Hunting for Fr. Martin’s “Witch Hunt”

“The witch hunt for gay priests must end. Now.”

That’s how homosexualist Jesuit Fr. James Martin flatly states his view regarding how many Catholics—though not nearly enough—have finally come to terms with the fact that a homosexual culture within the Church’s hierarchy has fueled the clergy abuse crisis. It has fueled both the majority of the abuse itself, as well as the cover-up that enabled the abuse.

Martin has mounted a full-scale defense of not merely homosexual “identity” but specifically homosexual “identity” among priests. He knows “hundreds” of such priests. He has never once reminded his fawning followers that … ahem … the Church is supposed to NOT ORDAIN “gay” men.

Pointing out these facts and expressing concern over them is supposedly a “witch hunt,” in his words.

Okay—let’s try to find the witch hunt, shall we? If it really exists, it must exist somewhere in real time and real space. It must have momentum—it must be busily “outing” priests who are “gay” and trying to get these priests in real parishes kicked out of their assignments. Peasants with pitchforks and torches clearly must be, as you read this, surrounding your local “LGBT-friendly” parish (look here for a list of such parishes), gleefully looking forward to exposing all these “beloved” men who managed to get ordained despite being “gay.”

The secular media certainly must be on the hunt for this witch hunt as well, right? What better way to further discredit the already-wounded reputation of the Catholic Church than to expose the gang of haters and homophobes who are causing such a ruckus among our faithful “gay” priests? Coverage surely abounds of outed “gay” priests whose lives are now in ruins because they have been tarred and feathered by the unruly mob of Catholic bigots running amok and using the vigilante tactics of the witch-hunter.

What’s that, you say? Maybe not so much? You’ve seen no such coverage?

Say that again? Crickets, you say? Not a shred of reportage, not a line of text in the press? Nothing to back Fr. Martin’s oh-so-compassionate public plea to stop the madness?

Well…. That seems a bit odd. I mean, Fr. Martin has spent many years calling attention to a similar outrage and grave injustice, remember? Catholic parishes everywhere in the United States, unless you get randomly “lucky,” he says, are chock-full of bigots and homophobes just waiting to make “gay” people feel unwelcome, probably waiting right next to the Baptismal font with their “gay-dar” fully charged, ready to yell “Leper! Outcast! Unclean!” at the merest hint of effeminacy displayed by any man or at the sight of a too-masculine female.

Martin even says that many pastors themselves are “homophobic”—I mean, what else would you expect if the parishes are so homophobic?

Put it all together and imagine a scene that must exist in the windmills of Fr. Martin’s mind: On one hand, you’ve got mass-hysterical homophobia festering in a large number of parishes, all with “gay”-hating pastors, now all on the prowl to witch-hunt their way through the clergy. On the other hand, you’ve got hundreds and hundreds of “gay” priests striving to escape detection and presumably huddled, for safety’s sake, in hiding (minimally in those supposedly rare “gay-friendly” parishes) to avoid being burnt at the stake.

Methinks Fr. Martin doth protest too much. In fact, I’m going to call it “BS”—Baloney Sandwich.

There is simply no way to reconcile such boldly conflicting claims made by Martin into one unified reality. Unless you employ mental gymnastics that leave you a few slices of bread short of a picnic lunch, Martin’s pied piping will lead you exactly nowhere.

Witch hunt? Please. Look—I’ve been around the block a few times, ecclesially speaking, and in forty years of proximity to dozens of parishes and pastors, I have never—as in never, ever, ever—encountered a “gay”-hating, fear-driven, homophobic haven for Catholics, which had the net effect of driving away people with same-sex attraction who sought sacrament, community, and deep fellowship with Christ and his Church.

Like the rest of you dear readers, I frequently encountered the exact opposite of that scenario.

I can name priests, pastors, parishes, diocesan offices, deacons, bishops, cardinals, lay staffers and volunteers, ALL of whom have shown contempt for the Church’s authentic teaching regarding sexuality and its perversion in homosexuality. I can describe a landscape in which nothing—zero—ever gets done to correct this culture of dissent. I can point you to prophetic voices—sadly, so very few—who have assumed a prophetic role at great personal cost to document and expose this anti-Christian gospel in great detail, and yet nothing is ever changed.

Why is nothing done? Why doesn’t this blatant gathering of evidence and expression of authentic Christian concern ever move the dial from zero response to at least some response?

Because, as Fr. James Martin knows full well, the inmates are largely running the asylum.

And such inmates all have Fr. Martin’s back.

Which is precisely why Fr. Martin belches out the “big lie” with virtual impunity. Only on rare occasions does he let slip what his real agenda is—like in his recent comment to an “LGBT” Catholic activist who, like him, was heading to the World Meeting of Families to foment dissent. Martin told him to “prepare the way!” Martin said this to a “gay” man who himself says this:

“Lord knows that I love di*k… and He has for quite some time. In fact, it’s been His will for roughly 29 years that I should solely find members of my sex attractive, and engage in physical (and often deeply spiritual) relationships with them in hopes of finding love. Who am I, a God-fearing Catholic, to question that? Jesus said to love my neighbor, and I can’t help that Grindr says the nearest one is 264 feet away.” [I choose not to link to this piece or identify this man.]

Martin boldly proclaimed to the world in his Vatican-sponsored talk that the “LGBT ministry” that this Catholic man is involved with is Martin’s best example of what a solid and active ministry to “LGBT Catholics” should be.

“Prepare the way,” indeed.

“Witch hunt,” indeed. A witch culture won’t allow witch hunts. Inmates who run the asylum won’t allow treatment or healing for their condition. A “gay” clergy won’t tolerate a purification of the clergy. That’s the whole point. Probably for the last seven decades, homosexual men were “welcomed,” they were accepted, they were ordained, they were praised, and they were promoted all throughout the Church. This occurred either through flat-out deception or through an institutional tolerance that arose right alongside the “welcome” these men received from our Catholic seminaries.

Even so, let’s let Martin’s comparison to a “witch hunt” further instruct us, but for an opposing purpose. Despite the pejorative quality of the term itself, there is a core truth at work in the concept, namely, that communities sometimes DO have to face their demons. Not all such demons are imaginary.

Jesus found it necessary to cast out demons. Doing so did not once mean that he “hated” the person experiencing demonic possession. Not once. But even Jesus had to face the same pharisaical accusation that Martin now levels toward his fellow Catholics. Jesus, too, was accused of a kind of “witch hunting” insofar as he was accused of being able to cast out demons by the power of demons, which was a ludicrous charge.

Similarly, we in the Church do need to cast out the demons of blatant tolerance of “gay” identity, homosexual sex acts, men who falsely obtain priestly ordination, and, please God, men who commit same-sex sexual abuse as well as the other men who protected abusers (and no, let me state flatly that I’m NOT saying people who identify as “gay” are demons, etc.). Focusing here on same-sex sexual abuse does not—I repeat, does not—mean that we desire any less to cast out the demon of tolerance of other-sex sexual abuse, adultery or fornication, etc. True purification is never merely partial. All such demons must be cast out. Jesus didn’t merely cast out three of the “seven devils” that plagued Mary Magdalene.

But Fr. Martin would probably be content if our Church’s effort at purification took care of maybe five or six of the seven devils we now face. Don’t worry so much about that last devil over there. Nah, that would be a mere “witch hunt.” “Gay” is good. “Gay” is godly. If we don’t welcome “gay” into our Church, then we’re the devils.

Sorry, Fr. Martin. While the Church loves “gay” persons to their core, the Church literally does hate “gay.” Why? Because “gay” is not good. It is not godly. It is a powerful but ultimately cowardly little imp, a devil that has wormed its way into the Bride of Christ, and all too deeply into those ordained to act “in persona Christi.”

Fortunately for the Bride, we have a Bridegroom, a new Adam, capable of doing what the first Adam couldn’t do—crush the head of the serpent in our midst, in all its myriad forms.

We cannot, therefore, end a “witch hunt” that merely exists in the mind of a pied-piping, homosexualist priest. But we can—and must—act as the hands, feet, and voice of Christ as we seek once again to fully sanctify his Bride, the Church.

The purification of “gay” from the priesthood must begin. Now.

(Photo credit: ODN / Youtube screenshot)