|
|
 |
|
CNS Story:
|
NDAME-MONOLOGUES May-5-2006 (950 words) With photo posted May 3. xxxn
Faculty, bishop criticize Notre Dame president's decision on play
By Ann Carey
Catholic News Service
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) -- Several prominent University of Notre Dame faculty members have criticized the decision of the university's president to allow future performances on campus of "The Vagina Monologues," a play that explicitly discusses women's sexuality.
Bishop John M. D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend has said he is "deeply saddened by the decision." He had previously asked that performances be ended. The bishop also issued a 3,300-word pastoral statement, published April 30 in the diocesan newspaper, Today's Catholic.
On April 5, Father John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, issued a statement saying that he decided not to prohibit performances of "The Vagina Monologues" or other events, such as a gay film event, that present views contrary to Catholic teaching, as long as the issues are "brought into dialogue with Catholic tradition."
Bishop D'Arcy said his concern was not only about the university continuing to stage the play but about the "rationale that accompanied the decision," which "fails to give room to the great truths of the faith."
"The teaching of the church on sexuality, on academic freedom, on the relationship between a man and a woman and on the human body is hardly mentioned, except to admit that the play stands apart from, and is even opposed to, Catholic teaching," he said.
The bishop noted that "Notre Dame, with its vast resources, can do better than this."
In his statement Father Jenkins said he made the decision although he believes the play's portrayals of sexuality "stand apart from, and indeed in opposition to, Catholic teaching on human sexuality."
But "there must be room in a university for expressions that do not accord with Catholic teaching, and that is true in the case of this play," he added.
Some students and faculty celebrated the decision as a victory for academic freedom. Other students and faculty, however, expressed deep concern over it.
Three faculty members wrote open letters published in The Observer, Notre Dame's student newspaper, between April 11 and 20: John Cavadini, chair of the theology department; Franciscan Father John Coughlin, a professor in the law school; and Holy Cross Father Wilson Miscamble, a history professor and former rector of Notre Dame's Moreau Seminary.
They all expressed concern that Father Jenkins' policy will damage the university's Catholic character.
Another faculty member, Charles Rice, professor emeritus of law who is on the law school faculty, wrote in the April 25 issue of the student paper that Father Jenkins "confirms that political correctness is the operative official religion at Notre Dame." He said the president "should resign or be removed."
David Solomon, in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal April 14, called Father Jenkins' decision a "retreat" that "raises questions about whether Notre Dame has the will to retain its Catholic distinctiveness in the face of a hostile culture and whether it can do so with a faculty that seems largely out of sympathy with Catholic tradition."
Solomon is director of Notre Dame's Center for Ethics and Culture and is also in the philosophy department.
In his April 11 letter, addressed to Father Jenkins, Father Miscamble said he was writing publicly "to alert our faculty, colleagues and our treasured students that not all members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, to which we belong, endorse your decision."
He said the decision brought the "most joy to those who care least about Notre Dame's Catholic mission" and inflicted "real damage to our beloved school and its distinct place in American higher education." He urged Father Jenkins to reverse his decision.
Father Coughlin wrote April 20 that concern for the future of Catholicism at Notre Dame convinced him to speak out. He said Father Jenkins' statement "creates the impression that Catholicism is just another 'good idea' sometimes at issue and to be batted around in the ongoing intellectual debate at the university."
"Without the recognition of the primacy of Catholic truth claims at Notre Dame, the university's own internal dialogue will fail to ensure integration of faith and reason," he continued.
He also said that the guarantee to free speech is not absolute and that universities "enjoy the right not only to regulate, but to suppress, speech on their private property."
Cavadini in his April 19 letter said that within the overall framework in which the issues were considered "there is a missing conversation partner," namely the Catholic Church.
He noted that Father Jenkins' statement did not mention that Bishop D'Arcy had repeatedly urged the Notre Dame administration to prohibit events that are antithetical to Catholic teaching.
"(Whether) we recognize it or not, this relationship to the church ... is the lifeblood and only guarantee of our identity as a Catholic university," Cavadini wrote. "There is no Catholic identity apart from affiliation with the church."
In the May 8 edition of America magazine, M. Cathleen Kaveny, a theology professor and John P. Murphy Foundation professor of law at Notre Dame, wrote an article titled "The Perfect Storm: 'The Vagina Monologues' and Catholic higher education."
"Ideally," she wrote, "a Catholic college would permit the play to be staged, if there is strong student interest in staging it. But it would also take the occasion to initiate an interdisciplinary discussion of sexuality and embodiment, in which the wisdom of the Catholic theological tradition is articulately represented."
She said this approach was a demanding one requiring commitment from faculty members and forcing students "to do the hard intellectual and existential work of bringing their faith into conversation with other aspects of their lives."
- - -
Contributing to this story were Carol Zimmermann and Julie Asher in Washington.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
