Thursday, February 09, 2006
CATHOLIC COLLEGES DEVELOPING A CONSCIENCE AT LAST
This year the V-Monologues are not going to be a knee-jerk production at Notre Dame according to Salon.
The Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, announced last month he was scaling back the play this year -- limiting it to a classroom setting and barring ticket sales. He is seeking input from students, faculty and alumni on whether it and another controversial event, previously called The Queer Film Festival, should be allowed at all.
It's a discussion more Catholic universities are having as "The Vagina Monologues" becomes a seemingly unsolvable dilemma for the schools. Allow the performance and they are criticized for going against church teachings. Ban the play and they're accused of stifling academic freedom.
"When you put Catholic university in your title and your Web site looks like the 'Bells of St. Mary's,' you set up an image that students expect," said Malcolm A. Kline, executive director of Accuracy in Academia, a nonprofit watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. "What I get from parents and students is, 'I thought I was going to a Catholic school and they're showing the 'V Monologues.'"
Better late than never! I'll take it. Maybe this will spread.
