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Fr. James Martin in a March 7, 2018 America Magazine Youtube video titled ‘Spiritual Insights for LGBT Catholics.’ America Magazine / Youtube

DUBLIN, Ireland August 23, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Vatican advisor and pro-LGBT Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin told participants at the World Meeting of Families today in Ireland 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 L.G.B.T. 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.

“As a result, L.G.B.T. people may feel they have to be dishonest about who they are and that they have no place in ministries. Like everyone else in your parish who does not live up to the Gospels—which is everyone—L.G.B.T. people should be invited into parish ministries: eucharistic ministers, music ministers, lectors, bereavement ministry and every ministry,” he added.

READ: Layman responds to Fr. James Martin: ‘It’s hate not to tell LGBT that gay sex leads to hell’

While the Catholic Church in the United States is 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 – the priest used his platform at the Vatican-run event to lobby for the Church to normalize homosexuality and transgenderism.

Fr. Martin’s presentation was titled “Showing Welcome and Respect in our Parishes for ‘LGBT’ People and their Families.”

Cardinal Raymond Burke told LifeSiteNews in a 2014 interview that priests should “try to stay close” to parish members “living in public sin in a homosexual relationship” so as to “try to help them to leave the sinful relationship and to begin to lead a chaste life.”

He directly addressed the topic of open homosexuals who seek ministry roles within the parish.

“Those people [who] are living in that way certainly cannot have any leadership role in the parish, because it would give the impression to parishioners that the way they are living is perfectly alright. Because, [when] we lead in a parish, in a certain way, we are giving witness to a coherent Catholic life. And people who are not coherent with their Catholic faith aren’t given leadership roles. They are not asked, for instance, to be a lector at the Holy Mass — or [to] assume some other leadership position — until they have rectified their situation and gone through a conversion of life and then are ready to give such leadership,” he said.

“On the one hand, it certainly gives scandal to parishioners with regard to a very essential part of our life, our sexuality, [and] what it means. On the other hand, it's not good for the two people involved in the disordered relationship because it also gives them the idea that the Church somehow approves of what they're doing,” he added.

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 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.”

“They may have been mocked, insulted, excluded, condemned or singled out for critique, either privately or from the pulpit. They may never have heard the term ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ expressed in any positive way or even a neutral way,” he said.

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.

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

He laid out a number of points for how parishes can be more “welcoming” to homosexuals and their gifts and stop “discriminating” against them.

Laity and clergy should “get facts, not myths, about sexual orientation and gender identity from scientific and social-scientific sources, not from rumors and misinformed and homophobic online sites.”

Laity and clergy should be “attentive to language that [homosexuals] say they find offensive and needlessly hurtful: ‘sodomy’ for example. Names, words and terminology matter.”

The “lived experience” of homosexuals should be listened to.

“We don’t treat other Catholics by simply repeating church teaching without considering their lived experience. So avoid doing that with L.G.B.T. people.”

Martin stressed that homosexuals should be talked about in homilies.

“Acknowledge them in homilies or parish presentations as full members of the parish, without judgment and not as fallen-away Catholics,” he said.

He said that laity and clergy should not “reduce” LGBT people to the Church’s call to chastity.

“Don’t reduce gays and lesbians to the call to chastity we all share as Christians. L.G.B.T. people are more than their sexual lives. But sometimes that’s all they hear about. Remember not to focus solely on sexuality.”

Martin criticized parishes and dioceses where he said active homosexuals are not treated like other Christians.

“In fact, recently some American parishes have fired L.G.B.T. people after they were legally married. And something about these situations always mystified me.”

He called on Catholics to be advocates for homosexuals.

“Advocate for them. Be prophetic. There are many times when the church can provide a moral voice for this persecuted community.”

The Vatican appointed Father Martin as a communications consultant in 2017.

After Father 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. Four U.S. Catholic bishops have endorsed it.  

One of those Cardinals is 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 which is charged with overseeing 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.

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

Write to Doug Mainwaring at [email protected].

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