Notre Dame's Pro-Homosexual Focus Deserving of Criticism, Says Catholic Group
by Jim Brown
October 26, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Catholic pro-family group is protesting several programs at the University of Notre Dame that encourage students to declare their homosexuality.
"National Coming Out Day" became a weeklong event at the prestigious Catholic university earlier this month with several pro-homosexual activities with titles such as "Come Out of Your Closet!," "Speak Out! Sex and Gender at Notre Dame Rally," and a library exhibit on famous homosexual men and women. The week of October 10-14 kicked off with the school's second annual "Queer Film Festival," where one dissident Catholic nun is reported to have stated she was beginning to believe that "the greatest sin for lesbian and gay people is to want to be straight."
Robert Ritchie is director of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP), a Catholic organization based in Pennsylvania. Ritchie views the recent events on the South Bend, Indiana, campus as an attack on traditional Catholic morality. In response, his group is trying to get the word out.
"Here [at TFP] we're trying to encourage the students at Notre Dame, the alumni, and Catholics in general to raise their voice and to protest this," he explains. "[We're asking them] to call Notre Dame authorities and to express their opinions -- always in a very kind and respectful way -- but to show how this goes in direct opposition to church teaching."
According to the TFP director, something even more grave took place on campus during church services. "The campus Masses were dedicated to creating a 'more welcoming' environment for Notre Dame gay, lesbian, transgendered, and queers," Ritchie says. Such a focus, he adds, is "very, very upsetting to the students at [the school] who are faithful to Catholic teaching to see this type of activity going on."
American TFP is calling on Notre Dame president John Jenkins and other university leaders to "uphold Catholic morality" by canceling another Queer Film Festival the school intends to host in February. According to the group, the bishop of the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend opposes the festival, describing it as "an abuse of academic freedom" because the event gives "no place ... to the presentation of Catholic teaching on the matter of homosexuality."
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
