Friday, March 25, 2011

P@rnographic Play At Jesuit Gonzaga University Called, "Movements Toward Social Justice"

There will be a panel presentation and discussion on April 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the Foley Teleconference Center that will feature Dr. Patsy Fowler, Dr. Cate Siejk, Fr. Tim Clancy, and student Drew Pollom, entitled "Voices on ‘The V@gina Monologues,' Catholic Tradition, and Jesuit Identity." "Learning to Speak: the Power of Narratives" will be April 6 at 6:30 p.m. at Foley Teleconference Center, and is an "exploration of the power of storytelling and the place of stories in movements toward social justice." Dr. Linda Schearing and Dr. Ann Ciasullo will lead the discussion.
Link (here) The Gonzaga Bulletin 

Jesuit Father Timothy Clancy, professor of philosophy at Gonzaga, in his opinion column, "Embrace Identity":
The banning of the Monologues has been justified on the grounds that their performance would violate the Catholic mission of our school. I would like to place the 'V@gina Monologues' in a spiritual context and argue that their performance rather embodies precisely what it means for us to be a Catholic University".

He says that Eve Ensler's "rhetorical device" of having women's s@x organs "speak" enables women to embrace their own identity:

"And as they talk and audiences listen, people across the country and around the world have found shame turn to compassion, and rage turn to solidarity. Everyone involved comes to learn that we are not alone in our shame, and that together we can heal and liberate what we may have thought to lie in ruins beyond even God's saving reach".
Father Clancy explains (copiously using anatomical terms) that Freud "scandalized society" by giving male s@x organs a voice, but until now women had no comparable champion.

"Now what does any of this have to do with Catholicism? Catholicism has never understood itself as something separate from the rest of life", Father Clancy says. And this is life?

Jesus "heralded a new Kingdom of the impure" deliberately choosing as his disciples the sick, sinners, outcasts, prostitutes, the possessed, "even a terrorist", in order to "bear witness that this is where God calls holy people to be, for these are the ones most in need of God's saving word and healing touch".
Father Clancy concludes:

"V@ginas are not used to speaking in public, and so once given the chance to have their say, everything comes out at once, pride and shame, rage and fear, ridicule and relief. But above all I suspect that what comes out from these performances will be relief, relief at having finally received a hearing. What could be more Catholic?"
 Link (here) to the full 2002 article by Helene Hull Hitchcock at Women for Faith and Family

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are so screwed.

Anonymous said...

I spent 50 grand large on giving my son a top flight Jesuit education, all he ever asks for are a bunch of singles.

Anonymous said...

Gonzaga ... maybe they should correct their name ...

TonyD said...

No one should be surprised that people and their creations have aspects that reflect God’s values and aspects that don’t reflect God’s values. Thus, people and their creations can be described as “evil” or “sinful”. But while this is true, such categories are too broad to be considered good judgment. With such broad categories we would soon find that everything and everyone is unconditionally classified as evil.

Free will is over-emphasized as a value in this existence so that we have the opportunity to express our true values. While we could oppress everyone to stop them from expressing their values, and claim that we were simply trying to “encourage” God’s values, that goes against the “free will” that God uses in this existence for our “perfection”.

We might ask where this leaves us. There are many situations and many answers.

A play might go against the values of some people. And a play might conform to the values of other people. In this case, we can allow each group to live its values. If, instead, we “oppress” the other group to live our values then we defeat God’s purpose.

Anonymous said...

I sure miss Fr. Spitzer, S.J.

Anonymous said...

This article is nine years old. And the event in question happened while Spitzer was president.

Why Joe is posting it is another question.

Anonymous said...

The story is not 9 years old, go to the first article mentioned. The V Dialogues take place this year.

Maria said...

Mr. Anonymous: Have a look see:

The Gonzaga Bulletin


‘Vagina Monologues’ OK’d on campus
By Jake Palmer

News Editor

Published: Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Joseph Fromm said...

The second portion of the post is from a nine year old article because the subject of the article is a Jesuit priest who is the driving force in this years play.

Dissertation help said...

Factor that you told about the exploration of the power of storytelling and the place of stories in movements,is absolutely useful and really a right thing and the exploration and the power these two things have great peace of importance and also have the features which can give great idea to the people's mind.

Anonymous said...

It is a disgrace that a Catholic University would allow this. There are hundreds of women that would come to the University to speak on how they and others have stopped or overcame violence and discrimination against women. A woman talking about her vagina, in every crude and immoral way does not do a thing for women, except demean them. The students at Gonzaga are already aware of everything that a woman can do or say about her vagina, but are not informed on what women are actually doing to stop violence and discrimination against women. Even more disgusting is any priest that allowed or supported this. These priest might want to try promoting the same idea and language used at the Vagina Monologue at Mass and see how that goes.
…..disgusted