Posted on 02/11/2002 6:35:34 PM PST by Brian Kopp DPM
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Sunday, February 10, 2002 Press Release: An Open Letter to the President of the College of the Holy Cross
The letter in the attached Adobe Reader file (HCMcFar.pdf) contains some of the vile language contained in the Vagina Monologues play scheduled for the College of the Holy Cross on Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. Do not open it if you are easily offended. That this anti-Catholic garbage should appear on any Catholic campus is blaspheme. I urge you to call both Fr. McFarland and Bishop Reilly and register your protest. Sincerely in Christ, cc: Fr. McFarland , Bishop Reilly, various staff and alumni, media Michael C. McFarland, S.J.
Most Reverend Daniel P. Reilly |
That's a good question. Quite frankly, some of them are "Catholic" in name only and actually follow the trendy PC agenda. Most of the older "Catholic" colleges and universities are now held hostage by this PC agenda. As for the bishops and cardinals...well, unfortunately some of these appear to be merely careerist bureaucrats only interested in being photographed with famous people and attending catered dining events at national bishops' conferences.
In light of the recent pedophile scandal in Massachusetts, it seems in very poor taste and somewhat insensitive to be flaunting perversion on a Catholic campus.
Please consider making a special sacrifice this Lent for the future of the Jesuits.
St. Ignatius pray for us!!!
May God have mercy on us.
So, how does requesting information come as an insult to you? I don't understand. If you and your friend would have answered me correctly at any time during the year it would have been the last time I brought it up. Now that you finally communicated an answer to me after numerous requests; I now know.
It doesn't mean that I agree with your reasoning but at least I have an answer. For your information, NJ Governor James E. McGreevey is 100% pro-abortion including partial-birth abortion.
Representative Bill Pascrell, D-8, NJ, votes to keep 1.2 million babies from being born, per year. He votes to approve all federal funding for abortions to be preformed in the military and overseas. I wish you would reconsider putting his name on the list. Also, you should have a note on your website stating that you handpicked the legislators with prejudice and does not represent ALL pro-abortion Catholic Members of Congress and Governors.
Subject: Re: The Vagina Monologues
Dear Father:
As a Catholic, I am greatly dismayed that you are permitting this anti-Christian, anti-male and anti-heterosexual garbage to be performed at Holy Cross. What are you thinking?
Very truly yours,
[Name omitted]
Dear [NAME],
While the play has some parts that are quite explicit and would be uncomfortable or offensive for many (including me, possibly) it is neither anti-Christian, anti-male nor anti-heterosexual. Those who have seen it, many of whom are committed Catholics, say it has a positive message about women and raises important issues regarding violence and abuse against women. I think it is appropriate to present it here.
Michael McFarland, SJ
Dear Father:
I received your email. Thank you for taking the time to respond to me. I respectfully submit that you are in error in your assessment of “The Vagina Monologues.”
The play is anti-Christian, because rape is anti-Christian. In the play, a thirteen-year-old girl is “seduced” by a twenty-four year old woman. At the end of the scene, the thirteen year old tells the audience: “Well, I say if it was rape, it was a good rape.”
Lesbianism is anti-Christian. The Catechism says:
2357. "Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents HOMOSEXUAL acts as acts of grave depravity,[Cf. Gen 191-29 ; Rom 124-27 ; 1 Cor 6:10 ; 1 Tim 1:10 .] tradition has always declared that 'HOMOSEXUAL acts are intrinsically disordered.'[CDF, Persona humana 8.] They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved."
St. Paul says to the Romans: "For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error." Rom. 1:26-27.
The play is anti-heterosexual, because it glorifies lesbianism and belittles heterosexual relationships.
The play is anti-male. You deny this, but query whether such a title is appropriate to hang on a play that views male-female relationships as largely characterized by violence. Camille Paglia, Christina Hoff Summers, and a host of others—not exactly raging Catholic traditionalists—have called the play anti-male. If you have access to the web, a Google search of “Vagina Monologues” and “anti-male” will give you much to consider.
For your edification, and because you have not seen it, here’s the show’s contents, which largely speak for themselves:
1.Introduction
2. Hair
3. If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?
4. If your vagina could talk, what would it say?
5. The Flood
6.The Vagina Workshop
7.Vagina Fact – Clitoris
8.Because He liked to Look at It
9.Vagina Fact – Genital Mutilation
10.My Angry Vagina
11. My Vagina Was My Village
12.The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could
13.What does your vagina smell like?
14.Reclaiming Cunt
15.I Asked a Six Year Old Girl
16.The Women Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy
17.I Was There In The Room
The objectification of female genitalia is demeaning to women. Would you let pornographer Larry Flynt put on a skit called “The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could,” or would you be rightfully offended?
Your reliance on “committed Catholics” who support “The Vagina Monologues” is misplaced. I’m a committed Catholic, and I assure you it’s trash. Given the disparity of perspective of “committed Catholics,” and given your responsibilities to the Catholic College of the Holy Cross, I suggest you look into the matter a little more carefully yourself.
Yours in Christ,
[Name]
Any other Freepers care to correspond with Father McFarlane? We might get through to him. Start Lent the right way and send him a letter.
The problem is that the colleges and universities administered technically by religious orders like the Jesuits are really no longer under "Catholic" control or authority. They have "lay" boards and non-Catholic professors. They are driven by PC agendas. Some bishops have actually washed their hands of engaging any of these issues. The excuses they use are that these colleges need federal money and must conform to secular PC criteria. Letters to Rome will just disappear into the bureaucratic maze. Many of the bishops are only interested in feel-good public relations, ecumenical gobbledygook, photo-ops, and the gourmet dining events of these national conferences.
Our bishop, for instance, ran out on to a church parking lot in a fit of red-faced hysteria and told conservative orthodox protesters who were handing out flyers about pro-abortion activities at a local college to stop what they were doing and leave. They white-wash this stuff like crazy. This bishop knows that Catholic students are being harrassed, intimidated, brainwashed, and spiritually harmed by anti-Catholic professors at this "Catholic" institution of higher learning, but just like with the pedophile scandals, they look the other way. Even though he is responsible for setting the tone for the religious education, spiritual care, and moral welfare of Catholics in his diocese, he does nothing about affairs technically in the orbit of higher education adminstered by religious orders. It's a PC free-for-all. The Shriners or the American Socialist Party might as well be running this "Catholic" college.
AAAAAAUUUUUUURRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!
Fr. McFarland,
I am disgusted that you have decided to allow "The Vagina Monologues" to ooze itself onto your campus. This filth belongs in a landfill, not in a nominally Catholic college.
It's been ten years since that encyclical was promulgated and the bishops are still dragging their feet in implementing it, patiently waiting until the present pope dies. Sad but true.
After reading some of the things on this thread, I'm starting to wonder if some of them shouldn't conform to "Ex Cordite Kaboom-erae". Or, to put it bluntly, if this is "Catholic higher education," let's blow it up and start over again.
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