As Lent Begins, 3 Prominent Catholic Universities Celebrate Porn, Promiscuity

MANASSAS, VA, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As Christians worldwide kneel in prayer to begin the holy season of Lent, students at three Jesuit Catholic universities are busy celebrating extramarital sex, homosexuality, cross-dressing and pornography, the Cardinal Newman Society has revealed.

From February 23 to 28, Georgetown University is hosting "Sex Positive Week," sponsored by feminist and homosexual student clubs.

On Monday, the event "Sex Positive … What's That?" featured a speaker from Black Rose, an organization "which provides a forum for the many different expressions of power in love and play. This can include dominance & submission, bondage & discipline, fetishism, cross-dressing, to name a few."

A talk on Ash Wednesday, "Torn About Porn?" was advertised to include "discussion about arguably alternative forms of pornography that are not supposed to be exploitative, but rather radical and empowering."

On Saturday, February 28, pornographic film director Tristan Taormino will speak at the university on "Relationships Beyond Monogamy" - one day after speaking in downtown Washington, D.C., about "Anal Pleasure 101." She will discuss her book "Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships" with Jenny Block, author of "Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage." Taormino is also the author of "True Lust: Adventures in Sex, Porn and Perversion."

On Tuesday, the Student Diversity and Cultural Affairs Office of Loyola University Chicago presented the film "Brother to Brother," about a homosexual African-American who is transported in time to cavort with the allegedly homosexual writer Langston Hughes.

The film is part of a semester-long "Color of Queer Film Series" sponsored by the university. Upcoming films include "Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros" about a 12-year-old boy who falls in love with a male police officer, and "I Exist: Voices from the Lesbian and Gay Middle Eastern Community in the U.S."

This week is "Transgender Awareness Week" at Seattle University, which includes a session on allegedly transgender Bible heroes and heroines and "Criss-Cross Day," where students are encouraged to "come dressed for the day in your best gender-bending outfit." The events are sponsored by the university's Office of Multicultural Affairs and the student Trans and Allies Club.

"These obscene abuses of Catholic values come just as Christians begin a holy season of penance, fasting and almsgiving," said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. "That Catholic universities would permit these events on their campuses at any time of the year is unthinkable, but to do so during the holy season of Lent is unconscionable."

"The saddest part of this story is that there is no indication that these universities are ashamed or embarrassed by what is taking place on their Catholic campuses. Parents and potential students might begin to wonder how these universities can in good conscience consider themselves Catholic when they allow such perverse distortions of Catholic values to take place."

Visit the Cardinal Newman Society at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/

Contact:

Georgetown University

President John J. DeGioia
Office of the President
204 Healy Hall
37th & O Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20057
Tel: (202) 687-4134
Fax: (202) 687-6660

Seattle University

President Sundborg SJ, Stephen
President's Office
901 12th Avenue, P.O. Box 222000
Seattle, WA 98122-1090
Administration Building 109
(206) 296-1891
SUNDBORG@seattleu.edu

Loyola University

Michael J. Garanzini SJ
President
mgaranz@luc.edu
Phone: 1 - 312 - 915-6400