine, Knock, where, along with Our Lady, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist and the Lamb of God appeared in a silent apparition to 15 poor villagers on 21 August, 1879.
That evening marked the conclusion of 100 Masses being offered for the Holy Souls in Purgatory by local priest Archdeacon Bartholomew Cavanagh.