Thread by @JamesMartinSJ

Dear friends: Archbishop Charles Chaput graciously sent me his column today before publication, and I welcome this thoughtful response to my lecture at St. Joseph's University this week. Here is my response... catholicphilly.com/2019/09/archbi…

Dear Archbishop:

The Peace of Christ!

Many thanks for sending your column ahead of time. I'm sorry that you felt the need to publish it.

I think my main response is that it's difficult to respond to critiques that I am "implying" things, when I am assiduous in my writings and talks about not challenging church teaching. I have written clearly about that here, among other places: americamagazine.org/faith/2018/04/…

Also, the lecture at St. Joseph's University this week, which prompted your article, is the same lecture that I presented at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin last year, the text of which was vetted and approved beforehand by the Vatican.

One of the reasons that I don't focus on same-sex relations and same-sex marriage, which I know are both impermissible (and immoral) under church teaching, is that LGBT Catholics have heard this repeatedly. Indeed, often that is the only thing that they hear from their church.

What I am trying to do instead is encourage Catholics to see LGBT people as more than just sexual beings, to see them in their totality, much as Jesus saw people on the margins, people who were also seen as "other" in his time.

I remain grateful for your asking people not to engage in ad hominem attacks, and I appreciate the careful tone of your letter and have always appreciated your kind communications with me.

Thanks again for sending this.

Peace,
Jim