A seminarian reader sent this in. Maybe it’ll inspire others do a little letter-writing too.
I recently signed an email petition that was sent to some thirty presidents of colleges that claim themselves as Catholic. The petition asked them to stop the performance of “The Vagina Monologues” on campus as a university or college sponsored event. The play is at best deplorable as it promotes a wide range of issues that degrade women. The very title is offensive. The surprise came when I received an email response from the vice president of one of the “Catholic” Universities that is promoting the production. She noted that several prominent Catholic institutions promoted this production. The list that followed was no surprise: Georgetown, Boston College, and others.
She wrote that the play was being produced in conjunction with an event that helps promote awareness against violence toward women and girls and that this is in line with Catholic social teaching. She also stated that “it is our responsibility to search for and discover truth by actively engaging issues of controversy” and therefore engaging in discourse to help students think critically.
After reading this I applied a principle taught to me in grammar school: “even if everyone’s doing it, that doesn’t make it all right.” I responded that simply because other Catholic universities shamefully allow this production does not make it morally acceptable.
I then applied another principle taught to me in high school, “the end does not justify the means.” No one doubts that ending violence against women and girls is of great concern and that Catholic academic communities should support women and act to prevent violence against women and girls. How can a production that degrades the dignity of a woman, or rather all women, be used to raise awareness of violence against them? This is ludicrous… especially when the purpose is to protect women.
As for the search for truth — a Catholic’s, or a Catholic instutution’s, search for truth must have as its genesis the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must also understand freedom in a more proper sense as a God given freedom to choose the good.
Women deserve better than this…
Hear, hear.
It’s hard to understand why the play has been allowed on campus at all in the wake of the sexual-abuse scandals: one of its characters is a minor who speaks gratefully about her deflowering at the hands of an adult. What kind of message does this send: “Relax and enjoy it”? Columnist Cathy Young writes:
One particularly questionable monologue deals with a 16-year-old girl who learns to love her genitals and, by extension, herself after a sexual encounter with a 24-year-old woman. In the original version of the play, the girl was 13 and the monologue included the statement, “If it was rape, it was a good rape.” This segment has repeatedly caused controversy, and Ensler has toned it down in response to criticism.
To paraphrase Orwell: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, … and Rape is apparently Love. Hello? Earth to campus? Anybody home?
[In case you want to join Patrick in exhorting the academics to do the right thing, he included a list of colleges and universities planning to host the play this year:]
Bellarmine University (KY)
Dr. Joseph J. McGowan, President
E-mail: jmcgowan@bellarmine.edu
Boston College (MA)
Rev. William Leahy, S.J., President
E-Mail: William.leahy.1@bc.edu
Carlow College (PA)
Sr. Grace Ann Geibel, RSM, President
E-mail: geibelga@carlow.edu
College of Mount Saint Vincent (NY)
Charles Flynn, Jr., President
E-mail: charles.flynn@mountsaintvincent.edu
College of Saint Benedict (MN)
Dr. MaryAnn Baenninger, President
College of St. Rose (NY)
Dr. R. Mark Sullivan, President
College of St. Scholastica (MN)
Dr. Larry Goodwin, President
E-mail: lgoodwin@css.edu
College of the Holy Cross (MA)
Rev. Michael McFarland, S.J., President
E-mail: mmcfarla@holycross.edu
DePaul University (IL)
Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., President
E-mail: dholtsch@depaul.edu
Dominican University of California (CA)
Dr. Joseph R. Fink, President
E-mail: jrf@dominican.edu
Fordham University (NY) – Lincoln Center Campus
Fordham University (NY) – Rose Hill Campus
Fordham University (NY) – Marymount College
Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., President
E-mail (c/o executive secretary): lmccormick@fordham.edu
Georgetown University (DC) – Main Campus
Georgetown University (DC) – Law Center
Dr. John DeGioia, President
E-mail: president@georgetown.edu
John Carroll University (OH)
Rev. Edward Glynn, S.J., President
E-mail: eglynn@jcu.edu
Loyola University of Chicago (IL)
Rev. Michael Garanzini, S.J., President
E-mail: mgaranz@luc.edu
Loyola University of New Orleans (LA)
Rev. Kevin W. Wildes, S.J., President
Marymount Manhattan College (NY)
E-mail: jshaver@mmm.edu
Providence College (RI)
Rev. Philip A. Smith, O.P., President
E-mail: emyers@providence.edu
Regis College (MA)
Dr. Mary Jane England, President
E-mail: England@regiscollege.edu
Saint Francis University (PA)
Rev. Gabriel Zeis, TOR, President
E-mail: psoplinski@francis.edu (secretary)
Saint John Fisher College (NY)
Dr. Donald E. Bain, Interim President
Saint Louis University (MO)
Rev. Lawrence Biondi, S.J., President
Saint Mary’s College (IN)
Carol Ann Mooney, President
Saint Mary’s College of California (CA)
Bro. Ronald Gallagher, F.S.C., President
E-mail: rgallagh@stmarys-ca.edu
Saint Xavier University (IL)
Dr. Judith Dwyer, President
E-mail: jadwyer@sxu.edu
Seattle University (WA)
Rev. Stephen V. Sundborg, S.J., President
E-mail: lesleyl@seattleu.edu
Stonehill College (MA)
Rev. Mark T. Cregan, CSC, President
E-mail: presidentcregan@stonehill.edu
University of Dayton (OH)
Dr. Daniel J. Curran, President
E-mail: daniel.curran@notes.udayton.edu
University of Detroit Mercy (MI)
Gerard L. Stockhausen, S.J., President
University of Notre Dame (IN)
Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., President
E-mail: malloy.5@nd.edu
University of San Francisco (CA)
Rev. Stephen A. Privett, S.J., President
E-mail: privet@usfca.edu
You had better hurry with that petition to ND / St. Mary’s. They are having their 4th annual production of VM on Wednesday.
I have never minded speakers being invited to Catholic universities that didn’t ‘tow the Catholic line’. The students should be old enough to discern what is right and what is wrong, what is Catholic teaching and what isn’t, and it is important to hear ‘the other side of the story’. If anything, it should strengthen your views against something that is not Catholic, if your view is really that deeply held. Heck, a person will hear opposing views to their beliefs during their entire life, and you had better know where the opposition is coming from, if you want to be able to defend yourself in debate.
Productions like th VM go a bit to far, however, in my opinion. Especially hosting it for for four consecutive years. It borders on obstinance and downright disobedience to the Church and its teachings when you bring something like that back year after year. It smacks of trying to indoctrinate people with it, rather than to just expose people to an opposing view or idea. And VM, from what I have read, borders on insanity anyhow.
The other issue with this is artistic. Is the play all that and a bag of fritos? Stack it up against hundreds of years of repertoire: it is more dramatic? insightful? moving? It is a masterpiece?
Educational institutions should be exposing students and audiences to works that have met the test of time, or show promise to be great works of art. Four years of VM is like the three year old who just learned that word and walks around the house going “Vagina! Vagina! Vagina!” One would hope the shock value wears off, but it appears some schools are ensconcing this as a drama department “tradition.”
Stones instead of bread is what it is.
Does academic freedom at a Catholic school entail the inclusion of totally secular, totally contradictory values? I vote NO!
Look at the trouble Ward Churchill and employer are having??
John B., I believe the controversy in recent years has centered around giving honorary degrees and the like to enemies of the Church, as well as inviting hostile commencement speakers. If you’re just talking about inviting non-Catholics whose perspective and experience would benefit the student, sure. But if you’re talking about Catholics who have deliberately, repeatedly, and publicly tried to undermine the Church and her teachings, then university administrations have the duty to avoid giving them honors or a microphone. There are plenty of other venues to beat up on the Church; a Catholic school need not be one of them.
The title of “The Vagina Monologues” is supposed to provoke revulsion, because it’s self-consciously “transgressive.” By staging it, a Catholic university is telegraphing to the world that it considers that play to be of sufficient artistic merit, and that it has a minimum of moral decency. Either that’s true, in which case these schools are corrupt, or it’s false, and they’re permitting something they know is beneath their standards, yet they don’t have the cojones to stop it.
My guess is that most of the administrators fall into the latter category. These people are bureaucrats: they want to perform their jobs with a minimum of hassle. They do not wake up every day and think, “How can I best serve Christ and his mystical body here on Earth?” They also aren’t consciously trying to undermine the Church, they just don’t care if their institutions become worldly.
You really want to wake them up? Organize a group of large contributors, and tell them staging “The Vagina Monologues” will cost them $XXX,000 in donations that year. Then you’ll see some action.