Timely letter from Pope Francis to James Martin SJ on his ministry to gay Catholics

Pope Francis has written to the US based priest, James Martin SJ, praising his ministry to gay Catholics.

In stark contrast to the legalistic language used by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in their blessings document, the Pope’s letter stresses that God’s “style” has three elements: closeness, compassion and tenderness.

“Thinking about your pastoral work, I see that you are continually seeking to imitate this style of God,” Francis writes. “You are a priest for all men and women, just as God is a father for all men and women.”

Link to article in The Tablet:

https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/14258/pope-praises-james-martin-s-ministry-to-gay-catholics

 

The letter is also covered in the America Magazine:

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/06/27/james-martin-lgbt-ministry-pope-francis-240938?pnespid=jehztv5EWBCNyw5zpE7B3UcFjjGeWtJY_bWVQ4hn&utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10714

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Light after Darkness

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Chris McDonnell in his Catholic Times column wonders how life might be changed when we eventually return to the light from the current darkness we find ourselves in.
“… the consequent life in faith of our Christian community will be fundamentally altered by our current experience.
We might resume familiar patterns but we will come to them as changed people. The shock of the new will be unavoidable. Faith will have been tested by experience and the well-worn path we have happily followed will be lost in the stones and bushes of the hedge-row. The real challenge will be to maintain our experience of inter-dependence, the realization that there is such a thing as Society, that we need each other”.

One Comment

  1. Paddy Ferry says:

    Letter from Pope Francis to Fr. James Martin SJ
    Dear friends: Since many of you are asking me about Pope’s letter on LGBTQ ministry, which I shared yesterday, here’s what I feel: The Holy Father’s beautiful message is an encouragement and inspiration for all those who minister to LGBTQ Catholics in our church. Moreover, it is a reminder to LGBTQ people themselves that God loves them with, in the Pope’s words, “closeness, compassion and tenderness.” Pope Francis also understands how important it is to reach out to all those on the margins–just as Jesus did during his public ministry. To that end, all Jesuits take seriously the Pope’s mission for us to “go to the peripheries,” both in society at large and within the church that we love and serve. Fr. James Martin SJ

    Reply

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