A NEW LOW, EVEN BY JESUIT STANDARDS: Georgetown Univ.

Our take: I don't want to be accused of stating the obvious but this pathetic display is completely contrary to the mission of a Catholic University and not befitting the oldest Catholic school in America. There is a clear teaching on the issue of homosexuality and anything that condones, empowers or glosses over the morally and naturally disordered act of sodomy is contrary to it. Sex outside marriage is sin. homosexual sex is sin plus disorder. Yet at Georgetown it is being glorified with a "temple" and is draining resources, energy and attention away from the mission of the school. Teaching truth isn't even a consideration since it might offend someone. Shame, shame, shame.

A NEW LOW, EVEN BY JESUIT STANDARDS: Georgetown Univ. Announces Director for Their New Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered, and Queer Resources Center

8/24/2008 9:34:00 PM
By www.thehoya.com -Connie Parham

Matthew 18:6 - He that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. As painters work to put the finishing touches on the newly created LGBTQ Resource Center, the center's first director, Sivagami Subbaraman, has been working to make a presence for the center as students arrive back to campus.

Subbaraman arrived at Georgetown four weeks ago to begin preparing the center, located adjacent to the Women's Center on the third floor of the Leavey Center.

GU Pride began pushing for the resource center last fall after two alleged hate crimes against Georgetown students, kicking off a university-wide movement led by GU Pride for increased inclusion of and education about the LGBTQ community on campus.

In October, University President John J. DeGioia approved several of GU Pride's requests, including the formation of three working groups that would address reporting, resources and education. Four months later, DeGioia announced his approval and backing of a proposal created by the working group on resources for an LGBTQ resource center.

After DeGioia's announcement, a committee began a nationwide search for the LGBTQ director. Subbaraman said she was invited to two interviews on campus, and, in May, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson issued a letter to the university community naming Subbaraman as the center's first director.

"I really hope the center will be a space for LGBTQ students, faculty and staff as well as non-LGBTQ people," Subbaraman said of her vision for the center.

Subbaraman, originally from India, came to the United States almost 26 years ago to complete her education, attending graduate school at the University of Illinois, where she studied English and Women's Studies. Most recently, Subbaraman served as associate director of the University of Maryland's Office of LGBT Equity.

Subbaraman said she has a broader vision for the center that extends beyond her experience at the University of Maryland.

"I learned a lot from [Maryland]," she said. "But I think what I will bring to this job is where LGBT issues fit into general diversity."

Subbaraman said that one of her visions for the center is to help LGBTQ issues to be seen as part of a larger set of diversity issues, rather than in its own category.

"I don't want to be put back into the closet," she said.

Subbaraman said she plans to hire a full-time program coordinator by the end of the fall, as well as possibly a few student employees.

Subbaraman said at this early point, she is not sure what other concrete goals she has for the center and that she will first need to start a discussion with faculty, administrators and students.
"I need to build on that momentum and keep up that energy," she said of the work done by students and faculty last year.

Subbaraman said that working at Georgetown, which has such a strong Jesuit identity, will bring a "different set of challenges" than those that came with working at the University of Maryland, a school without a religious affiliation. She added, though, that she attended Catholic school in India, which made her "very comfortable in the Catholic education environment."

"I feel the university is committed to making this succeed," she said. "The center exists. That says something."

Jack Harrison (SFS '09), co-chair of GU Pride, also said he hopes to work closely with the new director in developing programming for the year.

While she said she could not comment on GU Pride's demonstrations last year, she did say that she hopes to work with the group to look at new ways to lead the community.

"In general the model that prevails is activism," she said. "We need to create other forms of leadership that will take us from the activist mold."

Harrison said GU Pride is looking to launch efforts this year to make the campus more "trans-friendly" by working to provide bathrooms and better housing options for transgender individuals.

In addition, he said he believes it is important to bring more diversity to the organization, particularly in bringing a greater variety of political views to the group.

Harrison said Subbaraman's work as the first director of the center will help to catalyze these efforts.

"Having a person who can advocate for our issues is a big achievement," he said.

He said Subbaraman has already emerged as a leader over the past week in training and giving presentations to members of various groups such as Young Leaders in Education about Diversity, New Student Orientation and Residence Life.

"I think that as people become slightly more sensitized, that will start to have a big effect on how LGBTQ people are treated on campus," Harrison said.

Subbaraman said she will be holding an open house on Tuesday afternoon and plans to make herself visible among students and parents throughout move-in weekend.

Looking on as workers finish construction of a large window next to the entrance to the center, Subbaraman said she hopes to continue the hard work of students and faculty in order to raise awareness for the LGBTQ community at Georgetown.

"The message it sends is 'we are open,'" she said of the new window. "We are open. We have nothing to hide."

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

State's Most Pro-Abortion Judge on the Board of Catholic University

State's Most Pro-Abortion Judge on the Board of Catholic University
By Tim Waggoner

MINNEAPOLIS, July 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - LifeSiteNews has learned that a notorious abortion advocate and Appeals Court Judge is holding an executive position at a large Catholic university in Minneapolis.

Judge Diana Murphy is the chairwoman of the Executive Committee for the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of St. Thomas. However, throughout her tenure as a judge with the Eight Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals, she has consistently overturned legislation seeking to further the Culture of Life.

On September 11, 2000, the appeals court judge ruled against multiple legislators, pro-life groups, physicians and citizens, who objected to the State of Minnesota paying for abortions with their tax dollars. The federal government had banned such use of taxpayer funds and so had the Minnesota legislature. Murphy and the State Supreme Court, however, found the State ban on funding to be unconstitutional and ruled the plaintiffs had no standing, preventing the case from being reviewed at higher levels.

On October 25, 2006, Judge Murphy ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood, striking down legislation that would have required doctors to inform women that an abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.

Judge Murphy is also a donor and Vice Chair of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), which, according to Dr. David Pence of the DocSociety, is intent on severing the university's ties with the Church. According to its website, DocSociety is "a brotherhood of Catholic men working to restore fatherhood and fraternity among Catholic priests and laymen."

Dr. Pence and the DocSociety have been for years closely monitoring the questionable happenings at St. Thomas University.

"Why is a notorious pro-abortionist judge holding a executive position at a Catholic University?" asked Pence in a LifeSiteNews interview.

Pence said that one might expect that given that the chairman and vice-chairman of the university Board of Trustees are the former Catholic bishop of the diocese, Archbishop Flynn, and former Vicar General of the diocese, Rev. Kevin McDonough, the board of the Catholic university would be composed of members who preserve Catholic teachings.

But considering the track record of Archbishop Flynn and Rev. McDonough, Pence said he is not surprised that pro-abortion Judge Murphy is chairing the Executive Committee for the Board.
Archbishop Flynn retired from the diocese after years of complaints by faithful Catholics over his handling of a host of scandals involving homosexual activists both within and without the archdiocesan administration. Under his rule, a notoriously pro-homosexual parish, St. Joan of Arc, was allowed to continue openly supporting the Gay Pride parades and the homosexual lifestyle. The parish's opposition to Catholic teaching was so brazen that it resulted in a 2004 rare direct intervention by the Vatican. Flynn was named by homosexual political activists as one of the US's four most "gay friendly" bishops.

McDonough came under fire in 2006 after he attempted to brush off the rampant homosexuality in the diocese, stating, "I don't believe in this archdiocese there has ever been an active subculture of homosexual priests who were sexually active and justifying their behavior."
McDonough's public assertion was surprising, especially since his own brother William McDonough, a priest (active as such at least until 1998) in the diocese, is on public record going against Church teaching on homosexuality.

To add to the controversy, LifeSiteNews covered a story in November of 2007 that saw the board vote unanimously to remove a 125 year-old bylaw that declared the chairman and vice-chairman of the board should be the sitting Bishop and Vicar General of the Diocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis. The board, headed by Flynn and McDonough, made this strategic move just five months before Archbishop Nienstedt was to be installed as the new archbishop of the Minneapolis diocese, thereby preventing him from assuming the position of chairman of the Board of Trustees of St. Thomas University.

The board of directors also voted to re-install Flynn and McDonough as chairman and vice-chairman for an extended five year term. The move was feared to be an effort by the university to override the authority of and possible reforms by Archbishop Nienstedt, Flynn's more orthodox Catholic coadjutor bishop who has since succeeded him as head of the archdiocese.

The vote thereby extended the contracts of chairman Flynn and vice-chairman McDonough for five more years, after which the board could vote in whomever they desire to fulfill the roles - essentially eliminating the Church's and, more specifically, Nienstedt's role in the university.
Archbishop Nienstedt's authentic Catholicity was not welcomed by the Board of Trustees after he said he would not accept a proposed plan by one of the board members that sought to merge the school with a medical association, because the move would involve teaching abortion procedures as part of the curriculum. This happened only weeks before the vote was cast that saw the removal of the bylaw.

The spokesperson for St. Thomas University did not respond to calls by press time.

Catholic Boston College Sponsors Panel Focusing on Homosexual Couples

Note: For those who believe the scandal has passed and all is well in the Archdiocese of Boston, read this closely. A Catholic institution is promoting immoral counterfeit arrangements between homosexuals and the Church leaders are hiding and doing nothing.

Catholic Boston College Sponsors Panel Focusing on Homosexual Couples

BOSTON, MA, June 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today criticized Jesuit administered Boston College for sponsoring and hosting Love Across Boundaries, which is being advertised as "a panel conversation with Boston couples who focus on their own interracial, interfaith and same-sex Love Across Boundaries". Featured participants will include Paul McLaughlin, Assistant Dean of Harvard College and his homosexual partner Jason Shumaker, Assistant Director of Financial Aid at MIT.

The event, sponsored by the New Center for Arts and Culture and Boston College's Office of the Provost, will be held this afternoon and this evening at BC's Bapst Library as part of Bloomsday Boston, the annual celebration of James Joyce and his novel Ulysses. Among those reading excerpts from the book will be former Lieutenant Governor Thomas P. O'Neill III, who is a longstanding supporter of legal abortion.

The Catholic Action League has called the event "another shameless betrayal of Catholic principles by the leadership of Boston College and its parent religious order, the Jesuits".
Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle stated: "No reasonable person could be expected to believe that the Catholic Church is serious in its opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage as long as Catholic institutions publicly affirm homosexual relationships and prominently showcase pro-abortion political figures. Boston College, with the complicity of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus, continues to flaunt its infidelity to Catholic moral teaching and callously compromise what is left of its Catholic identity, while the Archdiocese of Boston, through its silence and inaction, functions as its enabler".

"This disgraceful episode is one more example of the systemic collapse of Catholic loyalties in the very leadership of the Church in the United States"

LifeSiteNews attempted to contact the Archdiocese of Boston, but they were not immediately available for comment.

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061605.html

"Catholic" University Hires Homosexual Director for Gay Campus Centre

Note: Georgetown is the gift that keeps on giving for those of us looking for evidence of apostasy in Catholic higher education. They're so far gone they don't even know it. Is this their response to the Pope's call to fidelity?

Catholic University Hires Homosexual Director for Gay Campus Centre

By Tim Waggoner

Washington, D.C., June 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic University in the U. S., has hired lesbian Shiva Subbaraman to act as director for its new Homosexual Campus centre that is to be opened in the fall.

Subbaraman was formerly the associate director of a homosexual equity office at the University of Maryland campus in College Park. After the school threatened to cut funding for the office, Subbaraman started looking for a new job.

The pro-homosexual newspaper, The Washing Blade, reports that Georgetown decided to start the LGBT Equity office after two "anti-gay incidents" occured on campus. In the first case a student was arrested and accused of assaulting a homosxual student and shouting anti-homosexual slurs at him. The case, however, was dropped due to lack of evidence. In the second incident campus police prevented a group of homosexuals from presenting a petition for the LGBT resource center to the university president. According to the Blade, the police said they were restricting access to the building due to the fact that there was a special event going on inside.

Georgetown University, which is fully funding the new homosexual campus centre, including paying for two full time staff members, has been known to proclaim itself a Catholic institution while going out of its way to support things dramatically opposed to Catholic teaching, including abortion, homosexuality and certain bioethical issues.

In one of the more obvious examples, the institution's High School Bioethics Curriculum Project seeks to provide high school teachers literature on bioethics in an attempt to "enrich their high schools' curriculum." The curriculum however, conveys messages contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, and poses questions on bioethical quandaries that are worded in such a way as to lead students to make conclusions that oppose Catholic morality.

One sample of the curriculum referring to anencephalic babies (available at http://highschoolbioethics.georgetown.edu/units/unit1_3.html) states that, "They will never be able to think or achieve what is called 'personhood.'"

"Yet there is general consensus that heroic measures should not be used to keep them alive. In fact, anencephaly may be one of the few medical conditions that all doctors agree is futile to treat," continues the sample.

After statements such as these, the section describes a mother who was forced to go to the Supreme Court to force doctors to continue to treat her child, entitled Baby K.

The section then asks questions that seem to ascribe a monetary value to human life, such as, "Do you think individuals have the right to demand and get expensive long-term care in futile cases such as the case of Baby K?"

Similar questions ask: "Baby K lived for 2.5 years; her medical bills totaled half a million dollars. Do you think this is an appropriate use of the money? Do you think Baby K's mother's religious beliefs should trump issues of fair distribution of resources?"

The high school curriculum project is partially funded by a grant from the Greenwall Foundation, an organization known to support the culture of death. (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/feb/99021705.html)

The latest news about the founding of the LGBT resource center comes as little surprise to those who have been following Georgetown's movement away from its Catholic identity:

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Catholic Georgetown University to Fully Fund Campus Gay Center
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07103008.html

SHOCKER: Catholic Georgetown U. Will Now Fund Law Students to Lobby for Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07092605.html

Georgetown, "Catholic" University Honours Abortion Crusading Jesuit
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06102506.html



URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08060508.html

'No' to Pro-life 'Yes' to Transgender Speakers

Note: Something really wrong is happening here that we've seen at other schools. It appears more and more that radical feminists with a left-wing agenda are getting themselves appointed to decision-making positions at Catholic colleges for the exact purpose of undermining Catholic teaching. St. Thomas is in danger of losing its Catholic identity as a result.

Liberal at Catholic Univ. of St. Thomas Says 'No' to Pro-life 'Yes' to Transgender Speakers
David M. Bresnahan
April 10, 2008

St. Paul, MN - The largest private university in Minn., the Univ. of St. Thomas, has refused to allow Star Parker, a pro-life black woman, to address students on campus about Planned Parenthood in a free and open presentation, even though the university web site claims the Univ. of St. Thomas "educates students to be morally responsible leaders who think critically, act wisely and work skillfully to advance the common good."

A liberal administrator at the Catholic school, VP of Student Affairs, Jane Canney, is the gatekeeper who seems to be permitting extremist liberal points of view, but denying conservative opinions that are in keeping with Catholic teachings, even though St. Thomas is a dedicated and respected Catholic institution. School policy states that all points of view should be presented.

The school maintains a Center for Catholic studies. "The program was designed to engage students and faculty interested in a study of the Catholic intellectual tradition as a whole and how it shapes our understanding of politics, psychology, history, science, literature, theology and other aspects of contemporary culture," according to the school web site.

The Catholic Church maintains a strong stand in opposition to abortion, so it is surprising to students that their university has banned nationally syndicated columnist Star Parker from a planned presentation on the campus. Parker was expected to speak on "The Origins of Planned Parenthood," which many students and members of the local community would like to hear.

Parker seems to be more than qualified to speak to the students at any college or university. She has testified before the United States Congress, has appeared as an expert commentator on CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, and other television programs. She is also frequently quoted in major national publications such as the Washington Times, Christianity Today, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. Parker is the author of three books, and runs a non-profit conservative think tank, CURE, organized to "fight poverty and restore dignity through faith, freedom and personal responsibility."

"Bringing Star to St. Thomas would not only be beneficial for all who hear her, but also enjoyable, educational, and a wonderful inspiration to our Catholic university,"said a report in the independent student newspaper the St. Thomas Standard.

The article explains the many qualifications of Parker, and why students at the university would like to attend the presentation. The article was written by editor Amie Kieffer. The St. Thomas Standard along with the St. Thomas Students for Human Life, and the Young America's Foundation (YAF) are the sponsors of the lecture by Parker.

Kieffer reported to the YAF that she and her sister Katie, founder of the paper, were told by Canney that any speaker sponsored by the YAF is not allowed on campus. Canney ignored efforts to obtain her reaction by phone or by E-mail for this report.

The vision statement of the university says: "We seek to be a recognized leader in Catholic higher education that excels in effective teaching, active learning, scholarly research and responsible engagement with the local community as well as with the national and global communities in which we live."

Interestingly, liberal speakers at St. Thomas receive full support from the school's administration and the Student Life Committee overseen by Canney. During the current school year, Canney has approved the appearances of outspoken liberal commentator Al Franken, as well as a transgendered activist, Debra Davis.

It appears that Canney and school administrators may be ignoring their own policy regarding speakers at the school, which states: "Another factor governing speakers on campus is our concern that a wide variety of issues and viewpoints be given expression. We take pride in the scope and quality of programs on campus during the past years. The value of freedom in the classroom is reflected in the campus forum..."

Most schools have such a tight budget that they seek to find sponsors who will underwrite the cost of bringing informative speakers to their campus. Hundreds of lectures are given at colleges and universities each year that are sponsored by the YAF, but apparently Canney will not approve a speaker who is sponsored by YAF, although she has not responded to requests to confirm or deny this claim by students.

Young America's Foundation sponsors more than 500 lectures annually featuring a wide array of the very best in the conservative movement, including John Ashcroft, Michelle Malkin, Dinesh D'Souza, Sean Hannity, Bay Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Star Parker, and many others.

Jesuit University President Attacks George Weigel

by Deal W. Hudson
3/20/08

The February 20 issue of the Denver Catholic Register published a column on the Jesuits titled "Some Questions for Father General" by George Weigel. In response, the president of the University of San Francisco, Rev. Stephen A. Privett, S.J., published "Attack on Jesuits Out of Place" in Catholic San Francisco, the archdiocesan newspaper.

Father Privett not only attacked what he termed the "mean-spirited assault" of Weigel, but he was also sharply critical of the Denver archdiocese for publishing it. Father writes,

The readership of Catholic diocesan newspapers deserves more civil, balanced, and professional fare than that served up and passed around by the Denver Catholic Register.

I don't know of a single instance in the history of this country's Catholic Church when one diocesan newspaper attacked another by name.

Weigel asked the new Jesuit Superior, Rev. Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., questions on four issues: Jesuit obedience, the Catholic identity of Jesuit educational institutions, the Jesuit attitude toward the Church's teaching on homosexuality, and the order's theological commitment to the "unique salvific role of Jesus Christ."

Anyone even superficially familiar with the history of the Catholic Church since Vatican II would not be surprised by these questions. The issues of Jesuit obedience and Catholic identity were raised by the secular media in its coverage of the recent election of the new Father General. In addition, the Vatican pressure that led to the resignation of Rev. Thomas Reese, S.J., from his editorship of America magazine got national attention.

Father Privett's outrage suggests that he is unaware that Weigel is merely speaking aloud questions that are shared by Catholics around the world. He specifically charges Weigel with making unfounded allegations about two Jesuits in particular, Rev. James Keenan, S.J., and the late Rev. Robert Drinan, S.J. Wiegel puts both forward as examples of Jesuit attitudes toward basic Church teachings on abortion and marriage.

About Father Drinan, Weigel writes, "He did more than anyone else to convince Catholic legislators that the settled teaching of the Church on the grave immorality of abortion had no bearing on their legislative work." Father Privett's reply to Weigel: "His stunningly sweeping statement . . . lacks any supporting evidence."

I'm sure that Weigel would be surprised to hear that he needed to document the career of Father Drinan, whom I call in my recent book the "Jesuit priest who invented the pro-abortion Catholic politician." Perhaps Father Privett needs to be reminded that, after being elected to Congress in 1970, Father Drinan wrote in support of Roe v. Wade and Clinton's veto of the ban against partial-birth abortion. After being forced by John Paul II to leave Congress in 1981, Father Drinan continued as a pro-abortion lobbyist both within the Democratic Party and as head of Americans for Democratic Action.

Father Privett also takes issue with Weigel's description of Father Keenan's highly publicized testimony before the Massachusetts legislature in support of homosexual marriage. Father Keenan's argument, according to Weigel, was " that the principles of Catholic social doctrine did not merely tolerate 'gay marriage,' they demanded it." But again, Father Privett objects: "He did not do so. Father Keenan testified against unjust discrimination against gay couples. He did not testify in support of gay marriage or approve homosexual activity."

What Father Privett does not make clear is that Father Keenan, a moral theologian at Boston College, argued for gay marriage on the basis of homosexuals' possessing a "right" to be married. Weigel is correct.

The most sensitive issue raised by Weigel is the attitude toward homosexuality among the Jesuits. He rightly calls it the "third-rail" issue, as anyone who raises it can expect some kind of thrashing.

What must have provoked Father Privett is one example Weigel supplies from the Jesuits' California province:

[I]t was not that long ago, after all, that the Web site of the Jesuits' California Province featured photos of "Pretty Boy" and "Jabba the Slut" in gay drag at a novices' party.

Father Privett explains that these photos are not "gay drag"; rather, they were "taken at a Halloween party seven years ago at the novitiate" and were "mistakenly put on-line and immediately taken off for fear it would be malevolently misinterpreted by the likes of Mr. Weigel."

Let me add to this discussion a story I heard, and verified, on a recent trip to San Francisco. A graduate student at the University of San Francisco was rejected for a position in the resident halls because, as he put it, "Father said I do not have the right attitude toward homosexual conduct, as I disapprove of such conduct." After being turned down for the position, it was suggested by a Jesuit that he read Gays and Grays: The Story of the Gay Community at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Parish, written by Rev. Donal Godfrey, S.J., a professor at USF.

On page 134 of Gays and Grays, Father Godfrey posits the question, "Is it less appropriate for gays to imagine Jesus as gay than for African Christians to picture him as black, Asian Christians as Asian?" This,shortly after acknowledging on page 132,"I will not feign academic objectivity: if such a thing really exists. I firmly believe in a new approach and a new vision in this area of ministry. In this I do have an 'agenda.'"

Not surprisingly, the graduate student has been hesitant to pursue "some questions" he has about the USF Jesuit community's doctrinal approach to homosexuality, for fear that his questions might be wrongly construed as an "attack on the Jesuits." It's not difficult to see where he might have gotten that impression.

Local Catholics familiar with the situation at USF told me that this is not an isolated incident, and that some Jesuits in the community are deeply concerned.

For one, the theologians at USF were offered the mandatum, in accord with Ex Corde Ecclesiae, but none responded to the offer. In fact, Sacred Heart Sr. Theresa Moser, associate dean at the University of San Francisco, urged USF theologians to adopt a stance of noncompliance: "'The appropriate strategy is to do nothing' by way of requesting a mandatum, she said, or, if one is offered, to 'very respectfully decline."'

The questions asked by George Weigel about the future of the Jesuits shouldn't have been so shocking to Father Privett; they have been asked publicly, in both secular and Catholic media, for decades. Weigel's questions didn't surprise the Catholic residents of San Francisco, but Father Privett's outraged response did.

Deal W. Hudson is the director of InsideCatholic.com and the author of Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (Simon and Schuster, March 2008).