Michael W. Chapman: Vatican Consultant Fr. James Martin Promotes Pro-LGBT Rosary

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Rosary of Modern Sorrows. (Screenshot)

By Michael W. Chapman, CNSNews, December 7, 2018

Fr. James Martin, consultant to the Vatican’s Secretariat for
Communications. (YouTube)

Michael W. ChapmanJesuit priest Fr. James Martin, an American who pushes a pro-LGBT agenda in the Catholic Church and who was made a consultant to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications by Pope Francis, is now promoting a rosary (prayer beads) that includes a “rainbow” fifth decade for people to pray “for LGBT couples, their children, and extended families.”

It further calls for praying that gays be fully accepted as “truly created in the image of God, a creation that God saw as ‘good.'”

Fr. Martin has been denounced by many priests and laity for repeatedly misrepresenting Chruch teachings on homosexuality. For instance, Martin’s 2017 book, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter Into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity, was described by Fr. Gerald Murray as “a rejection” of Church teaching and an attempt to claim that the Church “has misunderstood God’s plan for human sexuality for her entire history.”

Rosary of Modern Sorrows. (Screenshot)

As to the rainbow-decade rosary, Lepanto Institute President Michael Hichborn said its promotion by Martin was “nothing short of sacrilege,” reported Life Site News.

In a Dec. 3 post on Facebook, Fr. Martin praised the “Rosary of Modern Sorrows” — in contrast to the traditional sorrows/sufferings of Christ — as a “beautiful gift” that invites one to pray “for a variety of people who suffer — unborn children, victims of gun violence, refugees and migrants, victims of racism, LGBT people, and so on: one group for each ‘decade.'”

“I’ve seen many Rosaries like this, but this to me was the most beautiful,” said Martin.

He further said, “Normally, I don’t promote things for sale (and no one asked or paid me to do this) but I thought some of you might like both pieces: the Rosary of Modern Sorrows and the new Holy Family Christmas card.” Fr. Martin then provides links to the store selling the items, Contemplative Rebellion.

(Facebook)

In the product description of the rosary for the first decade of prayers it states, “We pray for the lives of women and their children, born and unborn, and the unjust societal structures that steal hope, healthcare, and economic security from these, our most vulnerable mothers.” It also calls for praying for an end to “unjust/unequal pay.” On the second decade, one prays for “Mother Earth, our fragile environment, the animals, lands, and oceans ….”

On the third decade, one prays for “immigrants, refugees, Dreamers ….” On the fourth decade, one prays for people “who are caught in the school-to-prison pipeline, trapped by corporations that gain financially from incarceration.” Also, “We pray for awareness of the attitudes and structures that remain from our history of slavery.”

(Screenshot, Contemplative Rebellion website)

On the fifth decade (rainbow), it states: “We Pray for a welcoming of LGBTQ people by all churches, temples, mosques, and synagogues. We Pray for LGBT couples, their children, and extended families. We Pray that they may be supported and loved, with full acceptance as people truly created in the image of God, a creation that God saw as ‘good,” and who deserve to live every aspect of life to the fullest.”

In Catholicism, the traditional rosary consists of three cycles of prayer — the joyful mysteries, the sorrowful mysteries, and the glorious mysteries — each of which includes five decades. Each decade begins with the Our Father, followed by 10 Hail Marys and then one Glory Be. The mysteries to be meditated upon include aspects of Jesus’ youth (his birth, etc.), aspects of his passion and crucifixion, and his resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost.

Contrary to the “Rosary of Modern Sorrows,” the Catholic Church has never taught that engaging in homosexual acts is acceptable or essential to having been “created in the image of God.” Nor is such behavior viewed by the Church or God as “good.”

Also, the Church has never taught — and science has not shown — that some people are born (“created”) homosexual.

The Church has taught that people with same-sex attraction should always be treated with respect and compassion. Same-sex attraction is seen as a trial, a cross that some people must bear with the help of God through prayer, sacrifice, and the sacraments of the Church.

Paragraph 2358 of the Catholic Churchstates: “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.”

Also, paragraph 2357 states: “Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. 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.”

That is the teaching of the Catholic Church.

What Fr. Martin and the “Modern Sorrows” rosary are promoting and celebrating is something very different.

Pope Francis. (YouTube)

As Michael Hichborn told Life Site News, “This gross misuse of the Holy Rosary not only reduces its sublime mysteries to a series of cheap political points, but is designed specifically to pray for acceptance of one of the four sins that cry to Heaven for Vengeance.”

Commenting on Fr. Martin’s Building a Bridge book, Fr. Gerald Murray said that Fr. Martin “assumes that God made some people by design to be homosexual and thus any disapproval of homosexuality and even homosexual activity is in fact an attack on God’s plan. This, of course, cannot be squared with Catholic teaching — it is the rejection of that teaching.”

It’s also undeniably diabolical.

h/t LifeSiteNews

(Twitter)