Our Lady Weeps: V-Monologues Comes to Notre Dame (Catholic leader calls ND Prez a "modern Judas")

www.catholicity.com ^ | February 25, 2002 | Bud Macfarlane Jr., MI

[ACross]

Remember, ND President emeritus Hesburgh was a chairman of the first Clinton Defense Fund.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

You are correct- but I am beginning to think better of Martin Luther (that humorless zealot)- the Church in his time was even more corrupt than it is now. That said, I have not met a Priest who impressed me as a moral leader in at least the past 10 or 15 years. I HAVE met quite a few who looked and acted like refugees from a National Gay Day Festival. I also have deep suspicions about the Bishops who have failed to prosecute Priests who they KNEW were molesting children. What would a THOROUGH housecleaning turn up, I wonder?

[Salvation]

Adding this to your list of GLSEN activities.
Salvation

[Salvation]

Feedback sent about alumni. Will they withold $$ because of this nonsense on a Catholic campus?

[mdwakeup]

Neither. They were helping the Repub zealots waste months trying to do what was impossible from the start. What they accomplished was defeat of Jim Rogan and the eventual deliverance of the Senate into Dem hands.

[EODGUY]

I respectfully submit that it was not impossible from the start. It only became impossible when Lott agreed to turn the trial into anything but a trial (i.e.: no presentation of evidence, no witnesses, no cross-examination, etc.).

James Rogan is a man of honor and a terrible loss to the GOP, but we can thank our spineless senate leadership for acquiescing to the democrats's demands to re-focus the "trial" and ensure it's ineffectiveness.

Just look at how many dems actually viewed the boxes of evidence they demanded be brought over. Most of the real evidence was dedacted by clinton's corrupt Attorney General.

I believe the cause was just and necessary and became a sham because of a gutless Trent Lott.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

The 26th was a Monday. Sundays are the only days between Ash Wednesday and sundown on Holy Thursday which are not part of the 40 days.

[Antoninus]

You are correct- but I am beginning to think better of Martin Luther (that humorless zealot)- the Church in his time was even more corrupt than it is now. That said, I have not met a Priest who impressed me as a moral leader in at least the past 10 or 15 years. I HAVE met quite a few who looked and acted like refugees from a National Gay Day Festival. I also have deep suspicions about the Bishops who have failed to prosecute Priests who they KNEW were molesting children. What would a THOROUGH housecleaning turn up, I wonder?

I understand what you're saying. My basic problem with Martin Luther is that he was so full of pride that he assumed that the Church COULDN'T be reformed so he just walked out and went his own way. In fact, the Church was in the process of an internal reformation at that very time. I honestly believe that the Church is the Bride of Christ and that He will never abandon her.

As for your issues with priests, I can't say that I've had similar experiences. Sure, I've met the occasional one who's been a little too effeminate for comfort or a bit too disrespectful of his office, but most of the priests that I come into contact with on a regular basis are exemplars of the vocation.

Finally, I hope there IS a thorough housecleaning in the American Catholic Church. I know what they're likely to find in a lot of dioceses and it won't be pretty. But it IS necessary if future scandals are to be avoided and the Church put in the proper shape to address its primary mission: To spread the Gospel of Christ to all people.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

Good post. Amen.

[IM2Phat4U]

To contact Father Malloy, e-mail him here:

Edward.A.Malloy.5@nd.edu

Also, I recently had an interesting discussion with Bud Macfarlane, the author of this article, and he had read this thread and asked me to pass along the following comments:

Message From Bud Macfarlane

I was told about your discussion of my article, "Our Lady Weeps: the V-Monologues Comes to Notre Dame," and I've truly enjoyed reading your comments. I especially admire the intelligence and charity in which you carry on your discussion. Here are a few of my own comments:

1. A couple of months ago, before I heard about the Monologues coming to ND, my wife Bai started a group for ND Alumni called the Notre Dame Society. Our mission is to help support devout students on campus who are doing positive things for the faith. The network has grown very quickly, and we've set up a core group of students to keep us informed and let us know what they need. It seems like a few of you Freepers are our kind of ND alums, and would want to get involved. If so, email Rachel Richmond (ND '00) and she'll plug you in. No money involved: it's all done through the Net. E-mail here

RachelMVR@aol.com

2. Yes, ND76 was right that the ND Law School and Architecture schools are still solid (though Ave Maria School of Law, which I've been involved with, is going to run rings around it eventually. The faculty is cream of the crop and their first students are choosing Ave Maria over ND Law and UVA Law, I hear, and have the LSATs to get into just about anywhere). But I would send my sons to ND Law or Architecture. And yes, Texas A&M is a good school with one of the best Newman Centers in the country.

3. FYI: Practicing--and I emphasize "practicing"--Catholics (25% of the U.S. population are baptized Catholics) tend to vote conservative in large percentages. Bush pulled 10% more of the Catholic vote than did Dole--the single largest demographic shift in large voting blocks from 1996 to 2000--and the margin of victory. Deal Hudson of Crisis Magazine helped Bush realize that Republicans can't win without getting the Catholic vote. Whether you like Bush or not is besides the point: pray for the Catholic counter-revolution to triumph. Unfortunatley, only 40% of baptized Catholics actually attend Mass regularly. If that can go to 60%, the whole political landscape will shift in the U.S. dramatically and permanently. The Depression Era FDR Catholic Democrat is dying off, finally, so every new devout Catholic means a conservative vote. Aslan: let's roll!

Thanks. Keep fighting the good fight.

Bud Macfarlane Jr., MI

You can visit Bud's website at www.catholicity.com

[IM2Phat4U]

Unfortunatley, only 40% of baptized Catholics actually attend Mass regularly. If that can go to 60%, the whole political landscape will shift in the U.S. dramatically and permanently. The Depression Era FDR Catholic Democrat is dying off, finally, so every new devout Catholic means a conservative vote. Aslan: let's roll!

This deserves to be repeated - - as it is the key to a pro-life victory.

Pray and Fast for the Unborn!

[anniegetyourgun]

I am not a Catholic (preferring to join with those who, like the first Christian Church, are non-denominational), but I appreciate your words and am sorry this blasphemy has come to ND. The enemy loves to make these kinds of inroads.

[mickie]

So many things that happen to bring tears to the Blessed Mother's eyes, along with many of us.

I pray that Our Lady holds litle Danielle in her loving arms tonight, and forever.

[Salvation]

Unfortunatley, only 40% of baptized Catholics actually attend Mass regularly. If that can go to 60%, the whole political landscape will shift in the U.S. dramatically and permanently. The Depression Era FDR Catholic Democrat is dying off, finally, so every new devout Catholic means a conservative vote. Aslan: let's roll!

And have you heard about the new evangelization effort taking place in the Catholic Church with materials from Paulist National Catholic Education Association. [PNCEA} Maybe I have the words wrong, there.

It is a wonderful program and following it many Catholic communities are choosing to run a "Welcome Home, Catholics" program.

[Salvation]

This is the reply to my email that I sent to Notre Dame yesterdat.

To the sender:

Thank you for your e-mail concerning the performances of "The Vagina Monologues" at Notre Dame. The performances were under the sponsorship of the the Gender Studies Program and the Department of Film, Television and Theatre, and proceeds from ticket sales were donated to Saint Joseph County Sex Offense Services, a local women's shelter, and a national fund to aid Afghani women.

This is one of those occasions when the discordance of contemporary culture and Catholicism becomes very publicly apparent, but the fact is that the University's faculty and students confront this discordance continually in the course of examining the modern world. It certainly is true that the language of "The Vagina Monologues" is often crude and vulgar and that its world view is at odds with Catholic teaching, but could the same not be said for any number of modern novels, plays and films our students encounter --James Joyce's "Ulysses," for example? Should it not be read or taught or discussed at Notre Dame because of its sexual content, crude language, and rude treatment of Catholicism? Should Norman Mailer's novels, or John Updike's or Philip Roth's, or the plays of Edward Albee or the films of Martin Scorcese not be studied here? How much indeed of all modern literature, drama or film could stand up to a test of conformity with Catholic teaching?

Our contemporary culture certainly is not Catholic, nor even, many would argue, Christian; it is aggressively secular and routinely mocks the very notion of belief. A Catholic institution will not embrace that culture, but neither can a Catholic educational institution ignore it. "The Vagina Monologues" has become the centerpiece of a national movement to raise awareness and lessen the incidence of sexual violence against women. Along with the content that many find offensive, the Monologues include statistics and accounts of child sexual molestation, the systematic rape of Bosnian women, and female genital mutilation in Africa and elsewhere in the world. The movement that has grown up around the Monologues has attracted especially strong support on college campuses, including Notre Dame. How should a Catholic university community react to a phenomenon such as the Monologues? How should individuals react from the standpoint of their faith? Can one support the Monologues' positive aim, i.e., condemning sexual violence against women, while abhoring its moral confusion?

That is the debate taking place now in the Notre Dame community. It has filled the campus newspaper's Viewpoint pages over the past week and has been very much a "Catholic" argument, with students and others on both sides of the issue arguing from the standpoint of their faith. Whatever one may think of the content of the Monologues, is this not precisely the kind of debate that should take place at a Catholic university in a time and culture that render our beliefs so resoundingly countercultural?

Obviously, people of good will--and good faith--can argue the answer to that question.
Peace,
Dennis Moore

[Salvation]

Ping for the reply I received in the email posted above.

[nd76]

I got the same e-mail from Mr. Moore. I would be curious to know what you think of my response:

Mr. Moore, I have read your response. My initial reaction is, shame on you. In my day at Notre Dame, there was a nightclub on S. Michigan Street called "The Torch Club", where nude and lewd dancing took place. Yes, that type of thing goes on in the world. Should it have taken place on the ND campus, because it took place in downtown South Bend? No.

This calls to mind a couple of other recent episodes where you and other administrators did not exactly cover yourselves in glory. First is the appearance on campus of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the pro-abortion Hebraic American. If he wanted to spew his pro-abort garbage and woo voters in Indiana, he certainly could have gone to the St. Joseph County courthouse steps. No. He wanted to have his viewpoint legitimized with the famed Marian Shrine, the Golden Dome, in the background (never mind that in the Talmud, to which Lieberman ascribes, views Our Blessed Mother as a prostitute). As a pro-abort who spits on Our Blessed Mother every time he runs his mouth about "freedom of choice", he should have been categorically excluded from campus.

Further, Notre Dame is guilty of broadcasting tasteless NBC sit-coms, which at the very least are immoral, and are actually pernicious and anti-Catholic in nature. If you don't believe me on this, take a look at the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights' web site, www.catholicleague.org.

It amazes me that, in the name of "academic freedom", ND allows utter trash and filth like the "Monologues" on campus, and yet does not allow even one traditional Latin Mass in any of the churches or chapels on campus. Notre Dame Magazine a couple of years ago ran an article by a "history professor" which excoriated the traditional Latin Mass, the Mass great martyrs like St. Thomas More and St. Oliver Plunkett died for, the one my Irish ancestors were persecuted for.

There have been very few times in the past 30 years that I have been ashamed to be a Notre Dame man. The "Monologues" incident is one of them. This incident has proven correct Judge Robert Bork's notable statement in "Slouching Toward Gomorrah"--the President of Notre Dame cares more about what the presidents of Harvard and Yale think than what the Pope thinks.

Notre Dame and St. Mary's ought to be three square miles of truth and decency. To the extent you defend the "Monologues" incident, you fail in your duties as a Catholic and as a man. Shame on you. Yours in Notre Dame, ND76

[mickie]

Can you please post Mr. Moore's email addy, so I can just click it on..........this matter must be kept alive, and our protests heard.

[nickcarraway]

I don't know anything about Father Hesburgh's politics, but there was an interesting episode mentioned in David Horowitz's Radical Son. After Horowitz gave a harsh speech attacking the U.S. and defending Vietnamese communists, Father Hesburgh said, ``If I had ideas like this young man, I would jump off a bridge.''

[Night Hides Not]

As a proud alumnus of Gonzaga ('76), I am not surprised that the leaders of this institution turned them down. Last year, they turned down a request by the NOW gang to use campus facilities for a speech. The NOW supporters were apoplectic over this rejection, and cried foul due to First Amendment considerations. Fr. Bob Spitzer, President of Gonzaga, politely knocked that objection out of the ballpark, citing the precedence of Catholic doctrine and the sanctity of life over secular concerns.

Over the past few months, they have welcomed Rev. Jesse Peterson to speak on campus, and I'm sure it was well attended.

It's been a pleasure for me to see the basketball team catch up to the excellence of this great school. GO BULLDOGS!

BTW, when I attended GU, I was not Catholic. However, I am convinced that Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, patron saint of youth, played a major role in my conversion 4 years ago. It was with great joy that I attended my first Mass at Gonzaga as a practicing Catholic last June.

At that time, my wife and I were unaware that she was pregnant with our fourth child (we lost one to a miscarriage several years ago). Nathan Michael (Gonzaga class of 2024) was born last Friday, a healthy 7 pounds, 11 ounces.