Tell Pope Francis to remove Fr. Martin as an adviser to the Vatican! Sign the petition here
FAIRFIELD, Connecticut, January 28, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A Catholic university that has invited pro-homosexual Father James Martin to speak on campus this week is striking back at those who have expressed opposition to the controversial Jesuit’s presence on campus.
In particular, Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut has taken issue with a petition circulated by TFP Student Action, a project of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, which asks the school to cancel Martin’s appearance.
The title of Martin’s talk, “Showing Respect and Welcome in the Church to LGBT People,” echoes his other presentations made in recent years which blur the line between Church teaching and heresy as he attempts to introduce the normalization of homosexuality and transgenderism within the Catholic Church.
The university where he will speak identifies itself as rooted in “Catholic intellectual traditions,” while being “particularly committed to social justice.”
In 2010, the university awarded Fr. Martin an honorary degree.
“There has been an outpouring of letters, emails and calls regarding Martin’s views,” wrote Sacred Heart University president, John J. Petillo, Ph.D., in a letter posted online.
“TFP chooses protest and bullying over open debate and discourse,” asserts Petillo, who is highly critical of the group which is faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
“TFP Student Action writes letters, sends emails, uses social media and even busses its young students to colleges and universities across the country to speak out against speakers, programs and events it considers offensive,” continued Petillo. “TFP participants apparently think that by raising their voices, twisting and hypocritically extolling biblical passages to justify bigotry, hate and exclusion, they are doing God’s work.”
“Despite the petition and the scores of mail [sic] requesting that I disinvite Fr. Martin – I unapologetically welcome him to this engaged campus community,” continued Petillo, who encouraged all Sacred Heart students to attend the pro-gay priest’s presentation.
TFP’s petition states, “It is difficult to understand why the president of Sacred Heart University, Dr. John J. Petillo, while expressing solidarity for the victims of clergy abuse, would allow a priest who promotes the unnatural sin ‘almost exclusively’ responsible for such scandalous abuse to speak on campus.”
The petition notes that Fr. James Martin, SJ.:
- Supports transgenderism for children
- Said Catholics should “reverence” homosexual unions
- Favors homosexual kissing during Mass (sacrilege against God)
- Said homosexuals should be “invited” to be Eucharistic ministers
- Received a 2016 award from New Ways Ministry, a group condemned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Promoted a sacrilegious pro-homosexual “Rainbow Rosary”
- Attacked the purity of Our Lady of Guadalupe
TFP encourages faithful Catholics to join their “prayerful petition to cancel Fr. James Martin’s pro-LGBT lecture at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut on January 29, 2019.”
Martin’s pro-LGBT track record
Last summer at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Ireland, Fr. Martin said 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.
“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.
One of those is Cardinal Kevin Farrell, previously a close collaborator with disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who now serves as prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life and oversaw the World Meeting of Families.
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 that 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.