"Dare to Be Catholic!"

Catholic University hosts sacrilegious display against the Blessed Mother, offending students, faculty and Catholics nationwide

Something extremely alarming and shameful occurred at the University of Dayton, where Our Blessed Mother was depicted in an exhibit amid pictures of prostitutes and pornography.1 The sacrilegious display, "Heartlands," by Derek A. Cracco, an assistant professor of art at the University of Alabama, was on public display in the Rike Center Gallery of the University of Dayton from February 22 to March 11.

Ranking among the ten largest Catholic universities in the country, the University of Dayton, founded by the Society of Mary in 1850, houses the largest Marian library in the world, along with a vast collections of Marian statues, pictures and rosaries. The Mariological Society of America is headquartered at the University of Dayton's Marian Library.

University authorities apparently reviewed the "art" exhibit prior to its showing. After discussion they deemed it would foster "artistic expression" and "encourage constructive dialogue," according to an email statement released by university president Dr. Daniel J. Curran.

Students, faculty, and Catholics nationwide were scandalized, outraged and justly upset by the sacrilegious display. With sin no dialogue is permissible, with vice no compromise admissible.

If we recall Our Lord's sacred words, scandal is no light matter. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea" (Matt 18:6). "Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they come!" (Matt 18:7). This divine counsel indicates how sin kills the life of the soul and deprives us of Heaven.

TFP Student action immediately alerted its affiliate members at the University of Dayton and at 375 additional campuses. The alert asked Catholics to contact university officials - some are priests - by phone and email, politely urging them to cancel the exhibit and issue an apology. The protest message that people were asked to sign stated, "The person of Holy Mary is most pure and untouchable. To mock her is disrespectful to all Catholics, and certainly unacceptable at any Catholic university."

Despite receiving an outpouring of aggrieved complaints, hundreds of phone calls, letters and emails, the exhibit was not cancelled, nor to my knowledge was any apology or expression of regret forthcoming from the university's directors.

In fact, the rector, Rev. Eugene Contadino, S.M., replied rather curtly to some protesters: "I weep for your prejudice; I pray for your conversion during this Lenten season," said one email. He answered another, stating: "You condemn what you have not seen [pictures of Mary amid prostitutes]. I pray that you may be converted in this season of Lent."

Hundreds of students, including many non-Catholics, wrote or called Dr. Curran's office to register their disgust over the exhibit. When I called, the receptionist at his office routed my phone call to the public relations office. I was told be one caller that a somewhat overworked-sounding lady answering his call said: "I'm taking all these calls and I've been on the phone pretty much all day."

It is beautiful that while this blasphemy against Our Lady attempted to spoil her spotless purity, fervent and faithful souls rose up to console her with prayers, penance, reparation and peaceful protest.

Many, many protesters copied TFP Student Action with their comments addressed to the University of Dayton. This is a sample out of more than one thousand protest emails:

"The remainder of my Lenten penance will be applied in reparation to this terrible blasphemy toward our Blessed Mother."

"Would you, Dr. Curran, place a photo of your biological mother amidst pictures of smut and call it art? How dare you allow a picture of Our Blessed Lady, spiritual Mother of us all, to be strewn amongst filth. "Give not that which is holy to dogs" (Matt 7:6).

"My family over four hundred years suffered for the Catholic Faith in England. Among other things, exclusion from public office, punitive taxation of their property, and if not exile then imprisonment were their lot. They did not do this so that you can glory in freedom of expression. They did it so that more could go to bed at night, pure in heart, mind and soul that if the Lord should ask for their soul before daybreak, they should not be found wanting. Could you really go to St. Peter's Gate and offer in justification your organization of this exhibition."

"Mary is one of the greatest gifts Jesus Christ has given to us. We should treat her with the utmost honor, love, devotion, and respect, because she is the Mother of the God-Man, our spiritual Mother, our royal Queen, Queen of the Holy Angels of Heaven, and the scourge of Satan. Stop insulting her and start honoring her Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart, which at Fatima she revealed was surrounded by thorns placed there by ungrateful men through their blasphemies, much like the one that your University is promoting now.

"I thought this institution stood for more than 'academic freedom'. My prayers rest with the administration; I can only pray and hope that the secularization going on here can stop. Take a firm stand - dare to be Catholic."

"I viewed the display. It is very upsetting that the university I graduated from would allow this! Please have this removed or remove my name from your annual fund drive list!!!!!"

"Freedom is not absolute. There are obligations and consequences that follow from everything we do. We are obligated to honor and respect the holy Mother of God, and not blaspheme our Lord for any reason, no matter how sophisticated the reason may seem. Rights and freedoms are hierarchical. Academic freedom is subordinate to natural law and the law of God, which commands us to "honor our Father and Mother." Is this how you honor your Mother, Mary, by associating her with gross evils?"

"If we cannot trust our Catholic universities to teach and deepen the Catholic faith to our youth, who can we trust? The Lord our God has graciously given us Mother Mary and you dare to offend Him with an exercise of 'academic freedom?' Mr. Curran, who are you serving? Jesus Christ and Holy Mother Church, or Satan under the guise of what you call "academic freedom?" This world needs strong Catholic universities, so I beseech you to bring your university back to the Lord. May He bless you and your university abundantly and give you the grace for a conversion of heart."

"Some day soon you will stand in front of the Judge who loves His Mother. How will you defend yourself then? "

"As a Catholic mother, I am watching schools very closely to see which would be appropriate for my children to attend. Yours has just made the black list along with Georgetown. I will not send my children to a Catholic college or university that does not uphold our Catholic values."

Like the unshakable monolith She is, the Holy Catholic Church is the only power capable of decisively repelling the forces of darkness that threaten society at every turn. Our Lord promised the gates of hell shall not prevail. That is certain.

God will always provide sufficient grace for us to remain faithful. We must not tire. Above all, we must not become apathetic. We must continue defending Jesus and Mary, and remain faithful till the very end. Catholic students must heroically stand up for their Faith. They must dare to be Catholic, even while attending Catholic universities that permit sacrilege. May God help us!

1. Dayton Daily News, UD exhibit with porn, church images creating debate http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0308artshow.html

2. The full names of some of the authors of these comments are withheld for privacy.

2 posted on 03/29/2005 12:45:42 PM PST by the invisib1e hand ("remember, from ashes you came, to ashes you will return.")

This is one of the worst examples of anti-Catholic behavior from a "Catholic" university. May God help us.

Another university official acknowledged receiving a high volume of protest: "…I will ask the people who flooded our mailboxes this morning to send me their mailing address if they would like a personal response."

Translation: I need your street addresses because I don't believe that these letter came from real people about our constructive dialog.

Mary was a prostitute or among prostitutes? BLashephemous in either case, but, it sounds more laughable than out right sicking, it would be like Jesus wrestling at WWF smackdown.

4 posted on 03/29/2005 1:07:22 PM PST by Dominick ("Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought." - JP II)

What is ironic, is that the Marianist parish in Dayton is quite orthodox.

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