Father Martin’s work emulates these two key steps: “To go where people are and speak their language.”
And if it’s not beneath Jesus to do it, it shouldn’t be beneath us,” he said.
The Rev. James Martin speaks at the Pastoral Congress for the World Meeting of Families 2018 in Dublin on Aug. 23, 2018. Photo by John McElroy on behalf of WMOF 2018
Martin found that during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, much of community life shifted online. While online ministry can’t replace the in-person experience of going to Mass and encountering Christ in the Eucharist and communal worship, other gatherings, like book clubs, offer a chance to gather online and build community.
Martin now runs a Facebook Bible study every Friday that draws approximately 500 people. “That’s a kind of community,” he affirms. Beyond this, Martin said he interacts with “communities of people who follow me online on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter,” as well as more “informal communities.”
In particular, Martin prides himself on ministry to the LGBTQ+ community in recent years in the wake of the mass shooting at the Pulse, a gay nightclub where 49 people were killed in 2016.
“I felt like I needed to say something,” said Martin. “Very few bishops said anything when 49 people were killed. And you know, in a comparable shooting or natural disaster or tragedy, the church says something. It dawned on me that even in death, these people are invisible. That’s what kept coming to my mind: Even in death they’re invisible to the Church.”
The Rev. James Martin, left, author and editor-at-large of “America” magazine, has a private audience with Pope Francis on Sept. 30, 2019. Photo © Vatican Media
Martin found the situation and lack of formal responses from the Catholic community intolerable. That led to a Facebook video, to speaking opportunities and then to a 2017 book entitled “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity.”
That book led to an ongoing ministry to LGBTQ people, something Martin said God led him to. Part of that ministry includes a website called Outreach that serves as a resource for LGBTQ Catholics.
“Not everybody agrees with this ministry, and I got a lot of pushback … but I have the support of the Pope (Francis), and I have the support of my religious order, the Jesuits,” Martin said. “I don’t reach out to LGBTQ people because it’s so controversial, but because this is what God has in mind for me, and I’m happy to do it.”
Joshua Stanton is rabbi of East End Temple in Manhattan and a senior fellow at CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Benjamin Spratt is senior rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan.
This article originally appeared here.
