& That Madonna Ciccone Is a Virgin

"Like saying Hillary Clinton is a Carmelite nun"
USF professor says Jesuit school has lost its Catholic identity

"Calling USF a Catholic school is like saying Hillary Clinton is a Carmelite nun," a philosophy professor at the Jesuit-run university told the archdiocesan weekly Catholic San Francisco in a story published in its June 12 edition.

USF philosophy professor Raymond Dennehy made his comments during an interview with Catholic San Francisco about the school’s decision to award dissident Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa, an honorary degree and for inviting him to deliver the commencement address to undergraduate humanities and sciences students during May 22 graduation ceremonies. Bishop Dowling also delivered the homily at a pre-commencement Mass.

Bishop Dowling has defied Church teaching on abstinence before marriage, saying, “Abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in a marriage is beyond the realm of possibility here. The issue is to protect life. That must be our fundamental goal." Bishop Dowling also parted ways with the Church on the issue of condom use, saying of Africans, "They must use condoms." The Catholic San Francisco headline for the story read, “USF honors dissenting South African bishop.”

USF president, Jesuit Fr. Stephen Privett, told the archdiocesan newspaper he invited the controversial bishop “to honor his work and that of the wider Catholic Church in Africa.” Fr. Privett also noted in the interview that "people need to understand the difference between a condom as a contraceptive and a condom preventing the spread of a deadly virus that is literally killing thousands of people in Africa."

Fr. Privett defended bringing controversial and dissident speakers to the Jesuit university in the interest of constructive dialogue. "When we bring these speakers onto campus, we don't bring them as spokespersons for a position with which we disagree," Fr. Privett told Catholic San Francisco. He said critics of the school “only see the commencement speaker or ‘The Vagina Monologues.' They don't see the other 240 days. They're not at Sunday liturgies. They're not at student retreats. It's the tip and not the whole iceberg."

But Professor Dennehy suggested Fr. Privett’s idea of dialogue is one-sided. "Dialogue is having speakers both pro and con," Dennehy told the archdiocesan weekly. "This is giving an award, and you can bet your bottom dollar that (USF) would not do that if (the speaker) were anti-gay marriage."

The philosophy professor also defended Church teaching on condom use, telling Catholic San Francisco, “If people have condoms, they think they are impervious and are more inclined to engage in reckless behavior."

“Dennehy said the university has set out to form a Catholic identity separate from the Church's teaching on issues like abortion and homosexuality, citing examples like the invitation of Pelosi and the appointment to head of campus ministry of Jesuit Father Donal Godfrey, an outspoken proponent of gay-friendly theology,” reported Catholic San Francisco.

"USF has chosen to go its own way, and there is no one here to stop them,” Dennehy told the newspaper. “What is Catholic teaching? What is the so-called ‘institutional Church' if we don't have to pay attention to it?"

To read the full article from Catholic San Francisco, Click Here.

To read earlier coverage of the USF commencement controversy in California Catholic Daily, Click Here.

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For those of you who don't remember, this is the same USF that has an employee insurance that covers abortion, that had a clinic that refered students to an abortion clinic

Source: "...And There Is No One Here To Stop Them."