Cardinal Arinze told the graduates that happiness is found not in the pursuit of material wealth or pleasures of the flesh, but by fervently adhering to religious beliefs, and spoke of the importance of family to the Catholic Church.
"In many parts of the world, the family is under siege", the cardinal said, according to a transcript of his remarks provided by the university. "It is opposed by an anti-life mentality as is seen in contraception, abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. It is scorned and banalized by pornography, desecrated by fornication and adultery, mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut in two by divorce."
Theresa Sanders, a "post-modernist" professor of theology at the university, protested by leaving the stage while Arinze was speaking. E-mails on a subscription list used by many of the university's gay and lesbian students indicated that some students also walked out.
"These things are exactly what he's paid to say", Ed Ingebretsen, a professor of American Studies, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but "it's a graduation; why he decided to do the pro-family thing no one seems to know". Ingebretsen, and former Jesuit priest who left the order and the Catholic Church to join the "American Catholic Church" in 2000, said he posted an apology on the e-mail subscription list "on behalf of Catholics" for Cardinal Arinze's "insensitive remarks". The prelate's comments were "un-Christian", Ingebretsen said.
A professor at Georgetown since 1986, Ingebretsen in 1995 offered a course called "Unspeakable Lives: Gay and Lesbian Narratives", endorsed by the English department. In an article on a "gay" web site (www.whosoever.org), Ingebretsen writes, "In the American Catholic Church I bless single-sex unions with church sanction".
Tommaso Astarita, a professor of history, called the cardinal's message "wildly inappropriate" for a commencement ceremony. "I personally was rather offended by it", said Astarita, who is one of the professors circulating the protest letter. "I thought it was divisive and inappropriate".
A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington, Susan Gibbs, defended the cardinal: "His message was certainly consistent with Catholic teaching, which seems appropriate since this is a Catholic university. Hopefully new graduates will be inspired by [Cardinal Arinze's] reminder that happiness does come through God", the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Another "gay" advocacy web site (365Gay.com) prominently featured the protest on Thursday, May 22; and reported that Dean McAuliffe issued an e-mail saying she was "surprised" at the speech, and is setting aside time in her office Friday to allow people to express their reactions. McAuliffe reportedly said, "I'm sure that Cardinal Arinze did not intend to hurt any of his audience, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen".
TEXT OF CARDINAL ARINZE'S ADDRESS
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