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It may be that he is biding his time. I think there's merit to the idea that if one comes out too strongly against the sins which people are most embroiled in, you lose the opportunity to push them in a positive direction at all. But if you build up trust, it is sometimes possible to be there at the right moment when someone is ready to hear the hard truth that they need.
I have to grapple with this in my own life, when dealing with my sister. The details are different - her issue is that she has an extreme anger towards our parents based on a false memory of our childhood that she has convinced herself is true. But I face a very similar dilemma, because I know that if I push back too hard on her false ideas she will just get angry, cut me out of her life, and then she will have nobody left who cares for her and who might be able to help her. So I bide my time and grit my teeth through many rants about how awful our parents are, and gently push back on her ideas as much as I think I can get away with. All of this in the hope that one day she will be ready to hear the truth, and that God will grant me the wisdom to recognize this moment when I come to it.
I don't know him, but it seems to me that this Martin fellow could be operating under a similar goal. And if that's the case, I don't think he's at odds with the gospel. It doesn't mean that his approach is the right one - after all, you do have to pick a point to gently tell people "hey this really is a sin, you need to change". And it's very easy to rationalize yourself out of taking that step. But even if his approach isn't effective, that doesn't mean it's at odds with the gospel. If his heart is in the right place I would say he can be in accord with the gospel even if he might be better off using a different tactic to reach people.
Thanks. You’re right, of course. I am so used to public figures giving this sort of reasoning disingenuously that I don’t stop to consider whether one might be sincere.
Catholicism, unlike most protestant groups(and this isn't necessarily a dunk so much as factually true; much of this is quite literally medieval) has a robust tradition of mysticism which sometimes not always approaches questions from a similar-but-different perspective to formal theology, particularly in hamartialogical views. Is Fr. Martin misinterpreting the understanding of sin as a disease(which the sinner must be healed from over time) rather than a crime(which the sinner must repent of and pay the price)? Yes. But he's fairly sincere in his misinterpretation. The traditional understanding to reconcile the two views would be both/and- one doesn't trump the other, part of the healing process from habitual sexual sin would be not living with your bf/gf or breaking up with your same sex partner or whatever. But Catholicism has never been Arminian nor Calvinist; all are sinners, even believers who practice devoutly. A similar set of misinterpretations lies behind the Eastern Orthodox idea of Economia, where getting married twice after divorce(yes, yes, I know it's more complicated) is allowed.
His idea of pastoral accompaniment is misapplied and out of context. I suspect that if the letters after his name were not SJ it would have been condemned by the Vatican by now. It is, however, sincere.
No dunk taken. I was inclined to suggest in an earlier post that part of the difference in perspective came from our different views of grace, imputed vs. infused, but enough Roman Catholics concerns have rhymed with mine to give me pause.
Merry Christmas!
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