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Cardinal Uses Commencement To Launch New Anti-Gay Attack
by Doreen Brandt
365Gay.com Newscenter
Washington Bureau
Posted: May 22, 2003 11:14 a.m. ET
(Washington, D.C.) A leading Vatican theologian has used his commencement address to graduating students at Washington's Georgetown University to wage a new assault on gays and lesbians.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and widely regarded as a top contender to succeed Pope John Paul II said that happiness is found not in the pursuit of material wealth or pleasures of the flesh, but by fervently adhering to religious beliefs.
"In many parts of the world, the family is under siege," the Nigerian prelate said.
"It is opposed by an anti-life mentality as is seen in contraception, abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. It is scorned and banalized by pornography, desecrated by fornication and adultery, mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut in two by divorce."
The speech led Theresa Sanders, a professor of theology at the Jesuit university, to walk off the stage in protest. She was joined by a about a dozen students.
Following the speech 70 faculty members delivered a letter condemning the speech to Jane McAuliffe, dean of the university's school of arts and sciences.
A spokesperson for Georgetown said Arinze had been invited to speak on Christian-Muslim relations.
In an e-mail to college's faculty members, the dean said she was "very surprised" by the content of Arinze's speech.
"I am deeply concerned that students, parents and faculty found parts of the commencement address upsetting to them," McAuliffe wrote. "I'm sure that Cardinal Arinze did not intend to hurt any of his audience, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen."
McAuliffe has set aside at least two hours in her office Friday to talk to any faculty members or students about the cardinal's remarks.
On Wednesday, she issued a two-sentence statement acknowledging that she had been contacted by several students and faculty "to express their reaction, both negative and positive" to the cardinal's address. "As an academic community, vigorous and open discussion lies at the heart of what we do, and there are many different voices in the conversation."
Cardinal Arinze has been outspoken on gays in the church for a number of years. He led the effort to bar gays from seminaries and the priesthood, and launched a similar anti-gay speech at World Youth Day last summer in Toronto.
Meanwhile, in another instance of the Vatican's tough stand on gays, the Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis has refused to allow a Minneapolis parish from granting an award to a Catholic religious education coordinator because she is a lesbian.
Kathy Itzin was to have been one of 17 people receiving awards from the archbishop Wednesday.
Archbishop Harry Flynn withdrew the award for Itzin after a Catholic parents group that supports orthodox teachings of the church, sent him a letter pointing out that Itzin is a lesbian.
Itzin is a member of St. Joan of Arc Roman Catholic church where she teaches. She and her partner have four children, ages 10 to 16.
About 200 members of the church demonstrated in support of Itzin as people went into the awards ceremony Wednesday night. The protestors sang "Amazing Grace" and "We Are Walking in the Light," and held signs that said, "Hate is Not a Catholic Value."
One of the protestors, Steve Boyle, said he was there because "a great injustice has been done to a lady who works hard to do God's work."
"Refusing her the award because she's a lesbian "doesn't sound very God-like to us," he said.
The Rev. George Wertin , pastor of St. Joan's, said he "disagreed totally" with Flynn's decision. "Kathy is a wonderful, respected member of our parish community and our staff," he said.
St. Joan's, a liberal south Minneapolis parish of about 4,000 families, recently had another clash with Flynn. On April 6 he ordered the parish not to allow the Rev. Mel White, national cofounder of Soulforce , which seeks to promote acceptance of gays and lesbians in Christian churches, to give the homily, again after the same conservative Catholic group objected.
©365Gay.com Ltd® 2003