Vulgar Play Set to Descend on Catholic Colleges

Planned Vagina Monologues Sites

(Source: V-Day organization as of February 11, 2004. Asterisk identifies performances not able to be independently verified by The Cardinal Newman Society. For contact information, see www.cardinalnewmansociety.org.)

&#8226 Bellarmine University (KY) – Feb. 20-22

&#8226 Boston College (MA) – Feb. 19-21

&#8226 * Carlow College (PA) – April 21-22

&#8226 College of the Holy Cross (MA) – Feb. 10-11

&#8226 College of St. Rose (NY) – Feb. 17

&#8226 * College of Santa Fe (NM) – dates unknown

&#8226 DePaul University (IL), Main Campus (Chicago) – Feb. 22

&#8226 DePaul University (IL), Barat Campus (Lake Forest) – dates unknown

&#8226 Dominican University (CA) – Feb. 20-21

&#8226 * Edgewood College (WI) – March 2

&#8226 Fordham University (NY), Lincoln Center Campus – dates unknown

&#8226 Fordham University (NY), Rose Hill Campus – dates unknown

&#8226 Georgetown University (DC), Main Campus – Feb. 27-28

&#8226 Georgetown University (DC), Law Center – March 18-19

&#8226 John Carroll University (OH) – Feb. 13-15

&#8226 Loyola College (MD) – March 10-11

&#8226 Loyola Marymount University (CA) – Feb. 12-14

&#8226 Loyola University of Chicago IL) – Feb. 24, 26

&#8226 Loyola University of Chicago(IL), Rome Center (Italy) – Feb. 13

&#8226 Marymount Manhattan College(NY) – Feb. 14-15

&#8226 Nazareth College (NY) – Feb. 12-14

&#8226 Providence College (RI) – Feb. 17-18

&#8226 Regis College (MA) – Feb. 7-8

&#8226 St. John Fisher College (NY) –Feb. 6-7

&#8226 St. Joseph College (CT) – Feb. 19-20, 22

&#8226 St. Louis University (MO)– Feb. 13-15

&#8226 St. Mary’s College (CA)– Feb. 13

&#8226 Seattle University (WA) – Feb. 13-15

&#8226 Seton Hill University (PA)–March 2

&#8226 * Siena College (NY)– March 11 -12

&#8226 Stonehill College (MA)– Feb. 18 – 20

&#8226 University of Dayton (OH)– Feb. 13-15

&#8226 University of Notre Dame(IN)– Feb. 14

&#8226 University of San Francisco (CA)– Feb. 13-15

Canceled Vagina Monologues Sites

(Plans originally announced by V-Day organization)

&#8226 Carroll College (MT)

&#8226 Catholic University of America (DC)

&#8226 Emmanuel College (MA)

&#8226 Holy Names College (CA)

&#8226 Loyola University of Chicago

&#8226 Stritch School of Medicine (IL)

&#8226 Loyola University of New Orleans(LA)

&#8226 Mount St. Mary’s College(CA)

&#8226 St. Ambrose University(IA)

&#8226 St. John’s University(NY)

&#8226 St. Joseph’s College(IN)

&#8226 St. Norbert College(WI)

&#8226 University of Detroit Mercy (MI)

&#8226 University of Portland (OR)

&#8226 University of St. Francis (IL)

&#8226 Wheeling Jesuit University (WV)

(This update courtesy of The Cardinal Newman Society.)

The Cardinal Newman Society has launched a nationwide protest of the Vagina Monologues, a vulgar and sexually explicit play that is planned for 30 Catholic campuses in the weeks surrounding Saint Valentine’s Day.

The list of planned performances announced by V-Day, the national group that has licensed campus productions at more than 500 schools this year, includes prominent institutions like Boston College, DePaul, Georgetown, Loyola of Chicago, Loyola Marymount and the University of Notre Dame.

Already The Cardinal Newman Society’s campaign against the play has had an impact. Productions have been canceled at 15 Catholic colleges and universities this year, several prompted by letters, phone calls and e-mails urging administrators to ban “Vagina Monologues.” The Cardinal Newman Society praised college officials who interceded and banned the play at the Catholic University of America (Washington, DC), Emmanuel College (Boston, MA), Loyola University of New Orleans (LA), St. Ambrose University (Davenport, IA), St. John’s University (Queens, NY), St. Joseph’s College (Rensselaer, IN), the University of Portland (OR), the University of St. Francis (Joliet, IL), and Wheeling Jesuit University (WV).

“These leaders stood against political correctness in defense of their students’ spiritual and mental health,” said Patrick Reilly, President of Cardinal Newman Society. “They deserve the praise and support of all faithful Catholics.” Following the campaign, “Catholic Higher Education Alert” will provide contact information for college leaders who canceled the play, urging subscribers to send thank-you letters.

The campaign has fared even better than last year, when 32 Catholic colleges and universities hosted or sponsored Vagina Monologues and 14 productions were canceled.

Vagina Monologues presents women discussing their sexuality and sexual encounters, replete with vulgarity, explicit language, and graphic descriptions of lesbian activity and masturbation.

One scene describes the seduction of a sexually inexperienced 16-year-old girl by a 24-year-old lesbian, who first intoxicates the girl with vodka.

Instead of presenting the incident as sexual abuse that would be illegal in many states, the play declares it the girl’s “surprising, unexpected and politically correct salvation.”

“I am appalled and embarrassed that any Catholic institution would present this play, especially in the midst of the clergy sex abuse scandal,” Reilly said. “Whether the perpetrator is a lesbian woman or a wayward priest, seduction of a minor is no one’s ‘salvation.’ I would hope that word has a much different meaning for Catholic students and educators.”

V-Day, an organization founded by author Eve Ensler to help fight violence against women, licenses productions of Vagina Monologues to students and faculty at more than 500 college campus nationwide. The Cardinal Newman Society wrote to the presidents of all U.S. Catholic colleges and universities on December 17, 2003, urging them to investigate and halt planned performances announced by V-Day. The Society also calls on its members and other concerned Catholics to contact college presidents where productions are planned. Contact information, a sample letter and campaign updates are posted on the Society’s website.

The Cardinal Newman Society opposes all campus productions of Vagina Monologues, regardless of whether they are formally approved or funded by the college or university. The Society also opposes off-campus performances by official student clubs.

Although many of the productions are organized by students, several are sponsored or co-sponsored by faculty in a wide range of academic departments including Communications, English, Political Science, Social Work, Theater and Women’s Studies. At Nazareth College in Rochester, New York, the play is co-sponsored by Campus Ministry. Student attendance at the performance at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, is counted toward “merit points” used to assign campus housing the following year.

But often faculty and students are divided over the controversial productions. University of Notre Dame Law professor Charles Rice wrote in the campus newspaper, The Observer: “I hope that our leaders will reconsider this failure of judgment and cancel this third performance [in the last three years]. If not, all the responsible administrators, from the top down, should resign their administrative positions. If they do not resign, they should be removed. Baseball has it right: Three strikes and you’re out.”

All campus performances raise funds for organizations that fight violence against women &#0151 a worthy cause, except when recipient organizations also oppose Catholic teaching by advocating abortion. One beneficiary of the events last Friday and Saturday at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, was Planned Parenthood. Although the funds were intended for Planned Parenthood’s rape crisis center, the organization is the largest abortion provider in the U.S. The John Carroll University event will support the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, which advocates abortion rights as a member organization of the Freedom of Choice Cleveland Coalition.