Pro-Abortion/Same-Sex "Marriage" Belinda Stronach to be Keynote Speaker at Catholic College in Western Canada

Pro-Abortion/Same-Sex "Marriage" Belinda Stronach to be Keynote Speaker at Catholic College in Western Canada

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

MUENSTER, Saskatchewan, August 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - St. Peter's College, a Benedictine liberal arts school affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan, and which describes itself as being deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition, has invited Belinda Stronach, known for her support of abortion and same-sex marriage, to be the keynote speaker at its fund-raising dinner to be held September 16, 2008.

A spokeswoman at St. Peter's college told LifeSiteNews.com that Stronach was chosen to speak at their Gala dinner because of her business experience and fund-raising acumen, but declined to comment on whether the college was concerned about Stronach's position on issues which put her in direct opposition to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Stronach has a lengthy history of actively promoting abortion and homosexual "marriage." Earlier this year LifeSiteNews.com reported that the Liberal MP was one of a handful of Canadian politicians photographed marching in the raunchy Toronto Gay Pride Parade. She has also participated in the parade in previous years.

In 2006 LifeSiteNews reported that Stronach told the Toronto Star that she believed that only pro-abortion women's groups should receive government funding. Stronach said, "[Pro-life women's groups] should be rejected because they're anti-choice and they're also anti-equal rights. They don't support equality."

Stronach's comments to the press closely resembled those she made in the House of Commons the day before the Toronto Star published its story. Stronach slammed the government for even hearing the opinions of REAL Women, a pro-life and pro-family women's group. "This is a group that is anti-choice, anti-gay, does not support equality for women and wants to obliterate the Department on the Status of Women," said Stronach. "This group's website even has links to sites that suggest that day cares do not care and homosexuality is a psychological disorder."

The politician has made numerous other statements throughout the years affirming her support for numerous issues that run directly in opposition to fundamental Catholic moral teachings.

A request for comment to the president of St. Peter's College was not answered by press time.

No one was available for comment at the office of the Bishop of Saskatoon.

To express your concern to St. Peter's College please contact:

Robert Harasymchuk, President
St. Peter's College
Phone: 306.682.7888
Fax: 306.682.4402
Email: spc@stpeters.sk.ca
Website: http://www.stpeterscollege.ca/
Mailing Address
RPO Box 40
Muenster, SK S0K 2Y0

To express your concern to the Bishop of Saskatoon please contact:

Most Reverend Albert Francois LeGatt, Bishop of Saskatoon
100 - 5th Avenue North
Saskatoon, SK S7K 2N7
Phone: (306) 242-1500
Toll Free: 877-661-5005
Fax: (306) 244-6010

In addition, the following may be contacted:

Peter Novecosky OSB - Abbot of St. Peter's Abbey, as he is Chancellor for the College
Phone: 306.682.1777
Fax: 306.682.1766
RPO Box 10
Muenster SK S0K 2Y0
abbotpeter@stpeters.sk.ca,

Demetrius Wasylyniuk OSB, as he is the Chair of St. Peter's College Board of Governors
Phone: 306.682.1777
Fax: 306.682.1766
RPO Box 10
Muenster SK S0K 2Y0

"VAGINA MONOLOGUES" AUDIENCE SHUNS "DIALOGUE WITH THE CATHOLIC TRADITION"

AT NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY, "VAGINA MONOLOGUES" AUDIENCE SHUNS "DIALOGUE WITH THE CATHOLIC TRADITION" PRESCRIBED BY FR. JENKINS

8/10/2008 12:16:00 PM
By William Dempsey, President -www.projectsycamore.com

How much more can Catholics take?!?

In our letter of July 10, 2008, to Father Jenkins, we pointed out how this year's student production of The Vagina Monologues failed to meet his requirement that the students in the audience receive an explanation from panelists of relevant Catholic moral doctrine, and we urged that accordingly he should not approve such performances in the future. Here, we summarize and supplement our letter.

Father Jenkins's prior decision

Father Jenkins has not taken a benign view of the play. It contains, he has conceded, "graphic descriptions of homosexual, extra- marital, heterosexual, and autoerotic experiences" - including "depiction of seduction of a sixteen-year-old girl by an adult woman" - in "portrayals [that] stand apart from, and indeed in opposition to, the view that human sexuality finds its proper expression in the committed relationship of marriage." "There is," he said, "no hint of central elements of Catholic sexual morality." (For the repellant but compelling evidence, see our our description of the play.)

While Father Jenkins initially declared that, because of his appraisal of the play, he thought it "problematical" whether he should approve its performance, he ultimately receded in the face of determined faculty opposition. But he did so only on condition that the play be "brought into dialogue with Catholic tradition through panels" following each performance. Through "serious and informed discussion" of the moral issues," he declared, there could be "creative contextualization" of the play and a "constructive and fruitful dialogue with the Catholic tradition" in an "academic setting."

The performances

As we reported in our letter, this rationale was completely undermined during this year's three performances by the emptying of the auditorium when the play ended and the panel discussions were about to begin. With some 80% of the students - 900 or so - shunning the discussions, any "dialogue with Catholic tradition" took place in a largely empty 450-person auditorium.

This alone should end the matter. But there is a good deal more, as we explain in detail in our letter. For example, the divided views of the panelists conveyed the impression that the teachings of the Church on these fundamental moral issues had an uncertain hold in the Notre Dame and St. Mary's faculties; and audience participation at times included immoderate assaults on positions of the Church and the Bishop that robbed the discussion of standing as an academic event.

In sum, the notion that this sort of staging could transform a largely pornographic performance into some sort of "creative contextualization" that would illuminate Catholic tradition for the students has proved utterly fanciful. In these circumstances, Father Jenkins can be true to the terms he has set only by ending this play's long run.

The Pope's Address

There has been another relevant recent development that we discussed briefly in our last newsletter, the Pope's address to Catholic educators.

Since the performances have been justified in terms of academic freedom, and since as we note in our letter two of the panelists reportedly cast doubt on the Church's teaching respecting lesbian and homosexual sex, it is useful to consider what the Pope said about academic freedom:

I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom. In virtue of this freedom you are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you. Yet it is also the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission: a mission at the heart of the Church's 'munus docendi' and not somehow autonomous or independent of it [emphasis supplied].

But there is an even more fundamental principle at the center of the Pope's address. "Catholic identity," the Pope declared, "demands and inspires...that each and every aspect of your learning communities reverberates within the ecclesial life of faith."

It is preposterous, to put it conservatively, to view these performances of this meretricious play as reverberating with "the ecclesial life of faith." They reverberated, rather, with a quite different, and quite malign, culture.

To any who think that the Pope's declaration does not indict Notre Dame's embrace of The Vagina Monologues, George Weigel has proposed a simple test. He writes:

Whether or not to produce Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues" - a "play" that mocks the settled teaching of the Catholic Church - has become a tedious annual ritual on many Catholic campuses. Prominent among them is Notre Dame: to the public mind, the flagship among U.S. Catholic institutions of higher education. There, the university's president, Father John Jenkins, CSC, has allowed Ensler's 'play' on campus, acquiescing to the demands of some Notre Dame faculty while rejecting the counsel of other distinguished faculty members and the arguments of the local bishop....So here's my proposal and my test-case: Let Father Jenkins send Pope Benedict XVI a copy of Ensler's 'play,' asking the Pope whether he considers this material appropriate for production or useful for discussion on a Catholic campus. The answer, I predict, will not please the spin machine.

Action

If this past year's experience does not bring this annual celebration of wanton sex to an end, it is hard to imagine what will. It is time to add your names to our petition if you have not done so, and it is not too early to write Father Jenkins yourselves to urge that Notre Dame relinquish the leadership of the small and shrinking band of Catholic institutions still hosting this pernicious play.

Sincerely,

Project Sycamore Officers and Directors, Officers, William H. Dempsey ('52), President; Joseph A. Reich, Jr. ('57) Vice President; George L. Heidkamp ('52), Treasurer & Secretary;

Directors: Richard V. Allen ('57, '58); Dr. Daniel M. Boland ('56, '61); Lauren Galgano ('05, '08); Timothy M. Dempsey ('89); Dr. John A. Gueguen, Jr. ('56, '58); Dr. Susan Biddle Shearer ('88)

email: news@projectsycamore.com; web: http://www.projectsycamore.com

To add your name to a petition to have this outrageous scandal at Notre Dame STOPPED CLICK HERE

http://sycamoretrust.org/phpPetition/index.php