Posted on 11/04/2005 2:55:52 PM PST by tuesday afternoon
An official from the Jesuit-run Santa Clara University in California told Catholic News Agency that hosting a two-day long conference, on how to promote opportunities for gays and lesbians at Catholic colleges is “the Catholic” way to act as opposed to highlighting the intrinsic immorality of homosexual acts.
As the Vatican prepares a document reiterating its stance, particularly against homosexuality in seminaries, the aim of the conference entitled “Out There” was to highlight scholarships and student affairs being created to cater specifically to gays and lesbians at Catholic institutions.
The conference brought together representatives from the Universities of Georgetown, Loyola Marymount, Gonzaga, Fordham, DePaul, La Salle, Marquette and Emory, as well as Boston College, and College of the Holy Cross. Out of the plus 40 Catholic universities represented, thirteen were Jesuit institutions like Santa Clara.
Some 150 attendees were invited to choose from workshops like, "Curriculum and Same-Sex Marriage in a Jesuit University" and "Can I Be Gay and Catholic?"
The dean’s office and Santa Clara’s campus ministry helped finance the event, which was organized largely by English professor Linda Garber.
The Bay Area Reporter, a local gay & lesbian publication, celebrated the event reporting: “Queers and Catholics converged upon Santa Clara University over the weekend for a watershed conference, marking the first-ever large-scale LGBT event at the Jesuit University.”
Keynote speaker Mark Jordan, a theologian from Emory University and self proclaimed gay man, told the Bay Area Reporter the conference served a purpose that was more than academic.
"This conference was a discovery for a lot of people, first of all in how many of us [LGBT and LGBT-friendly Catholics] there are," Jordan said.
"But to see that people have been improvising solutions, and have the chance to come together and compare improvisations was important," he added.
Jordan acknowledged that the religion is exclusive of gays and lesbians in many ways, and in particular that the Catholic Church’s newly chosen Pope is alienating to many.
"[Choosing Ratzinger as pope] is a catastrophe. I felt kicked in the stomach," he said.
“But that doesn't mean that LGBT people can't be Catholic, even if the institution does not formally welcome them,” Jordan said.
"The Catholic tradition is bigger than the church, it's bigger than the boundaries of the institution, and has more to offer to queer people than just a place in the institution," Jordan said.
"So if the institution alienates us, we take the tradition with us outside the institution," he said.
Jordan believes Catholic authorities likely won't change church doctrine to be fully inclusive of LGBT people for several hundred years, so contemporary queers should instead focus on "horizontal" change – working at the level of Catholic people instead of butting heads with the hierarchy.
Lisa Millora, who is the University’s Assistant Dean for Student Life and one of the co-organizers of the event, told CNA that, although the coincidental timing of the new Vatican document wasn’t planned, “it is important.”
She said that the overall importance of the conference was that it dealt with what she called, “an invisible minority, who face an oppression and tension different than racial minorities,” for example.
Primarily, the job of her office, she said, “is to remove any obstacles to a student’s education.”
As a Jesuit University in the Catholic tradition, she added, “We need to pay attention to social injustices, no matter how uncomfortable they are for us.”
Joseph Winter, a professor at Loyola, said that his school is seen as very progressive, and even offers housing to LGBT couples.
At Saint Louis, there is not much proactive administrative support but neither is there opposition, said Ken Haller, a professor and pediatrician.
Haller, the former president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, said he is often asked whether he is still a Catholic.
"I answer 'yes,'" he said. "I'm a pediatrician, and being gay and being Catholic both call me to that job, to see the person in need and serve that person."
Santa Clara University describes itself as “a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university” located in California's Silicon Valley, which offers its 8,213 students “rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees.” As California's oldest higher-education institution “it demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice.”
Nevertheless, increasing numbers of people today, even within the Church, are bringing enormous pressure to bear on the Church to accept the homosexual condition as though it were not disordered and to condone homosexual activity. Those within the Church who argue in this fashion often have close ties with those with similar views outside it. These latter groups are guided by a vision opposed to the truth about the human person, which is fully disclosed in the mystery of Christ. They reflect, even if not entirely consciously, a materialistic ideology which denies the transcendent nature of the human person as well as the supernatural vocation of every individual.
The Church's ministers must ensure that homosexual persons in their care will not be misled by this point of view, so profoundly opposed to the teaching of the Church. But the risk is great and there are many who seek to create confusion regarding the Church's position, and then to use that confusion to their own advantage.
Wouldn't want to point out that whole sin thing, would we?
"“Queer theory,” asserts Linda Garber, “alternately buries and vilifies lesbian feminism, missing its valuable insights and ignoring its rich contributions.” Rejecting the either/or choice between lesbianism and queer theory, she favors an inclusive approach that defies current factionalism. In an eloquent challenge to the privileging of queer theory in the academy, Garber calls for recognition of the historical—and intellectually significant—role of lesbian poets as theorists of lesbian identity and activism.
The connections, Garber shows, are most clearly seen when looking at the pivotal work of working-class lesbians/lesbians of color whose articulations of multiple, simultaneous identity positions and activist politics both belong to lesbian feminism and presage queer theory. Identity Poetics includes a critical overview of recent historical writing about the women's and lesbian-feminist movements of the 1970s; discussions of the works of Judy Grahn, Pat Parker, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Gloria Anzaldúa; and, finally, a chapter on the rise and hegemony of queer theory within lesbigay studies."
Race, Class, and the Lesbian-Feminist Roots of Queer Theory , by Linda Garber.
What is it with the Jesuits and their penchant to introduce the most obtuse speakers at those colleges and universities run by them?! And how does Fr. Mitch Pacwa counter these Jesuit scenarios! It's a conundrum.
Its why the faithful are leaving the orthodox churches in droves.
O my Jesus, forgive us of our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us, and especially your spiritual children.
St. Jean de Brebeuf, pray for us, and especially for the members of your order.
St.Aloysius Gonzaga, pray for us, and especially for the members of your order.
St.Robert Bellarmine, pray for us, and especially for the members of your order.
O good and holy Jesuits who are with God in Heaven, remember these, your spiritual brothers today, some who seem to bring scandal after scandal upon the church. Intercede for them, that God's mercy may touch their lives.
Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, our Divine Mercy, have mercy on those of your religious and priests who seem to have lost their way. May their hearts be softened, and may the light of the Holy Spirit bring them home to you at last.
God the Father, have mercy on us.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Well, I guess Santa Clara has gotten our last Alumni donation. :-(
This kind of thing makes me ashamed to be a graduate of a Jesuit college.
I'm surprised that no one has commented on the name of the conference: "Out There."
Truth-in-advertising I suppose.
St. Charles Borromeo, cardinal and bishop, guide the bishops and the priests, we pray!
Hopefully you emailed them or called them and let them know that!
Amen! And St. Ambrose, St. Martin of Tours, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Polycarp, and St. Athanasius, too...pray for and intercede with our bishops!
St. Charles used the following strong language to the assembly of bishops during the convocation of the Synod:Let us fear lest the angered judge say to us: If you were the enlighteners of My Church, why have you closed your eyes? If you pretended to be shepherds of the flock, why have you suffered it to stray? Salt of the earth, you have lost your savor. Light of the world, they that sat in darkness and the shadow of death have never seen you shine. You were apostles; who, then, put your apostolic firmness to the test, since you have done nothing but seek to please men? You were the mouth of the Lord, and you have made that mouth dumb. If you allege in excuse that the burden was beyond your strength, why did you make it the object of your ambitious intrigues?
St. Charles Borromeo is a great role model for bishops. He was connected well, and could have been on of those worldly prelates, but he chose to follow Christ, and navigated the waters of intrigue and politics in Renaissance Italy, and still did the right thing.
He's one I very much look up to.
And also his being a patron for those suffering stomach ills, I have an extra reason to appreciate him!
As usual, the whole terminology and way of speaking is deliberately wrong. The Church calls everyone to Christ, but it is a call to repentance. Homosexual acts are sins, and obviously the Church should not be "inclusive" of sins, but help people to grow in holiness and avoid sins, including those with same sex attraction. That is true and proper "inclusivity".
Don't forget also to ask the intercession of St. Francis Xavier and, especially here in the US, the North American martyrs (Jesuits included).
Like St. Jean de Brebeuf who was tortured to death by the Iroquois.
Like Father Ferdinand Farmer who circuit rode from Pennsylvania, through New Jersey where it was illegal to have Mass, through New York, and although not among the formal saints, he labored hard for the Lord, like many other Jesuits in the new world. May he intercede for all of us.
'What is it with the Jesuits...?'
I'm afraid that a big part of the problem is the Jesuit order has become a huge refuge for actively homosexual priests. The SJ-run Loyola is openly called "Lavender U" by its own students. It's not just carelessness on the part of the Jesuits, they want to deliberately undermine the Church, they have their OWN agenda.
This is a wild conspiracy theory, I know, but there is the rumor that John Paul I(ONE) was murdered because on his desk was an edict for the entire Jesuit Order to immediately stop all active participation in the Church. Almost inconceiveable, but some people believe that and you can see why.
Where was the Open Bar for alcoholics?
Claud believes LBGT people won't likely change their lifestyle to be fully inclusive of church doctrine for several hundred years, so contemporary Catholics should instead focus on "vertical" change - working at the level of interdicts and excommunications instead of smiling and patting he heads of the high priests of Sodomism.
"What is it with the Jesuits and their penchant to introduce the most obtuse speakers at those colleges and universities run by them?! And how does Fr. Mitch Pacwa counter these Jesuit scenarios! It's a conundrum."
It's not really a conundrum when you look at it from the point of view of welfare economics.
My hypothesis about the current situation with the Jesuits and their fellow travelers has not much to do with the faith. These folks are attracted not by the spirituality of the church or changing that as they are by the material wealth of the church. That is to say, they're looking for a meal ticket that allows them to pursue their "lifestyles".
The fact that the church considers homosexuality as objectively disordered, yet pays their salaries must strike them as quite funny. Is it any wonder that they profane the faith? It's a joke to them. In that sense, undermining the faith is merely a side show, a diversion from the real business at hand of fleecing the faithful.
In my opinion, the material wealth of the church is really the underlying issue here and something to carefully consider when donating to the church. Where is the money going? Who and what will it ultimately support?
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