Catholic schools, students promote and pitch the joys of homosexuality

Three items from the past four or five days:

• UPDATE: Forgot this one, featuring the University of Notre Dame:

A surprise move from the Student Activities Office allowed five students to attend a national gay rights demonstration in Washington D.C. Sunday, sophomore Jackie Emmanuel, president of the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA), said.

The students were granted permission from the Office to use PSA funding to travel to the nation's capital to participate in the National Equality March over the weekend, Emmanuel said.

"The fact that we were University-approved was surprising but it was a wonderful surprise," she said. "The University hasn't always been entirely receptive in the past."

Sophomore Joanna Whitfield, a PSA officer and an attendee of the trip, said the support from the University was unexpected.

"They haven't always been supportive of us in the past," she said. "But we're thrilled."

The Observer reports that the ND students "hung out in the gay neighborhood of the city and stayed with friends to minimize costs."

• Catholic High Schools in San Fran:

Four Catholic High Schools in the Archdiocese of San Francisco are scheduled to host a performance of the condom-endorsing sex-education play Secrets. The play was written by openly lesbian playwright Patricia Loughrey. Secrets will be performed on October 14, 2009 at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory High School in San Francisco; on November 5, 2009 at Sacred Heart High School in Atherton; on January 19, 2010 at Mercy High School in Burlingame, and on February 9, 2010 at St. Ignatius College Preparatory High School in San Francisco.

The play depicts a teenager who is HIV positive. Some content in Secrets was considered, by the Fremont, California Unified School District, to be sufficiently graphic to require that a permission slip be signed by parents before their child would be allowed to see it. The Fremont Unified School District also posts an online flyer (in English and Chinese) for parents, informing them of the performance, and inviting them to watch a video of Secrets before giving their permission. The flyer also describes two of the scenes: “A character dumps dozens of brightly wrapped condoms on the floor with a discussion about which type of condoms are the best to use and how to use them effectively.” Another scene is a “Discussion about contraceptives and a visual display of them.” The production of Secrets in the San Francisco Archdiocese is sponsored by the Educational Theater Programs division of the Kaiser Permanente HMO. ("Dozens of Brightly Wrapped Condoms", California Catholic Daily, Oct. 13, 2009)

• Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan:

Love is everywhere... AQ Celebrates Human Dignity - Monday, October 12, 2009

Join the AQ Community for events on campus throughout the day. No RSVP necessary... just show up when/where you can.

Safe Zone Training—”What’s It All About?”—Faculty/Staff
Experience hands-on training and information on how to be a “certified” Safe Zone advocate for Aquinas College that respects the dignity of every human person. This is a Phase I training. Phase II will take place during Black History Month programs.
10:00 a.m. — noon / Loutit Room

Ribbons, Face Painting, Resources Information Table
Visit The Alliance and Senate Diversity for helpful literature, resources and tools for support, as well as ribbons and face-painting to celebrate our differences.
11:30 a.m. — 1:30 pm. / Academic Building Lobby

Seven Passages—The Stories of Gay Christians
After this film, the Aquinas College community engages in our liberal arts tradition of civil and peaceful dialogue with one another. ...
1:00 p.m. — 3:30 p.m. / Cook Carriage House

The Dialogue Continues: The Times of Harvey Milk
Watch the Academy Award winning documentary that has been featured in AQ’s own sociology classes. This film chronicles New Yorker Harvey Milk who moved to San Francisco and became the city's first openly gay public official. The following year both he and the city's mayor, George Moscone, were shot to death by the former city supervisor.                                                       
10:00 p.m. / Moose Café

"Love is everywhere..." celebrations are sponsored by: The Alliance, Campus Life, Diversity Initiatives, AQPB, and Student Senate Diversity.

More info from LifeSiteNews.com.

• Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington:

Right now is a time of need for the gay community. There are 1,138 rights federal marriages possess that domestic partnerships do not, and we are being given the opportunity to extend those rights to our neighbors, siblings and friends. I am writing this to encourage those registered to vote in the state of Washington to vote to approve Referendum 71. This bill is not about mar riage, it is about equality. Haven't we done this before? Haven't we had virtually this exact same conversation before, and concluded that all people were created equal? Now that women are voting, we've elected our first black president, everyone is happy and equal, right? Wrong. Basic rights for domestic partnerships are being threatened. The Senate Bill 5688, signed by Gov. Gregoire in May, ensured that all Washington families are treated the same, with the "same protections, the same rights, and the same obligations as their neighbors." If Referendum 71 fails, couples in committed partnerships will be unable to have power of attorney, use sick leave to care for an ill partner, receive pension benefits and will face difficult obstacles regarding adoption and child custody.

We cannot form a collective unconscious. Let this issue touch you. We have a chance to be ahead of the curve. Chances are you know someone who is gay, who has struggled already in finding themselves. Let them share in these rights. We need to extend rights to all humans.

To the people who support this referendum, it's obvious. It's cut from the same mold as women's rights and racial civil rights. To deny these rights is ignorance, it is ignoring a population of human beings that will continue to exist, continue to gain political and social influence. The gay issue is sweeping across the nation and finding a place within our lives. We need to evolve in our beliefs. Insight and understanding are means through which we should approach a very real issue facing us today. Rather than standing still in an a a priori view of the world, we must advance into an a posteriori view, in which we examine our current cultural subtext. We must use an empirical and modern approach to the changing nature of society.

The solution is to take the conflict away and extend the rights. Gays are never going to want fewer rights than the rights they deserve, so let's end the conflict by removing the conflict, which shouldn't even exist in the first place. You do this in your individual ideology and in your cultural frame of mind. ("About equality, not marriage", by Kaitlin Bailey, Gonzaga Bulletin, Oct. 9, 2009).

Wow: "Let this issue touch you" and "To deny these rights is ignorance" and "We need to evolve our beliefs" and "...examine our current cultural subtext." My guess is this student is getting at A+ in "Unthinking Ideological Clichés and Slogans 101." While that piece is an op-ed, the editors of The Bulletin, the student newspaper at Gonzaga, recently wrote an editorial demanding the school allow a "Pro-Choice club" (huh?) on campus, complaining that "we are forced to follow religious guidelines that restrict our liberties and take away our right to be heard." As usual, lots of talk about rights and liberty, and not much talk about responsibility, morality, and truth.

Comments

[Magister Christianus]

In Meditation XVII, John Donne wrote the famous lines, "No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main." Addressing only the issue of the play at the Catholic high schools, I will say that what they are doing affects so many more than just themselves. When other Christian schools try to maintain a standard of academic excellence and Christian faithfulness in their curricula and activities, their job is made all the more difficult by actions such as these schools are making. It is difficult enough to stand for what is right in a world that rejects Truth, but when so-called Christian schools likewise reject what the true, the good, and the beautiful, earnestly striving Christian schools then must answer the question, "Why aren't you like those others?" Kyrie, eleison; Christe, eleison; Kyrie, eleison.

[Francis Beckwith]

The Gonzaga piece is particularly disturbing since the author does not seem to see her own irony. While claiming that we ought to treat all families equally she asserts that all views on the nature of the family are not equal, for she describes those who disagree with her account as ignorant and not evolved. But why is ignorance bad? It's bad because the mind has a proper end because of its nature. Those who choose to remain ignorant violate their mind's intrinsic purpose. So, in order for the Gonzaga writer to defend sexual egalitarianism she must embrace cognitive elitism. Thus, she does not believe in equality after all. She believes that some ideas are better than others, and that some minds function properly while others don't.

[Maria]

The joys of homosexuality??? Yuck!! I'm so happy to be ignorant. I would rather be joyful in my ignorance than putting my life and soul at risk. That type of progress gives me hives. As Magister said, the sad thing about this is that evil and sin are celebrated in supposedly Catholic schools. I keep hearing the echo of Lucifer's words, "I will not serve!", also said with pride. In the end, these immature and confused souls, will never know what real love is. The ones that are helping them destroy their souls do not really love them.

[Mike]

Catholic schools have gone down the crapper. They're hardly Catholic anymore. Dissidence and ignorance and suppression of faithful presentation of doctrine are rampant. The problems are administrators and teachers -- even religion teachers -- who do not have Catholic faith themselves, but rather a subjectively validated set of religious beliefs that overlaps somewhat with Catholicism but is really grounded in leftist ideology. Liberalism is the true religion of Catholic schools, and you're seeing evidence of it in stories such as these.

[Mark Brumley]

Nailed it, Frank. (Again.)

[Dexter]

Is it sinful for a Catholic to give up hope in Catholic schools?

[Mike McFarland]

And once again the Church will do nothing about it

[Rich Leonardi]

In all seriousness, why would anyone send their kids to a Catholic college over a public university with a decent Newman Center? Fortunately, many bishops understand that now and are making sure the center chaplain is no longer Fr. Feelgood or a castaway malcontent.

[Charles E Flynn]

This is not a comment. It is just a link to a book review.

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/1996/03/15/a-review-of-degenerate-moderns-modernity-as-rationalized-sexual-misconduct/

[Ed Peters]

1. Not sinful, Dexter, but dopey perhaps, given that "Catholic schools", assuming they are objects of beleif in the first place, are of such a wide variety that surely one cannot conclude they are all lost.

2. ND's instinct for institutional suicide continues to astound.

[Nancy]

Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for us.

[Mark L.]

This may have been uncharitable but as a Gonzaga graduate (B.S. '82, J.D. '86) I had to let the Bulletin have a piece of my mind about the pro-death club:

What planet are you people from? You attend a CATHOLIC university and expect to be able to have an officially recognized pro-death club? Further, did any of you pass freshman logic? You don't exactly appear to be censored or silenced since your are clearly able to rant and whine in the pages of the Bulletin. How, exactly have you been denied the right to speak and voice your opinion? You have simply, and correctly, been denied the sponsorship of the University for an organization with a stated goal diametrically opposed to Catholic teaching. One question: would any of you seriously think you could set up a KKK chapter at Howard University (it's one of the "traditionally black" universities)? No, I didn't think so. In fact, I suspect you would be ready to tar and feather anyone who tried. Why don't you take your weak liberal act to a state school where you can have all the "diverse" organizations you want and leave Gonzaga for the faithful Catholics?

Sign me "A Disgusted Alum"

[Janny]

Every Gonzaga alum should write what Mark wrote...and flood the university with it. Sometimes one voice crying in the wildnerness is easy to ignore, but thousands of them make enough racket that they at least get attention. Cut off the funding to these Catholic schools. Write to their bishops and explain why you will be telling everyone you know NOT to send money to these schools or contribute to them in any way. Don't go to their athletic or cultural events; withdraw your support from them in every possible way, and convey to the people in charge, OFTEN, the reason WHY you're doing so. If enough of us scream loud enough, the ivory tower dwellers will at least have to deal with us in some way. They may call us names, they may rebuke us for ignorance, but at least they won't have our silent, despairing complaisance as the only reaction they "hear" and take as assent...and they won't have our money to spend on such nonsense.

That's my take,
JB