Let us now review the scandalous assertions in the above video of Fr. Martin's talk:
1. On the “unique gifts” the LGBT “Community” brings to the Church. The problem here is that the focus of Church teaching and pastoral activity is the human person and not any “community.” It is the human person who receives pastoral aid and affirmation from the Church. The USCCB’s 2006 document on “Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination” teaches that persons experiencing same-sex attraction should not be encouraged “to participate in ‘gay subcultures,’ which often tend to promote immoral lifestyles.” Now Fr. Martin mentions Our Lord's’ own focus on each person he encounters in his public ministry. So, isn’t the Church correct to focus on the person with same-sex attraction and not the “category” of “LGBT community”? The gifts of compassion, forgiveness, and perseverance to the Church Fr. cites are all gifts of specific individuals, not coming from a global “community” experience or as a direct consequence of one’s sexual attractions.
2. “People [and Groups] Have a Right to Name Themselves.” This documents a persistent, deep confusion about homosexuality—do attractions and emotions give rise to our identities? Are we our longings and feelings? Do our feelings, which change, define us, or are we called to define them in accord with a clear understanding of our God-given sexual identities as either man or woman rather than “gay” or “straight” Though in Pope Francis' view Satan would have it otherwise, Catholics must not give in to the ideologies of orientation and gender. Relativizing sexuality into “sexualities” is a distortion of the truth, and the Church makes this clear in her teachings and, hopefully, her pastoral practice.
3. “Almost all the [Church] firings in recent years have focused on LGBT matters.” Where is the evidence, Father? Rather, people can be fired for a variety of reasons that relate to public scandal in the Church, handled discreetly unless the fired employee seeks publicity. So, ask instead—who seeks publicity when terminated after giving public scandal, and why?
4. “Saying that one of the deepest parts of a person—the part that gives and receives love—is ‘disordered’ in itself is needlessly cruel.” Wow. Is the homosexual inclination the part of a person “that gives and receives love”? Do homosexual sexual acts (sodomy, for example) count as giving and receiving love? The acts are “intrinsically disordered,” and the inclinations are “objectively disordered,” according to the Church’s teaching on the natural moral law. Is the terminology needlessly cruel, or quite needfully accurate? It needs explanation, not elimination. Fr. Martin argues that groups have rights to their own terminology and names, which should be accepted as a sign of respectful listening to that group Why must the Church do away with the terms that convey the inconvenient truth that certain sex acts and certain inclinations are not ordered toward God’s plan for human sexuality?
