5 Reasons to Cancel Fr. James Martin's Address at Misericordia University
"From some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God." This quote of Pope Paul VI rings so true, especially today when you consider how the Catholic Church is under attack from within by some pastors who act more like wolves.
To defend the perennial moral teaching of the Holy Catholic Church, TFP Student Action is launching a nationwide petition, urging Misericordia University -- a Catholic institution in Pennsylvania -- to cancel Fr. James Martin's Winter Commencement address scheduled on December 17, 2017.
Click here to help cancel Fr. Martin's address
Here are five reasons why Misericordia should disinvite Fr. Martin and find a faithful Catholic speaker who respects and loves Catholic teaching and honors God's law.
1. Fr. Martin said Catholics should "reverence" homosexual unions
On September 5, 2017, at Fordham University, Fr. Martin contradicted Church teaching, saying: "I have a hard time imagining how even the most traditionalist, homophobic, closed-minded Catholic cannot look at my friend [in a same-sex "marriage"] and say, 'That is a loving act, and that is a form of love that I don't understand but I have to reverence.'"
Source: Fordham News video (minute 59:42)
2. Fr. Martin supports transgenderism for children
On October 2, 2017, Fr. Martin posted comments supporting a young boy who presented himself as a girl to receive religious education at a Catholic parish. When the parish offered to teach the boy as long as he presented himself according to his biological sex, registered on his baptismal certificate, Fr. Martin objected, calling the Church's decision "a scandal." In this case, Fr. Martin supported transgender confusion, which, according to the American College of Pediatricians, is a form of child abuse.
Source: Fr. Martin's Facebook page
3. Fr. Martin favors homosexual kissing during Mass
During a presentation at Villanova University on August 29, 2017, Fr. Martin told a practicing homosexual who attends Mass, “I hope in 10 years you will be able to kiss your partner [in church] or, you know, soon to be your husband.” How can a Catholic priest promote the public display of sacrilegious and sinful behavior during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
4. Fr. Martin calls dissident, pro-homosexual nun a "saint"
During a podcast on June 16, 2017, Fr. Martin said that Sr. Jeannine Gramick, a nun censured by the Vatican for her pro-homosexual activism with New Ways Ministry, should be declared a "saint." Catholics should know that Sister Gramick has a record of defiant disobedience. In 1999 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under then-Cardinal Ratzinger, permanently prohibited her “from any pastoral work involving homosexual persons.”
"By suggesting Sr. Gramick is worthy of sainthood," Church Militant observes, "Fr. Martin 'blesses' her revolt against Church teaching, while propagating her heresy."
Source: Jesuitical podcast (minute 32:21)
5. Fr. Martin welcomes award from group condemned by the USCCB
On October 30, 2016, Fr. Martin accepted the "Bridge Building Award" from the pro-homosexual group New Ways Ministry. However, as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Francis George, condemned the group, stating: "Their claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the Church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination. Accordingly, I wish to make it clear that, like other groups that claim to be Catholic but deny central aspects of Church teaching, New Ways Ministry has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church and that they cannot speak on behalf of the Catholic faithful in the United States."
Source: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Given the confusion and ambiguity promoted by wolves in sheep's clothing, let us reiterate what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches regarding homosexuality.
Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. 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. (2357)