Dissenting From Dissent

"Like saying Hillary Clinton is a Carmelite nun"

USF professor says Jesuit school has lost its Catholic identity

"Calling USF a Catholic school is like saying Hillary Clinton is a Carmelite nun," a philosophy professor at the Jesuit-run university told the archdiocesan weekly Catholic San Francisco in a story published in its June 12 edition.

USF philosophy professor Raymond Dennehy made his comments during an interview with Catholic San Francisco about the school’s decision to award dissident Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa, an honorary degree and for inviting him to deliver the commencement address to undergraduate humanities and sciences students during May 22 graduation ceremonies. Bishop Dowling also delivered the homily at a pre-commencement Mass.

Bishop Dowling has defied Church teaching on abstinence before marriage, saying, “Abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in a marriage is beyond the realm of possibility here. The issue is to protect life. That must be our fundamental goal." Bishop Dowling also parted ways with the Church on the issue of condom use, saying of Africans, "They must use condoms." The Catholic San Francisco headline for the story read, “USF honors dissenting South African bishop.”

USF president, Jesuit Fr. Stephen Privett, told the archdiocesan newspaper he invited the controversial bishop “to honor his work and that of the wider Catholic Church in Africa.” Fr. Privett also noted in the interview that "people need to understand the difference between a condom as a contraceptive and a condom preventing the spread of a deadly virus that is literally killing thousands of people in Africa."

Fr. Privett defended bringing controversial and dissident speakers to the Jesuit university in the interest of constructive dialogue. "When we bring these speakers onto campus, we don't bring them as spokespersons for a position with which we disagree," Fr. Privett told Catholic San Francisco. He said critics of the school “only see the commencement speaker or ‘The Vagina Monologues.' They don't see the other 240 days. They're not at Sunday liturgies. They're not at student retreats. It's the tip and not the whole iceberg."

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