A Notre Dame Drag Show
A Drag Show At Notre Dame Is Still A Drag Show
.@NotreDame professor plans a symposium and drag show on campus to “give students knowledge about an art form that has been misdescribed.” #GoCatholicND
Introduction
In this bulletin we describe two events marking Notre Dame’s continuing embrace of LGBT culture, one recent and one coming. The earlier event was Notre Dame’s celebration of June as Pride Month, and the coming event is a drag show the Film, Television, and Theatre Department (FTT) plans to stage in November.
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The Drag Show
In its first edition of the fall semester, the Irish Rover published an investigative report on the FTT’s course “Drag on Screen,” which will include a drag performance in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center on November 3.
The course is being taught by Professor Pamela Wojcik, Chair of the Department and former Director of Gender Studies.
Professor Wojcik told the Rover that she hopes to “give students knowledge about an art form that has been misdescribed” and that the symposium accompanying the drag show will be “about efforts to ban drag.”
The event has four co-sponsors: Gender Studies, the Departments of Music and American Studies, and the Initiative on Race and Resilience
We don’t know what “misconceptions” about drag shows Professor Wojcik intends to dispel, but the widespread view that these shows are overwhelmingly a symbol of LGBTQ culture and a promotion of its agenda is no misconception. “Drag shows typically occur at LGBT pride parades, drag pageants, cabarets, carnivals, and night clubs,” and drag queens are “most typically gay cisgender men (though there are many drag queens of varying sexual orientations and gender identities).”
As to Film & Theater, it is worth recalling our report earlier this year describing the homosexualization of Shakespeare in productions in which Hamlet and Cyrano de Bergerac were cast as lesbians and university-approved posters of two Shakespearean male characters kissing were displayed throughout the campus.
See also our Postscript below about how dramatists at Notre Dame are extensively rewriting Shakespeare “to advance [gender] equity.”
To its credit, just this past March the university barred a talk and performance by a prominent drag queen proposed by the graduate business school’s LGBTQ club. The Rover reported that the FTT drag show does not appear yet on the Performing Arts Center calendar of events. Perhaps one may hope the last word has not yet been spoken. (The email addresses for Father Jenkins and Provost McGreevey are jjenkins@nd.edu and provost@nd.edu.)
Notre Dame Celebrates Pride Month
On June 1, the nation’s bishops called upon Catholics to
Join us in honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus this June, a time to deepen our devotion to His endless love and mercy.
That same day, Notre Dame embraced Pride Month instead.
Displaying a photo showing a LGBTQ+ rainbow linking the Basilica of the Sacred Heart to the Blessed Virgin atop the Golden Dome, Notre Dame declared:
Happy #PrideMonth! We celebrate all LGBTQ+ identities and reaffirm our commitment to being a welcoming, safe and supportive place for ALL members of the Notre Dame family. We see you. We’re glad you’re here. You are an important member of our community.
This is the second time the University has put its name to the event that has become the most prominent means for mobilizing worldwide support for same-sex marriage and gender theory and the full range of other homosexual and transgender demands. As Father Paul D. Scalia observed recently in The Catholic Thing,
[T]he rainbow flag – a political symbol – infects everything during June: stores, churches, schools, city hall. Even baseball. For years, ballparks have sponsored “Pride Night.” That was bad enough. Today’s secular canonization of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at Dodger Stadium simply reveals Pride’s latent prejudice and intolerance.
Notre Dame first joined this mass celebration of homosexuality and gender malleability in 2021, but when June of 2022 passed unremarked by the University, we hoped the administration had thought better of the stance it should take.
Instead, Notre Dame has fallen back into lockstep with its aspirational peers (Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Duke and the like), with Notre Dame honoree President Biden (on same-sex marriage, “we etched a simple truth into law: Love is love”), and with most of the nation’s secular leadership in business and culture.
And fallen out-of-step with the Catholic Church.
NDAA and Pride Month
Pride Month, Gender Theory, and Notre Dame
With the recognition of an LGBTQ+ alumni group, ARC-ND, in Pride Month 2021, the Notre Dame Alumni Association set the stage for promotion of same-sex marriage and gender theory by an official university organization. We have described how the NDAA insured this outcome by collaborating with the same-sex married leadership of the unofficial Gay & Lesbian Alumni Association of Notre Dame and St. Mary’s (GALA) and appointing as president of ARC the same-sex married president of GALA.
It was unsurprising, then, as we have reported, that the first official ARC event was a celebration of champions of same-sex marriage and gender theory. Nor a surprise that the NDAA promoted June as Pride Month in 2022 and 2023.
There is one new element in this year’s University Pride Month announcement – the emphasis on “celebrat[ing] all LGBTQ+ identities.”
This is evidently a short-hand ratification of the administration’s acceptance of gender theory with its bewildering array of gender identities from “aporagender” through “Ipsogender,” “omnigender,” “tumtum,” and “winkte” to “xenogender.”
All this, as we have perhaps tiresomely pointed out, is inarguably contrary to Church teaching.
(Those of you who watched, in person or online, the talks by Professor Gerry Bradley of the Law School and Sycamore board member Kathy Kersten at the June Sycamore Trust breakfast heard comprehensive and compelling descriptions of the infirmity and noxious character of gender theory. More on those presentations soon.)
Nevertheless, gender theory has been embraced at Notre Dame at the highest level. Readers of our bulletins will recall our report on last August’s indoctrination of freshman in gender theory by the Vice-President of Student Affairs, Rev. Gerald Olinger, C.S.C.
Father Olinger did not respond to an Open Letter by over 2,000 alumni and other members of the Notre Dame family seeking an explanation, and accordingly Bill Dempsey wrote Father Jenkins to determine whether Father Olinger spoke for the University.
Father Jenkins did not respond, whereupon Bill wrote him that he inferred Father Olinger’s presentation reflected University policy.
Father Jenkins has remained silent, nor has any other university spokesperson distanced the university from Father Olinger’s repudiation of Church teaching.
From The Sacred Heart of Jesus to Pride Month
We could not find any report of a response by Notre Dame to the bishops’ request to join in honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is especially lamentable because of the special place devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus holds in the history of the University and of the CSC Order.
Blessed Basile Moreau, who founded the Order in 1837, consecrated it to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This consecration was reflected in the dedication of the spiritual centers of the University to the Sacred Heart: first, the 1852 wooden Church of the Sacred Heart, and then the current Basilica of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, in which Mass was first celebrated in 1875. Then there is the statue of the Blessed Heart that stands in its rightful place in front of the 1865 Main Building.
In a letter Father Sorin addressed to his fellow priests on June 20, 1876, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, shortly after the fire that destroyed the Main Building, he announced a “new Novena in honor of the Sacred Heart” and exhorted:
More than ever, let us place our hopes and prayers and needs in the Sacred Heart-the primary Patron of our Congregation….and whilst our glorious and loving Patron is failing us in nothing, let us not fail first in duty, but endeavor to deserve an increase of blessings.
Conclusion
In his 2007 annual address to the faculty, Father Jenkins said:
To fulfill our mission, our distinctive Catholic character should inform all endeavors of the university.”
Indeed.
Postscript
Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Visit Shakespeare
Notre Dame’s 50/50 Shakespeare Project “aims to advance equity” in the world of Shakespeare by changing roles and transferring lines to achieve a substantially equal male-female balance.
Thus, in the recent production of Hamlet, Ophelia has the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy; Horatio, Bernando and Francisco are cast as women; and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are cancelled.
Praising this re-formation of Hamlet and anticipating criticism, Notre Dame’s Shakespeare scholar Dr. Peter Holland declared:
But I say, if we don’t continue to remake Shakespeare, there’s no point in doing Shakespeare.
Take that, Will!
Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
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Oremus
Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. (1 Cor 3:18-19)
O God our Father, Eternal Wisdom and Love, You have created us in Your own image and likeness, and called us to live in humble obedience to You and according to the order which You have established to govern the universe. You sent Your Son, Wisdom Incarnate, to save us from sin and to reconcile us to You and to one another. He established the Church to be a saving witness of Wisdom and Love, Goodness and Truth to a rebellious world. We implore You to dispel the darkness that surrounds us. May all who have rejected the truths of creation, seeking to replace Your design for the human race with one of their own, be awakened to the destructive folly which passes for wisdom in this age. Enlighten us all by the Truth which sets us free and grant that we may courageously embrace the scorn and contempt of the wise of the world so that we may joyfully share in the Wisdom of God. Through the intercession of Notre Dame, our Mother, we make our prayer in the Name of Jesus, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.
The above prayer is by Sycamore Trustee Father John Raphael (’89). To join us in regular prayer projects such as our Novena for Catholic Education and our Meditation on the 12-Days of Christmas, please join our Apostolate.
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Tagged As: Notre Dame Drag, Notre Dame Pride, Notre Dame LBGTQ, Is Notre Dame Still Catholicv
Drag shows are such a fun time! I wish I was going to be around ND for this.
“It is a sin to accomodate an occasion of sin, and thus cooperate with evils.”
To tolerate, accommodate, and thus affirm sin or sinful desires, is to fail to Love the sinner and refuse to desire Salvation for them.
“8But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. 9”
“For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might make known new doctrine, but that by His assistance they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the Revelation, the Deposit of Faith, delivered through the Apostles. ”
27And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.”
4Who answering, said to them: Have ye not read, that he who made man from the beginning, made them male and female? And he said: 5For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. 6Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.”
When we deny that God, The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, and thus The Author Of Our Unalienable Inherent Right To Life, To Liberty, And To The Pursuit Of Happiness, and render onto Caesar, what belongs to God, all Hell breaks out as “the center cannot hold “, and we “become like gods declaring what is good and what is evil”.
“It is a sin to accomodate an occasion of sin, and thus cooperate with evils.”
To tolerate, accommodate, and thus affirm sin or sinful desires, is to fail to Love the sinner and refuse to desire Salvation for them.
There are those who have been Baptized Catholic who erroneously claim, “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”
But The Founders Of Our Blessed Mother’s University did not fear The Truth, they knew through Faith and Reason that one cannot be free if one remains a slave to sin.
At the heart of Liberty Is Christ, “4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
It has always been about The Marriage, In Heaven and on earth.
“Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.”
“Hail The Cross; our only Hope.”
These drag shows are just a new version of Let’s Pretend. They are pretending to be something they are not. They and the transgenders are delusional. Delusional is defined as ” characterized by or holding false beliefs or judgments about external reality that are held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, typically as a symptom of a mental condition.” They are mentally ill and Notre Dame is promoting their craziness against our own beliefs . Do we really believe that ” what though the odds be great or small old Notre Dame will win over all”. I wonder. These delusional people are taking over and the administration is encouraging them. It’s discouraging, but we can’t give up.
Not to play with your words, Jim, but “they” (i.e., those in authority) are also “pretending to be something they are not” (i.e., compassionate). Sympathetic maybe. But in its call to compassion and human dignity, USCCB points out that “The truly compassionate individual works at his or her own cost for the others’ real good, helping to rescue them from danger as well as alleviate their suffering.”
The “real good” of anyone is not to encourage them in their own mistakes but to help them overcome them.
Anyone who has served people of marginalized groups for long knows that firsthand. Charity feels good when you give people what they want and not so good when you take the extra time that human dignity requires and give them what they need.
Forgive me, since I’m already playing with your words — let me do it one more time. When viewing this and other episodes like it at Notre Dame from the perspective of catching the tail of their secular peers (like Princeton that was just written up in The College Fix for a similar drag program) — the Jenkins administration is not really “holding false beliefs or judgments about external reality.” Their external reality is informed by their aspirational peers which do this sort of thing.
Notre Dame needs authentic Catholic leadership on this — for the sake of all involved.
They only understand money. Stop the flow of cash and the Administration will, strangely enough, suddenly hear the silence emanating from the cash register and it will gain their attention.
Speaking of money, Ed. You may have read about PWC’s funding the creating and first five years of Notre Dame’s new DEI Center which occupies the second floor of LaFortune. But don’t worry. Father Jenkins and Father Olinger have blessed it. So, it’s all good! Except for the Church’s teachings. Here’s yesterday’s article in The Rover about the [pseudo] safe space that also houses Multicultural Student Programs, Gender Relations Center, PrismND, and Diversity Council. https://irishrover.net/2023/09/grand-opening-for-dei-center/
They only understand money. Stop the flow of cash and the Administration will, strangely enough, suddenly the silence emanating from the cash register will gain their attention.
The problem is not the University’s desire to support students who struggle with the various LGBTQ attractions, as many charge. It’s her support, either direct or implied, of the ideology & conduct associated with the LGBTQ community. When the University refuses to protect students by blocking porn on University server, I suppose this shouldn’t be surprising.
We would agree with that, Ken. We have pointed out many times that it is not sinful to be attracted to the same sex — noting the Church’s teaching on the tendency and our call as Christians to accept those with this tendency with respect, compassion, and sensitivity (CCC 2357-8).
PrismND promotes the conduct and ideology that you note as problematic with students. ARCND does it with alumni. Spectrum does it for faculty. All have preferred status with the Jenkins’s administration. While at the same time SCOP’s petition for a pornography filter has fallen on deft ears year upon year.
Despite the bleak landscape, we are encouraged by the recent student organizing of a support and accountability group for students who are addicted to pornography (AsceND). This and other chastity-centered projects like Courage and Eden Invitation etc are aligned with Church teaching and should be readily accessible to students on campus. But it looks like efforts like these will need to grow without much if any institutional support.
We’re working to figure out what our role can be in encouraging and supporting these and other efforts — so they are not here today and gone tomorrow.
All of us have disordered inclinations of various types and degree.
Although it is not sinful to have a disordered inclination, it is a sin to not desire to overcome our disordered inclinations and become transformed through our acceptance of Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy.
It is not Loving or Merciful that we desire that we or our beloved remain attached to our disordered inclinations towards sin, and be lead into temptation, and sin- for if it were true that it Is Loving and Merciful to be lead into temptation and sin, and not be transformed and delivered from evil, through our acceptance of Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace and Mercy, we would have no need for Our Only Savior, Jesus The Christ.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
I’m a docile person who tries to act as a better one would in his or her absence when that’s necessary, so I’m equally disappointed.
Dave Wilmot ’52
It is deeply troubling that leaders within the Congregation of Holy Cross have chosen the path of silence and/or avoidance to the plentiful and morally legitimate concerns of so many alumni/ae who wonder what has happened to silence their courageous sacerdotal fidelity. Even concern for the proper and, therefore, limited, exercise of academic freedom does not relieve the University’s leaders (especially the President, the University Fellows and the Board) of responsibility for their claim to be a Catholic University in behavior and example, in fact as well as merely words on a page.
The remarkable departure of Notre Dame University from it’s Catholic mission is due to the weakness of the school’s leadership. I remember clearly that when Father John Jenkins was chosen as president, there was widespread surprise among many CSC priests, because Father Jenkins was viewed as a docile person. The straying of Notre Dame from it’s long-held Catholic principles is a reflection of Father Jenkin’s lack of courage. He’s not a bad person. He is a fine person. But his lack of courageous leadership has badly damaged Notre Dame. How different things would be at Notre Dame today if that other candidate had been chosen!
It is a reflection of the counterfeit church, attempting to subsist within The One Body Of Christ, that denies that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, because they desire to render onto Caesar or themselves what Has Always And Will Always Belong To God, and in denying The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, they deny The Divinity Of The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity.
“It is not possible to have Sacramental Communion without Ecclesial Communion”, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), for it Is “ Through Christ, With Christ And In Christ, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, (Filioque), That Holy Mother Church, outside of which there is no Salvation, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, (Filioque), exists.
Prayers for “The Courage to be Catholic”, so that Our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart Will Triumph at Notre Dame.