Thursday, April 06, 2006
MONOLOGUES--YES ** OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY--NO
This is what our Catholic universities have come to.
At Notre Dame John I. Jenkins once again has permitted the production of Vagania MonoloWhatever their motives for performing this play, however, I do not believe that such a per-formance could be permitted at Notre Dame. Its anti-Semitic elements are clearly and egregiously opposed to the values of a Catholic university. Even if those wishing to stage the performance had pure intentions, the staging of the play at Notre Dame would appear to endorse or at least acquiesce in a tolerance of an anti-Semitism whose consequences are only too clear to us.
gues, a play highly offensive to a significant number of Catholics, that portrays the sin of lesbianism in a positive light. Gay.com reports:
(South Bend, IN) – Despite subject matter that goes against Roman Catholic teachings, The University of Notre Dame will allow The Vagina Monologues and other events with similarly controversial subject matter on campus because universities should promote debate, the school's president said Wednesday.
”To be a university means that we engage in diversity of viewpoints that are vigorously debated, some of which will challenge Catholic understanding,” the Rev. John I. Jenkins said, according to the Associated Press. “I don't think we should be afraid of that. That's what it is to be a university.”
Jenkins will not, however, entertain the possibility of performing the Oberammergau Passion Play on the campus. Why? Because it offends Jewish sensibilities. SouthBendTribune.com reports on Jenkins speech:
Precisely because academic freedom is such a sacred value, we must be clear about its appropriate limits. I do not believe that freedom of expression has absolute priority in every circumstance. While any restriction on expression must be reluctant and restrained, I believe that, in some situations, given the distinctive character and aspirations of Notre Dame, it may be necessary to establish cer-tain boundaries, while defending the appropriate exercise of academic freedom.
Consider the following case. The well known Oberammergau Passion play has been a work of the-atrical and religious power for centuries. The play has been performed by the villagers of this Bavarian town as an act of pious thanksgiving to God for sparing their town from the plague in 1633. Performances occur every ten years, and they draw crowds in the hundreds of thousands from around the world. Audiences have been moved religiously and emotionally by the performances.
In 1860 Fr. Joseph Alois Daisenberger, the parish priest of the village, revised the script, and it was fundamentally his version, with minor revisions, which was to be performed until the year 1980. Daisenberger’s script was dramatically and religiously powerful, but it bore an anti-Semitic message. The Jewishness of Jesus and his disciples was entirely hidden, while the opponents of Jesus, who were depicted as greedy and treacherous, were clearly Jewish. The text strongly suggested that Jews collectively were responsible for the death of Jesus. Adolf Hitler attended two performances of the play, praised it for exposing “the menace of Jewry,” and insisted that it continue for its depiction of the “muck and mire of Jewry.”
Politically correct, but to hell with Catholicism.
When did Notre Dame become a Jewish University? Or perhaps it is just Jenkins who is covertly Jewish? One could certainly get the impression that he is, judging by his artistic sensibilities.
Either take the name Catholic out of your advertising, Notre Dame, or replace the university president with one who actually is.
In a variation of the trite expression "With friends like these...", I can only ask With Catholics like this, who needs persecutors?
Lord deliver us from the traitors in our midst!
