NYC Church That Confirmed Gay TV Anchor Should Be Disciplined

Gio Benitez, an openly gay-identified ABC News anchor, was recently confirmed into the Catholic Church, accompanied by his “husband” — who served as his “sponsor.”

The confirmation Mass took place last month at the brazenly pro-LGBT Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan. The historic landmark is the mother church of the Paulist Fathers – a, as writer Glenn Stanton noted, “rapidly dying” liberal order of priests. There were 98 active Paulist priests in 2004 and only 50 as of 2024.

Noted heretic and LGBT activist Fr. James Martin helped celebrate the Mass, alongside who appears to be Fr. Eric Andrews and Fr. Paul Rospond. It’s clear Benitez received at least two sacraments of initiation into the Catholic Church: confirmation and Holy Eucharist. (Benitez said he was baptized more than two decades ago in a social media post celebrating the Mass, and Fr. Martin said Benitez entered into “full communion with the Catholic Church” on Nov. 8.) Benitez’s “husband” also received the Eucharist, as seen in the video footage below.

“My deepest gratitude to Fr. Eric Andrews, Fr. James Martin, Fr. Paul Rospond, and Fr. [Chris Lawton] for showing me that God’s loving mercy is unconditional,” Benitez shared on Instagram after the Mass. “[A]nd [thanks] to my incredible husband and sponsor [Tommy DiDario] for supporting me through it all.”

“I found the Ark of the Covenant in my heart, stored there by the one who created me… exactly as I am.”

Orthodox Catholics — indeed, all orthodox Christians — know the spectacle at St. Paul the Apostle is nothing less than an affront to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, an abuse of the sacraments, a direct challenge to the Catholic Church’s eminently clear teaching on homosexuality, and an intentional test of faithful priests and bishops.

Will lay Catholics and ecclesiastics sweep the event under the rug, acting as if nothing blasphemous happened? Or will the event rightly merit a needed rebuke and correction? Perhaps even excommunication?

For 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has taught that homosexuality is disordered and homosexual relations are gravely sinful. Homosexual relationships contradict God’s created order and intention for marriage: Humans are made male and female in God’s image, and marriage is the union of a husband and wife.

The Catholic catechism states homosexual desires are “objectively disordered,” though not sinful unless acted upon (CCC 2358).

Furthermore, it adds, “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. … Under no circumstances can they be approved” (CCC 2357).

The Catholic Church teaches all people — including homosexual-identified persons — are called to chastity (CCC 2359). Chastity is the right integration of sexuality within a person according to their state in life; it maintains the gift of sexuality within the boundaries of marriage between a husband and wife.

In 2017, faithful prelate Cardinal Robert Sarah penned a much-needed correction to Fr. James Martin in The Wall Street Journal, writing, “The sexual liberation the world promotes does not deliver its promise.”

Any Christian’s heresy-detector alarm should be blaring when a church’s message and teachings — whether its pro-LGBT or pro-abortion — look indistinguishable from the surrounding culture.

“Do not be conformed to this world,” the (real) St. Paul the Apostle wrote, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2, ESV).

“As a mother, the church seeks to protect her children from the harm of sin, as an expression of her pastoral charity,” Cardinal Sarah wisely counseled. “[S]ame-sex relations … are gravely sinful and harmful to the well-being of those who partake in them. People who identify as members of the LGBT community are owed this truth in charity, especially from clergy who speak on behalf of the church about this complex and difficult topic.”

In 1983, Ernesto Cardenal, a Catholic priest and liberation theologian, greeted Pope John Paul II on the tarmac at Augusto Sandino International Airport in Managua, Nicaragua. Cardenal held the position of minister of culture in the country’s Marxist government.

Kneeling to kiss the pontiff’s ring, Cardenal received something unexpected: a firm rebuke from the bishop of Rome. Pope John Paul II famously wagged his finger at Cardenal and told him to, as the National Catholic Reporter summarized it, obey church authorities “who had ordered him to quit his post … in the revolutionary government.” The pope eventually suspended Cardenal from carrying out his duties as a priest.

Cardinal Dolan, who has a strong reputation for maintaining church orthodoxy, should take a page out of the great pope’s playbook. Nothing less than a clear and firm correction of the priests who conspired to abuse the sacraments and confuse the Catholic Church’s unambiguous teaching on homosexuality will suffice.

Such a correction is his prerogative, as St. Paul the Apostle Church resides in the Archdiocese of New York. According to the Catholic Church’s code of canon law, “The diocesan bishop is to administer confirmation personally or is to take care that another bishop administers it. If necessity requires it, he can grant the faculty to one or more specific presbyters.” Likewise, the Church’s law states, “A person who deliberately administers a sacrament to those who are prohibited from receiving it is to be punished with suspension.”

Until such a correction comes, the cardinal’s silence will be seen as acceptance.

Frs. Martin, Andrews, and Rospond’s clear and egregious heresy has confirmed Gio Benitez, a man made in God’s image, in his sin, led him astray, and confused him about what following Jesus Christ requires.

Love of Christ is never divorced from obedience to Christ, who taught, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15, ESV).

Every convert must pledge to “believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches and proclaims to be revealed by God.” To confirm openly unrepentant sinners is to make a mockery of the good Catholics and Christians who, while struggling with same-sex attraction, have nevertheless chosen chastity and the way of the cross, bearing witness to the power of the Gospel to change and transform lives.

Cardinal Dolan should say so. Until then, faithful Christians must firmly proclaim what many ecclesiastics have failed to teach. Only by speaking the truth in love will more people be saved and come to know their Savior, Jesus Christ, who proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15, ESV).

Zachary Mettler works as a staff writer and communications liaison for the Daily Citizen at Focus on the Family. In his role, he writes about current political issues, U.S. history, political philosophy, and culture. Mettler earned his bachelor’s degree from William Jessup University and is an alumnus of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. In addition to the Daily Citizen, his written pieces have appeared in the Daily Wire, the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, Newsweek, Townhall, the Daily Signal, the Christian Post, Charisma News, and other outlets.