Notre Dame's Pro-Homosexual Focus Deserving of Criticism, Says Catholic
Group
By Jim Brown
(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."
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