Should we rename it the "Vagina Homilies"?

Not if Catholic colleges have anything to say about it!

According to this article in USA Today, the play "The Vagina Monologues," by Eve Ensler, is dividing Catholic colleges across the country, with some administrations saying that the play runs counter to Catholic teaching.

The University of Notre Dame, Providence College, and several others have banned the production of the play, usually performed on or around Valentine's Day. (Blogger's Note: Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!)

There are at least two reasons this is ridiculous. The first and most obvious is that universities are supposed to be bastions of free speech. Nobody is being forced to watch vaginas give monologues.

The second, and more critical point, is that this is yet another example of Catholic institutions (whether it's a college, a gaggle of bishops, a parish, or whatever) stifling any conversation or exposure of sex. All one has to do is look back on the last five years, and the embarrassing and disgusting sex scandals that have taken place, for evidence that being close-lipped (haha...no pun intended!) about sex is not healthy for the Church.

Or, as Regina Bannan, a professor at Temple University put it, "If the church hasn't learned anything the last three years about stifling discussion about sexuality, that's a shame."

But yet, those on the other side are justifying the ban on the monologues for 'moral' reasons. Rev. Brian Shanley, president of Providence College, shares this nugget of spin. "A Catholic university that sponsors a production of The Vagina Monologues would be running at odds with its Catholic mission by promoting and providing time, space and money ... to a production that is so deeply anti-thetical to the way Catholics think about sex."

So would providing safe refuge to a priest who touches children. Yet how many hundreds of Catholic institutions did that? And I won't even get into the debate over Catholic institutions holding up figures who support war, harsh regulations on immigration, the death penalty, dismantling welfare, or all sorts of other topics that are anti-thetical to Catholic Social Teaching. Why aren't presidents of universities crying out about that?

Though I can understand that some people might find the monologues offensive, that's no reason to suppress discussion and dialogue, especially on a university campus, where free speech should be held as a top priority. Moreover, for Rev. Shanley to imply that he can speak for how the majority of Catholics think about sex, is pretty brash. I think if you took a poll - like has been done on issues like homosexuality, abortion, birth control and pre-marital sex - you'd find that Catholics are quite divided. Why not let that division play out in the real world, where discussion might actually lead to something productive: two sides conversing, instead of battling each other.