Rev. James Martin
speaker
109 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Rev. James Martin’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
You know, one of the things that Pope Francis is trying to teach, and I think is Christian teaching, is encountering the person where they are and as they are, right? And, you know, he said, the name of God is mercy.
So, yes, we have, obviously, we have all these rules, we have all these traditions, you know, but what is the pastoral application of these things in the confessional, in a person's life? And I do think there is something of a over-focus on some of these topics. And I think Pope Francis was trying to remind us that there are other topics.
Because I feel like there aren't many Catholics in the world who don't understand what the Catholic Church teaches on marriage and homosexuality and masturbation and things like that. There aren't a lot of Catholics that don't know what the Church teaches on marriage. poverty, the environment, those kinds of things. So I think this is what Pope Francis was trying to do.
Interestingly, in an interview with Jesuit magazines, including America in 2013, he said something like, I'm paraphrasing, I'm not changing anything. He said, but when it comes to questions of sexuality and abortion and things like that, I feel like people know it and it's time to, like a good teacher, move on to the next lesson.
And I found that a really interesting insight because I think what people saw is his ignoring that Was rather him saying, you know, we've understood this and now let's move on to other topics, which I think have been less stressed. You know, poverty, you know, the stuff you pointed out and the environment, which was a surprise.
And we certainly don't want to say that we're in the same place that we would be a thousand years ago about homosexuality, because we've learned things. And so I think, you know, when you look at, for example, you know, the Second Vatican Council, it's the church in the modern world, not the church against the modern world or the church frustrating the modern world.
And so I think it's, this is where discernment comes in, honestly. And I know people might roll their eyes and say, oh, that's just like a buzzword. I think he really is, he really was the pope. trying to help us reflect on the signs of the times, say, where is the Holy Spirit active? What am I calling people to do? What am I calling the church to do?
But that's an inherently frustrating and messy and open process. Discernment is really open-ended, and that's okay, right? So I don't know where it's going to end up, but I think I would be- How do you think the modern world is going right now? Oh, not too well. Not too well, okay.
I think the church is very oppositional to the modern world as it is now. I mean, you know, just talking about the poor. Yeah. and migrants and refugees and the sick. And I think that's very countercultural. I think the thing is that, you know, Pope Francis, like all good church leaders, preached the gospel, you know, as he understood it. And if it became political, so be it.
But I don't see him... And in my conversations with him, one of the things he didn't like was ideologies. He was allergic to that. He wanted to meet people where they were. And if he... Got the sense that you were pushing an agenda or an ideology. He didn't want any part of that. And so this is this person who has a deeply pastoral heart. And I think that's a wonderful thing for the church.
Yeah. I mean, Tom Reese, our editor at America Media, was fired by Cardinal Ratzinger, which was his right to do. The future Pope Benedict. Correct. Yeah. And he often said that I got fired for writing things and publishing things that Pope Francis is now saying, you know, from the pulpit. So I think that's a fair comment. People felt freer to express themselves. Yeah.
No, you know, here's the thing. Look, I didn't always agree with St. John Paul II or Benedict, but I tried not to be critical. And also I was careful not to go out of bounds and try to color in the lines. I think, you know, as a Jesuit, I mean, we've been dealing with popes for 450 years, and so you have to, in a good way, you have to come to peace with that. And also, like, this is spiritual.
They come and go, but the Jesuit order continues. No, what I meant was, you know, in a good way, we take vows of obedience, and we have a special vow of obedience with regard to missions to the pope. So we see him as our leader. And even if we don't disagree with them— We go along, we try to support his way of being Pope.
So whoever the next Pope will be, I'll work with him and try to promote what he's saying. And sure, yeah. I'm actually very excited to see who it's going to be. I think you're going to see someone who's a little bit more moderate, a little bit more of a stabilizing influence.
Here's the answer you don't get from Jesuits a lot. I don't know. That's interesting, because I would say that each person who comes in is going to have his or her, his, obviously, predilection and sort of way of governing. My sense, you might disagree with this, my sense is that Francis was a lot more patient with his critics, who were much more vocal than critics under St.
John Paul or Pope Benedict. And I think he gave them a lot of leeway. But yeah, I mean, eventually he brought the hammer down on some people. But I think that was after a long time.
Well, my sense was that he was very patient with people who were above and beyond. I mean, I don't know any example under John Paul or Benedict— cardinals and archbishops who were so vocal, you know, calling him a heretic and an apostate and a false pope. I just didn't see that under John Paul and under Benedict. So I think he was more patient about
Now, in terms of the Latin Mass, here's how I see that. As I understand it, the Second Vatican Council encouraged the church to turn towards the vernacular. That was in general what the council was trying to do. The Latin Mass continued in certain places.
Pope Benedict published something that said that it needs to be more widely accepted and more easily celebrated by priests without special permission and stuff. And this is how I understand, I know you might disagree, but that document was saying that this is a kind of testing period to see how it works.
And one of the reasons I think Pope Francis limited it, limited the use, was because he saw that kind of testing period lead to division, where certain people say, we're more Catholic than you are. Paul VI's mass doesn't count. And so I think he wanted to really sort of stop that. I know that upsets conservatives. And let me just say that I can certainly understand that because it's such a value.
Showing 41–60 of 109 · page 3 of 6
← Previous
Next →