Fr. James Martin and the Great Reset
Richard Rohr hands the scepter to James Martin

Fr. James Martin has become popular under Pope Francis, and is on the Catholic conference circuit. Fr. James Martin is set to receive the torch of the "face of the reform" from the grandfather of the liberal reform, Fr. Richard Rohr, who is in the last years of his life. We can expect a continued rise in the prominence of Fr. Martin as he "champions" the spiritual universalism that will underpin the Great Reset. To understand Fr. James Martin, we have to understand Richard Rohr. Here are 5 articles that lay out Richard Rohr, and his protege, Fr. Martin's relationship to Christianity and Catholicism.

When we strip away the hand waving, Fr. Martin denies Jesus' simple message, which is:

Repent and be saved. (Mk 1:15)
I am The Way, the Life and the Truth, no one comes to the Father except through me. (Jn 14:6)

In a very practical way, James Martin teaches an anti-Gospel.

James Martin Christianity
Deny the authority of the Bible Affirm the authority of the Bible
Not surrender to Jesus Surrender to Jesus (Mat 16:25)
Continue in sin, feel good about it Repent and sin no more (Jn 8:11)
Impose sin on the rest of the culture through activism Evangelize the culture to repent from sin and rebellion and surrender to Jesus (Mat 28:19)

Unfortunately, where there is infidelity to the Church teaching on human sexuality, not far behind, we find a whole plethora of rejection of other Church Dogmas. Lord have mercy.

Fr. James Martin wants the Church to:

  • Remove "intrinsically disordered" from the Catechism.
  • Celebrate and welcome all gender expressions.
  • Work with the LGBT community so we can learn together.
  • Affirm that people can belong to the LGBT community and the Church simultaneously.
  • Affirm organizations like "NewWays Ministry" which focus on normalizing same sex activity rather than “Courage” which helps same sex attracted people remain chaste.

He tells LBGT's “God made you this way ... like Psalm 139 says you were knit together in your mother’s womb … this way. This is a part of your identity.”

Coming out of the LGBTQ+ community

I was an "out of the closet" letter writing, pride marching advocate for “LGBTQ+ rights". My secular family and friends were supportive. I went to Montreal to meet a yoga guru but got lost and wandered into St. Joseph’s Oratory where I had an experience with Jesus. After that, I noticed many things with which I could no longer agree at LBGTQ+ meetings. Soon after, I knelt in front of a cross outside a church and felt the Lord interiorly ask me to stop going to LGBTQ+ activities. It was extremely tangible and I immediately felt a huge weight come off my back, more than when I first came out. I eventually became a Catholic. I was interviewed on the BBC during this period. After many years of celibacy, I married Diane, and have a young daughter and good career. I’m not on medication. I'm generally healthy, functional, well adjusted with friends and community. Jesus is amazing.

Of course, only some people with a same sex history are called to natural marriage, but chastity is for everyone.

What's wrong with Fr. James Martin's message?

Fr. Martin is the protege of Fr. Richard Rohr.

Fr. Martin preaches charity without clarity (about chastity), which seems more like activism than pastoral care to those of us who have previously practiced gay activism.

  • He says the Church has been harsh and needs to welcome people with same sex attraction, which is true, but when pressed on the issue of abstinence he distances himself from the Church teaching with phrases such as "the Church teaches" followed by "but ... " as if its too much to expect someone to submit to the Church teaching.
  • Here's a tweet: "Where the Bible mentions same-sex sexual behaviour at all it clearly condemns it. I freely grant that. The issue is clearly whether the biblical judgment is correct."
  • He says its discriminatory to focus on same sex chastity as if straight Catholics never work on chastity. LGBTQ+ is a sexual orientation and most LGBTQ+ blogs talk about sex a lot. Why can't Catholics discuss our teaching on sex regarding LGBTQ+ issues? Or is gay sex to become the Trojan horse that no one talks about until its normalized in the Church?
  • He's right that its important to acknowledge our attractions and trust supportive people. However, the LGBT community cannot support same sex attracted Catholics, because there are incompatible tenets necessary for acceptance in the LGBTQ+ community. It's like someone cannot be an active Freemason and Catholic because the philosophies are irreconcilable even though Freemasons do some "good works".
  • Fr. Martin has never acknowledged that gay sex is unhealthy physically, emotionally and spiritually.
  • He conflates God's active and passive will by saying "God made you that way". The Catechism accurately states that its causes are unknown (2357-2359).
  • He is silent about the faithful Catholic organization “Courage”, which helps same sex attracted Catholics stay chaste, but endorses the dissident "NewWay Ministries" which wants to normalize same sex activity.
  • I personally experienced the Lord calling me out of the LGBT community, and have seen the good fruit of that decision. I cannot reconcile this with Fr. Martin’s message. I don't feel he represents people in our situation at all, many of whom say their posts to Fr. Martin's Facebook groups have been deleted. Fr. Martin needs to understand it is not "internalized homophobia" to abstain from unnatural sex. It is the powerful and loving hand of God.

Finally, with respect to Fr. Martin's lobbying to remove "intrinsically disordered" from the Catechism, we leave you with a classic Fulton Sheen talk about a normal and abnormal mind.

...the normal person is governed by reason and will. The abnormal person is governed by instincts, impulses and also he believes that the subconsciousness is the determinant of his life ... [he] live[s] in a world of dreams,... [that] have tremendous meaning and they are for the most part unfulfilled sex desires ... [its an] exaggerated belief in the sub consciousness as the determinant of rational beings ...

The normal person believes in repressing the excesses of the lower instincts in order to express reason and will and his potential for divine grace.

There is also a repression for the abnormal [mind] but the repression here is not of the lower instincts it's rather a repression of the reason and the will in order to give an outlet for the lower instincts....

There is never a repression without an expression never an expression without a repression ... [To suppress reason and will to express the subconcious lower instincts] one might just as well say the way to overcome a complex about committing suicide is to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge ...

It is wrong also for people to think that we are to get rid of all conflicts of life. There certain conflicts that are inevitable in human nature simply because we're composed of body and soul, matter and spirit. Therefore there's always a struggle, there's a cross that is at the very center of human life. No man is ever really happy on the inside until he's at war with himself ... Our Lord said I came not to bring peace but the sword. Not the sword the points and thrusts outward to destroy the neighbor but the sword that thrusts inward in order to destroy one's egotism, one's lust and one's avarice and all the things that destroy peace of mind. The greatest Cross in the world is to be without a cross.

Related articles

  1. Is same sex attraction intrinsically disordered?
  2. Why won't Catholics accept gay marriage?
  3. The Catholic Church and Gay sex
  4. Richard Rohr's spirituality will underpin the Great Reset
  5. Gay Sex in the Bible
  6. Priest Sexual Abuse Cases
  7. Hugh's testimony
  8. Marriage, Divorce, Annulments
  9. MP3 Download "One Man One Woman" Theme song for Canada's "March for Marriage"
  10. Chastity
  11. Are Catholics against Women?