Catholic Groups Protest Church Schools Supporting V-Monologues
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
February 6, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Some Catholic colleges are being denounced for hosting a vulgar feminist play on their campuses. By recent counts, some 20 Catholic institutions are allowing the controversial production, The Vagina Monologues, sometimes euphemistically referred to as "The V-Monologues," to be presented on their campuses this year.
Among other content problematic to critics, the infamous Monologues contains references to lesbianism, masturbation, and pedophilia as well as disparagement of Christians and Christianity. Protesting the offensive production are a number of conservative Catholic groups, including the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) and the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS).
TFP Student Action director John Ritchie describes The V-Monologues as a compilation of bad experiences that involve content diametrically opposed to Catholic doctrine. He says the play's various speeches are "vulgar, they're vile, and they contain descriptions of sinful situations that have no place on a Catholic campus. They're degrading."
In 2003, of the more than 300 Catholic colleges and universities in the United States, some 32 institutions permitted the offensive feminist production on their campuses. Ritchie notes that organizers of Monologues presentations often claim they are using the play to fight violence against women or otherwise promote female empowerment.
"The logic is very faulty," the TFP Student Action spokesman says, "because it's like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. We know that, because of lust and the passions of man, when the passions of man are disordered then we run into trouble. The passions of man must be in check for a society to be orderly."
Recently, the president of Providence College in Rhode Island banned the V-Monologues on his campus, declaring its content to be inconsistent with Catholic teachings on sexuality. Meanwhile, the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) is continuing to wage an aggressive campaign against productions of the play, encouraging other Catholic schools and individuals to follow suit.
CNS is also urging Catholic women to submit their signatures to a joint statement of protest issued by women in the church against the V-Monologues. In that statement, the signatories affirm their sadness over the fact that individuals at numerous colleges and universities, including Catholic institutions, have chosen to address violence against women by presenting benefit performances of the offensive play.
The Catholic women jointly state that, while the V-Monologues is offered as a celebration of women, in actuality the play "fails to appreciate women's true dignity and therefore has little impact on the flawed mindset that permits social, mental, physical and sexual oppression against women."
