“Building A Bridge” Between the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community

May 2022

What is one tragic event that makes you wish gun control laws existed in the US? For me, it would have to be the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. That tragedy saddened many people, including religious personals, including one Father James J. Martin. He was particularly upset that, while Catholic leaders condemned the killings, only a few bishops and cardinals stated that many of the victims were gay and that the killings were hate crimes against LGBT people.

His book, "Building A Bridge: How The Catholic Church and The LGBT Community Can Enter into A Relationship of Respect, Compassion, And Sensitivity", is the product of his reflections.

But firstly, who is Father James?

James J. Martin SJ is a Jesuit priest from the United States, a New York Times best-selling author, and editor-at-large of the Jesuit journal America. Martin was appointed to the Vatican's Secretariat for Communications as a consultant by Pope Francis in 2017. Known for his sarcastic and charismatic personality, he is a popular public speaker and media commentator on topics including Jesus' life and teachings, as well as Ignatian spirituality, influenced by Saint Ignatius of Loyola's life and teachings.

His ideology as shown in his writing.

It takes a brave Catholic author like James Martin, S.J. to challenge his readers to bridge the gap between the official church's answer to its LGBT members and the rejection and hurt that reaction has generated among the faithful. In contemporary religious existence, there is seldom a more neuralgic sector. LGBT church workers, music pastors, and teachers have all been told that their services are no longer needed, that their very nature disqualifies them from working in the institutional church.

Homosexual activities are described as "intrinsically disordered" in the Catholic Church's Catechism. This wording causes ecclesiastical conflict, yet the same catechism also states that homosexuals must be handled with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. As quoted from this book, “Is it right for people to critique others for their supposed un-Christian attitudes by themselves being un-Christian?”

Martin spends the early part of his book pondering how the institutional church could accomplish that—build a bridge by treating the LGBT community with respect, compassion, and sensitivity—using this as his keystone.

First and foremost, respect entails calling individuals what they wish to be called, as seen by Martin's usage of the terms LGBT, meaning gay or lesbian, throughout his work. The terms "gay folks" and "persons impacted by same-sex attraction" don't make it past his bridge's first arch. Respect, on the other hand, necessitates recognition, particularly for the abilities that the LGBT community contributes to the church through the frequently unnoticed work that LGBT people do in our schools, social service organizations, churches, rectories, and chanceries.

At its most basic level, compassion entails sharing one's suffering. Compassion, according to Martin, begins with listening to LGBT Catholics' tales of rejection and humiliation by society and the church, and concludes with openly speaking out against discrimination. The church must safeguard the marginalized, just as the Lord did in so many of the accounts we have of his life. Compassion also demands us to value the LGBT community for who they are as people and for their ongoing contributions to the church.

To adopt a phrase emphasized by Pope Francis, sensitivity begins with accompaniment. The LGBT community must no longer be seen as "other" by the church. The argument that this is difficult for the church because we must reject their "sin" before we can accompany their LGBT members is a non-starter. The Lord did not call the centurion whose servant was sick a "pagan," as Martin points out. He was able to heal the servant. He didn't brand the extortionist Zacchaeus up in the tree a "sinner," but instead invited himself to supper with him, where he experienced actual conversion. Sensitivity calls on the institutional church to walk with LGBT people where they are, as they are, as Christ would.

Bridges, on the other hand, can be crossed from either side. Martin shifts gears in the second half of his book, describing how the LGBT community may contribute to the bridge's construction by treating the institutional church with the same level of respect, compassion, and sensitivity.

The church's opposition to the LGBT movement has been used by the Western media to pillory it, mocking bishops for their high lifestyles and liturgical garbs, accusing the church of hypocrisy, accusing it of condemning the LGBT lifestyle while harboring LGBT people in its institutional ranks. Martin wonders if the LGBT community understands that engaging in these practices simply serves to aggravate their relationship with the church. While some hierarchs have a habit of putting their feet in their mouths when discussing LGBT issues, respect requires the LGBT community to try to understand what motivates these bishops, why the magisterium takes such positions, and what can be done within the church to address these issues.

Compassion challenges the LGBT community to see the institutional church for what it is: finite men grappling with infinitely difficult problems, ranging from how quickly the culture around them has changed to the dwindling number of Catholics willing to serve as ministers or who actually practice the faith. This will necessitate the donation of time.

Martin concludes his book with meditations on 10 texts from the Gospels and Psalms after posting these road signs for creating the bridge that would unite the institutional church with its LGBT members. It is a commonplace to say that Scripture is a remarkable source of strength in tough times, but Martin's scriptural meditations, which run the length of his book's bridge-building sections, are just that. They're short and to-the-point, and they provide the spiritual and theological foundations for his bridge.

This book speaks simply and frankly about a topic that perplexes and teases our church, and it does it in a way that is well-reasoned, removing the hysteria from the discussion. Some may argue that what Martin is advocating is a shift in tone between the institutional church and the LGBT community, when what is really needed is a shift in church teaching. Perhaps. Changes in tone, on the other hand, might lead to changes in teaching, and changes in teaching are not easy to come by in our church. In the meanwhile, we owe it to each other to construct this bridge with mutual respect, compassion, and sensitivity, as Martin describes. Then we must walk to the center of it, not to meet the "other," but to meet ourselves on this bridge.

 

Nour Zeidan 
École de traducteurs et d’interprètes de Beyrouth
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