Jesuit Fr. James Martin urges changes to priesthood rules for celibate gay men, challenging Vatican norms and sparking debate.
Newsroom (27/07/2026 Gaudium Press ) Jesuit priest Father James Martin has renewed debate within the Catholic Church by calling for the official admission of men with same-sex attraction to the priesthood and for changes to current regulations governing seminary admission and ordination.
The proposal appears in an essay published by Outreach, the LGBT-focused platform led by Martin. His intervention responds directly to a recent report from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. While Martin advocates a more inclusive approach toward candidates with same-sex attraction, the report recommends stricter and more verifiable standards for assessing suitability for Holy Orders. The dispute was highlighted in reporting by Michael Haynes for The Catholic Herald.
Martin emphasizes that his proposal applies only to men willing to live lives of celibacy and chastity. He presents this requirement as the foundation of his argument.
“To be clear,” Martin wrote, “when we talk about gay men ordained as priests or admitted to religious orders, we are presupposing a life of celibacy (the promise priests make at their ordination) and chastity (the vow taken by members of religious orders).”
The debate touches on one of the most sensitive questions facing the Church: whether men who experience stable same-sex attraction can be admitted to the priesthood under existing theological and disciplinary frameworks.
Catechism and the Meaning of Same-Sex Attraction
At the center of the disagreement lies a fundamentally different understanding of homosexuality.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and cannot be approved under any circumstances. At the same time, it states that people with homosexual tendencies must be treated with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” rejecting unjust discrimination and calling such persons to chastity.
Paragraphs 2357 through 2359 present the Church’s position in three parts: the moral evaluation of homosexual acts, recognition of the challenges faced by those with deeply rooted homosexual tendencies, and a call to pursue Christian holiness through chastity, self-mastery, prayer, friendship, and sacramental grace.
The disagreement between Martin and current Church teaching does not center solely on conduct but on how same-sex attraction itself should be understood. Critics of Martin argue that Catholic doctrine treats homosexual inclinations as a tendency that must be resisted and integrated into a life of chastity. Martin, by contrast, argues that same-sex attraction forms part of a person’s identity and should not be viewed merely as a condition to be overcome.
A Report Emerging from the Abuse Crisis
Martin’s essay responds to Do You Know Them to Be Worthy? Twelve Proposals for Bishops, Rectors, Seminary Formation Teams, and Mental Health Professionals in Assessing the Suitability of Men for Holy Orders.
The report was authored by Father Thomas V. Berg, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, moral theologian, and former seminary formator, together with clinical psychologist Timothy G. Lock, director of psychological services at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie and founder of the Goretti Center for Healing and Forgiveness.
The initiative emerged from a broader research program launched by Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute in 2018 following allegations involving former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. In the report’s foreword, institute director John C. Cavadini describes the clergy sexual abuse crisis as one of the most serious challenges facing the Church worldwide.
Since its launch, the project has produced a series of studies and policy recommendations, including a 2019 sociological survey on sexual harassment in seminaries, a 2021 protocol of best practices endorsed by seminary rectors, and a 2023 white paper addressing pastoral care for abuse victims.
The latest report draws upon a 2024 survey conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which collected responses from bishops, vocation directors, rectors, spiritual directors, formators, and mental health professionals throughout the United States. It also incorporates findings from a September 2025 summit of experts in priestly formation held at Notre Dame.
According to its authors, the document reflects both empirical data and the practical experience of those directly responsible for selecting and forming candidates for the priesthood.
The Dispute Over “Deeply Rooted” Attraction
A major point of contention concerns the distinction made by Vatican teaching between “deeply rooted” homosexual tendencies and what are described as temporary or transitory experiences of same-sex attraction.
The report supports the distinction already found in the Holy See’s 2005 instruction on seminary admissions. Under that policy, men with deeply rooted homosexual tendencies are not to be admitted to the seminary or ordained, while candidates who have experienced only transitory tendencies may be considered if those tendencies have clearly been overcome years before ordination.
Martin criticizes this framework, arguing that it treats sexuality as something that can be overcome in a way that misunderstands the nature of same-sex attraction.
“Overcoming temptation or lust is one thing; overcoming one’s sexuality is quite another,” he writes.
The broader disagreement reflects competing anthropological assumptions. According to Martin’s interpretation, same-sex attraction represents a stable aspect of personal identity. According to Catholic doctrine, attraction does not define the person and should not become the primary lens through which identity is understood.
As Haynes notes in The Catholic Herald, this divergence lies at the heart of the controversy.
Vatican Teaching on Priesthood and Spiritual Fatherhood
The Church’s current policy is rooted not simply in disciplinary concerns but in its theology of the priesthood.
The 2005 instruction, approved by Pope Benedict XVI, states that a priest sacramentally represents “Christ the Head, Shepherd and Bridegroom of the Church.” Because of this role, candidates are expected to attain sufficient affective maturity and to develop what the document describes as a genuine sense of spiritual fatherhood.
The McGrath Institute report revisits these theological questions, asking whether a man with stable same-sex attraction can live celibacy in a manner consistent with this understanding of priestly identity and whether concepts such as spiritual fatherhood and spousal self-gift should guide discernment.
The report also draws upon a 1986 document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. That text stated that homosexual inclination, while not itself sinful, constitutes an “objectively disordered” tendency because it inclines a person toward conduct the Church judges morally wrong.
Based on these principles, the 2005 instruction declares that the Church cannot admit to seminary formation or Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, possess deeply rooted homosexual tendencies, or support what it calls “the so-called gay culture.”
Calls for More Restrictive Standards
Rather than relaxing existing norms, the McGrath report proposes tightening them.
Among its recommendations is a new benchmark under which same-sex attraction persisting for more than five years without evidence of resolution would be classified as deeply rooted regardless of perceived intensity. The report also recommends formally documenting disclosures of same-sex attraction in a candidate’s file to allow for long-term assessment and verification.
The authors argue that emerging practices among Catholic mental health professionals increasingly support this approach.
The report further highlights sharp disagreements among those involved in priestly formation. While 85 percent of bishops and 84 percent of seminary rectors expressed confidence in the effectiveness of sexual maturity formation programs, only 35 percent of mental health professionals shared that confidence, and just 14 percent reported being “very confident.”
The report characterizes this gap as alarming and argues that psychologists often possess the clearest understanding of seminarians’ personal struggles and developmental progress.
Martin’s Appeal to Experience
In defending his position, Martin points to his own decades of ministry and interactions with priests who experience same-sex attraction.
He recounts a private conversation with Pope Francis in which the pontiff reportedly said he knew “many good, holy, and celibate gay seminarians and priests.”
Martin writes that during nearly four decades as a Jesuit he has encountered numerous priests who, despite experiencing same-sex attraction, have faithfully lived celibate lives while serving the Church.
He also cites a conversation with an American seminarian in Rome who claimed that approximately half of his classmates were gay and that many concealed this information from their formators out of fear of dismissal.
A 2020 CARA study provides some supporting context, finding that 23 percent of recently ordained priests acknowledged withholding information from seminary authorities that should have been disclosed during formation.
However, the 2005 Vatican instruction explicitly condemns concealment of homosexuality during seminary formation, describing such behavior as gravely dishonest and inconsistent with the transparency expected of future priests.
A Continuing Source of Controversy
Martin remains one of the most recognizable and controversial figures in contemporary Catholic discussions surrounding LGBT issues.
During the pontificate of Pope Francis, he received support for various outreach initiatives and met with the Pope on several occasions. At the same time, he has faced criticism from senior Church figures who argue that some of his positions conflict with established Catholic teaching.
Among the controversies associated with Martin are his support for civil unions for same-sex couples, his criticism of exclusively masculine descriptions of God, and his promotion of initiatives aimed at expanding inclusion of LGBT Catholics within Church life.
Cardinal Raymond Burke has argued that Martin’s teachings are inconsistent with Catholic doctrine on homosexuality. Archbishop Emeritus Charles Chaput of Philadelphia has likewise stated that Martin does not speak with authority on behalf of the Church and has cautioned Catholics regarding some of his public statements.
The clash between Martin’s proposal and the McGrath Institute report ultimately reflects a deeper debate about identity, priesthood, and the nature of Catholic teaching. Martin argues that holy, celibate men with same-sex attraction should be eligible for ordination. The Church’s current doctrinal and disciplinary framework, however, continues to focus not simply on celibacy, but on whether a candidate can fulfill the theological demands of priestly representation, spiritual fatherhood, and conformity to the Church’s understanding of the sacrament of Holy Orders.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Infocatholica
