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The Jesuits have it right

Letter to the Editor

Published: Thursday, January 21, 2010

Updated: Friday, January 22, 2010 02:01

The University of Notre Dame has said they do not want to include sexual orientation in their anti-discriminatory clause because that somehow endorses homosexual activity. I vote Jesuit! I went to the University of Detroit Mercy, a Jesuit school, and this is their non-discrimination clause: "The Program does not discriminate based on race, age, creed, gender, sexual orientation, color, national origin, marital status, religion, or any other factor prohibited by law. This applies to all aspects of its operations." Oh Snap Notre Dame! The Jesuits have very good credentials. They have been around for many centuries, and their priests are well qualified.


Another great Jesuit school, Boston College has the following non-discrimination clause: "Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1863, Boston College is dedicated to intellectual excellence and to its Jesuit, Catholic heritage. Boston College recognizes the essential contribution a diverse community of students, faculty and staff makes to the advancement of its goals and ideals in an atmosphere of respect for one another and for the University's mission and heritage. Accordingly, Boston College commits itself to maintaining a welcoming environment for all people and extends its welcome in particular to those who may be vulnerable to discrimination, on the basis of their race, ethnic or national origin, religion, color, age, gender, marital or parental status, veteran status, disabilities or sexual orientation.


"Boston College rejects and condemns all forms of harassment, wrongful discrimination and disrespect. It has developed procedures to respond to incidents of harassment whatever the basis or circumstance. Moreover it is the policy of Boston College, while reserving its lawful rights where appropriate to take actions designed to promote the Jesuit, Catholic principles that sustain its mission and heritage, to comply with all state and federal laws prohibiting discrimination in employment and in its educational programs on the basis of a person's race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, marital or parental status, veteran status, or disability, and to comply with state law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of a person's sexual orientation."


I bet most Jesuit schools have similar, welcoming environments. Go Irish! Beat Discrimination!

Robert McKeon
graduate student
off campus
Jan. 20

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11 comments

Anonymous
Fri Jan 29 2010 21:29
How would you determine somone's sexual orientation? Would you ask someone this question in an interview? Would you research whether they are "out"? Would you check to see if the man had a lisp or the woman shook hands strongly? Many people have a homosexual orientation. This is nothing new. Benedict XVI has been very sympathetic to the pastoral care of the homosexual person. So should Notre Dame.
Your name
Thu Jan 28 2010 11:03
Yesterday I attended an Al-Anon meeting and a woman shared that he was deeply troubled by the lies and patterns of behavior from her now "dry" husband. These unspecified activities made her feel as if she were losing her mind and should file for divorce. When I approached her in private and asked her whether her husband were addicted to pornography she was relieved to share the pain... Her husband was entrusted with her sexuality and this is how he treated it ... something like that. Any way we are a pornographic society and artificial birth control does have a lot to do with it. Still it's baffling -- NFP does not cure this addiction. Anyway some of you fearless intellectuals really might look into this. Start with the bit about how NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) was struggling and needed assistance so Hugh Heffner (Playboy) stepped up to service his then growing -- now monstrous -- market. Then back it up -- no pun intended -- to how Planned Parenthood sued the Postal Service so pornography could be "delivered." They were getting tired of going door to door and had lots of work to do in Africa. (Compare Muslim African AIDS rates with Planned parenthood penetrated -- uh oh -- areas of Africa. As far as I can tell sex is God-made and as such must be God commited. Even if you're married. It sounds so comical -- but people prolly aren't laughing quite so hard as when Paul VI told this story before we were living it. by The Holy Spirit. yeah
Queer and Catholic
Sun Jan 24 2010 23:38
Being "conservative" is not a charism. Neither is being progressive. This issue here has less to do with the tradition of Notre Dame and more to with Christ's ministry to the marginalized. The fact is, whether the Univesity sanction "homosexual acts" or not, gay people will still exist on campus, the pervasive hook-up culture that has become so much a part of ND will continue, for gays and straights. By allowing club status to groups like AllianceND and by expanding the non-discrimination clause, the University could at least make a visible attempt to minister to gay and lesbian students at ND. So far the charism of the Holy Cross Fathers has been to ignore the presence of same-sex oriented people on campus, and by ignoring them to say, "God did not create you. You are not." I think this a far more damaging stance then to simply admit that gay people deserve the same treatment at the University. Leave the bedroom out of it (after all, the University hires divorced professors, admits students using birth control). Let's be consistent, and more importantly, let's reach out to the marginalized, mocked Christ among our gay brothers and sisters.
Your name
Sun Jan 24 2010 22:57
The Jesuits do have it right. A non-discrimination clause would not be in conflict with Catholic teachings, it would emphasize that we should treat all members of our community with the respect they deserve. Yes, I also went to a Jesuit school for undergrad with a much more inclusive student body.
Your name
Sat Jan 23 2010 15:10
Refusing to Respect the Sacredness and Dignity of a Human Person because of their sex, ancestry , or Religion, is discrimination. Refusing to define someone according to sexual preferences and refusing to condone homosexual sexual acts is not discrimination.

There is only one Word of God and one Catholic Theology grounded in The Truth of Love.

Your name
Sat Jan 23 2010 02:35
Psychological and moral disorder? This is our problem. Period.
Your name
Fri Jan 22 2010 18:28
The writer of this letter must somehow have managed to remain oblivious to the fact that Jesuit priests routinely dissent from orthodox Church teaching; that they have been frequently disciplined for this dissent over the centuries, including most recently by John Paul II; that a very good way to ensure that a Catholic university will cease to be Catholic is to follow, as these schools now say, "in the Jesuit tradition."

Finally, Jesuit institutions are hardly to be admired for having listed the profound psychological and moral disorder of homosexuality as an attribute worthy of standing alongside one's sex or race as worthy of protection from discrimination. Notre Dame, whatever its frequent and sorrowful moral compromises, has at least thus far refused to follow our culture in this particular instance of moral libertinism.

We do a disservice to self-described homosexuals when we suggest to them that their activities merit protection, much less acceptance; we harm ourselves when we reconceive sexuality as a matter of individual power and pleasure isolated from the many other goods (such as temperance and self government) that constitute a complete, happy human life.

Your name
Fri Jan 22 2010 13:39
Notre Dame is not special for discriminating against members of our own community. It just makes us look backward and ridiculous.
Your name
Fri Jan 22 2010 11:54
"Special" here means regressive, backward looking, and becoming increasingly irrelevant.

I'm here right now, and I love it. But it's not heading in the right direction, I know that.

So go to a Jesuit school
Fri Jan 22 2010 11:37
Look Notre Dame is a conservative school. It's part of our heritage and the distinct charism of the Holy Cross fathers which is very different from the Jesuits. It's also what makes us unique among this country's leading universities, all of which are liberal. If you want a liberal Catholic school, go to Boston College or Georgetown. And if you can't get in, go to the University of Detroit Mercy or any other Jesuit school (at last count there were like 15 different "Loyola Universities" from coast to coast). But don't come here and try to change a fundamental part of what makes Notre Dame special.
Interesting post
Fri Jan 22 2010 00:16
Jenkins must think that these schools are not genuine catholic schools. Only ND has the 'right' catholic theology.






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