By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-11-18 21:36:00 | Updated at 2024-11-21 13:08:09
2 days ago
CV NEWS FEED // Controversial Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin is part of a discussion panel at the end of every episode of Martin Scorsese’s “The Saints,” according to the National Catholic Register.
On November 15, just ahead of the release of the first episode, the Register published “11 Things to Know About Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Saints.’” The first episode focuses on St. Joan of Arc.
The Register also reports that Georgetown University senior fellow Paul Elie and Mary Karr are also on the panel. Karr, a Catholic convert, is a poet and author who has previously expressed pro-abortion views.
Fr. Martin, who wrote the 2006 book “My Life with the Saints,” is friends with Scorsese. He served as an advisor when Scorsese was directing the 2016 film “Silence,” which follows Jesuit missionaries in Japan. Fr. Martin also had a cameo in Scorsese’s 2019 film “The Irishman.”
Fr. Martin has emphasized the importance of pastoral care for Catholics who experience same-sex attraction. In 2017, he wrote “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity”.
Other spiritual leaders in the Church, such as Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, have also addressed pastoral care for people with same-sex attraction.
Fr. Martin’s approach to such pastoral care has raised concerns. In a 2018 article in the National Catholic Register, Daniel Mattson pointed out that the language Fr. Martin has used in regards to this topic and the “ministries” he has recommended do not align with Catholic teaching.
In 2022, Fr. Martin founded the organization “Outreach,” which is self-described as a “LGBTQ Catholic resource.” CatholicVote’s Catholic Accountability Project reviewed various publications on Outreach’s website that are at odds with Catholic teaching, such as pro-“transgender” articles and an article defending the blasphemous drag group the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”
Scorsese, who grew up Catholic, has a dicey history in film production and Christianity.
According to the November 15 article in the Register, Scorsese recently told the New York Times about his current faith life: “At times I’m a practicing Catholic. At this point, my relationship with it is a dialogue that I have with certain clerics and priests.”
Scorsese produced the 1988 film “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which contains blasphemous content. The then-National Conference of Catholic Bishops (now merged with the United States Catholic Conference to comprise the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) gave the film the lowest rating in its movie review system, designating it as MO, or “Morally Offensive.” The Italian Bishops Conference also declared that the film is “unacceptable and morally offensive.”
Scorsese announced in 2023 that he would be making a movie based on the book A Life of Jesus by Shūsaku Endō, who also wrote Silence, the book Scorsese adapted into his 2016 movie.
According to IMDB, the film “A Life of Jesus” presents “[a]n unconventional take on the life of Jesus.” Production of the film is reportedly stalled, however, as Premier Christian News reported this September that the production of the film has “been placed on indefinite hold.”
