CNS: Villanova to Host Radical Militant Gay Rights Performer (and Member of an Anti-Catholic Group)

This is from the Cardinal Newman Society:

Villanova to Host Radical Militant Gay Rights Performer (and Member of an Anti-Catholic Group)

Villanova University, a Roman Catholic Augustinian University outside Philadelphia, has invited a militant gay rights performance artist to be an artist in residence this April and lead workshops for students, according to an email shared with The Cardinal Newman Society. Villanova’s website confirms it.

But the term “militant gay rights activist” doesn’t really begin to explain Tim Miller, the performance artist. Miller, according to Facebook, sued the National Endowment for the Arts for pulling a grant due to his obscene “art,” he’s been arrested dozens of times, is a very public advocate of gay marriage and abortion rights, and is a member of the anti-Catholic group ACT UP which once sent protesters to interrupt Sunday mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and desecrated the Eucharist, according to The New York Times.

Far from renouncing his membership in ACT UP after that 1989 incident, Miller remains a member of ACT UP, according to Facebook, and even called the group’s confrontational tactics, “the single most influential thing in my life.“

[…]

You, and everyone else, can read the rest there.

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31 Comments

  1. xsosdid says:

    Villanova may have pulled the plug, as I can’t find it on their newsletter.

  2. xsosdid says:

    My email to their admissions department:

    “Hello,
    I understand that your university is hosting the gay rights activist and anti-catholic bigot Tim Miller. Is this the case? I have four children all approaching university age and I am looking for a catholic university that reflects the Church’s values.”

  3. Michaelus says:

    Maybe everyone should be forced to watch this guy. I think that would do wonders for chastity and the defense of the family. I sometimes think that most people think “homosexual” means “good looking and fun with great fashion sense”.

  4. Has Archbishop Chaput weighed in on this issue? I know the Augustinians are not directly under his authority; nevertheless he can raise quite a stink with the provincialate and beyond. What is wrong with these places? hasn’t the Catholic Church had to endure enough scandal without inviting a character like that into the campus?

  5. Servant of the Liturgy says:

    I think it is more +Chaput’s style to start from within the university/order before doing anything publicly. Nonetheless, of there is any Ordinary to whom I grant some delay in reacting to things, it is certainly he. Pray for the man; I’d never want his job.

    Villanova should know better. We need to make it known, both from parents and students, that those looking for a Catholic university will choose a “C”atholic university.

  6. Clinton says:

    Villanova would never have an artist in residence who was known, say, to be a white
    supremacist. If such an artist had been brought on and then his views were discovered,
    there would be protests by students and faculty until his dismissal, and rightly so.
    There would be none of this blather we hear in these cases– “his views are private and
    have nothing to do with his work”, “it is the duty of a university to bring all views before
    its students”, etc. blah blah blah.

    In the case of Villanova and so many other formerly Catholic universities, the simple fact is
    the criteria for what is and is not acceptable are no longer determined by a Catholic ethos.
    Rather, the criteria are based on political correctness– in other words, a secular, ‘progressive’
    ethos.

    I have no idea how one goes about bringing universities like Villanova back to their Catholic
    mission. But I do know that, despite what it says on their glossy brochures, they are no
    longer recognizably Catholic.

  7. RobertK says:

    Well this will be the first big test for Archbishop Chaput to show who is in control in his Archdiocese. Or will this be another Notre Dame? [Keep in mind that Villanova is run by Augustinians. Also, this pipsqueak isn’t at the level of visibility of the POTUS. That said, it is a scandal that this should take place.]

  8. RobertK says:

    Plus if they do go through with this, then maybe Villanova should be added to the Blue Ribbon report.

  9. Ralph says:

    Another score by the Lavender Mafia.

  10. irishgirl says:

    Ugh. Reading about disgusting things like this at a so-called ‘C-atholic university’ have me giving thanks that I never married and had children. I would have been aged before my time, fearing for the souls of my children as they neared the age to go to college (if I weren’t already going crazy with despair over the godless teachings in their grammar school and high school).
    @ Hieromonk Gregory: what you said! Exactly! What is wrong with these places?
    Go after Villanova, Cardinal Newman Society!
    Sic’em!

  11. Centristian says:

    Tim Miller as resident “artist” at a Catholic university.

    Okay.

    How about hiring Bill Donohue to be the host of ELLEN or RuPaul as spokesperson for the KKK? What other nonsensical pairings can we come up with that make as much sense as this one?

  12. The Astronomer says:

    Soft apostasy ambling forward….(soothing media culture voice gently, but insistently repeating their mantra): “Don’t worry, these gays are nothing but good looking and fun guys right out of the Abercrombie catalog…Don’t worry, these gays are nothing but good looking and fun guys right out of the Abercrombie catalog…Don’t worry, these gays are nothing but good looking and fun guys right out of the Abercrombie catalog…”

    Cultural anesthetic to mask the Scream of the Approaching Beast.

    St. Padre Pio, pray for us.

  13. Nathan says:

    Villanova took the program off the main university webpage, but it is still on the Villanova English Department’s blog (http://villanovagradenglish.blogspot.com/2012/02/visiting-performance-artist-tim-miller.html) and on Mr Miller’s homepage (which, for many reasons, I’m not going to link).

    In Christ,

  14. Stephen D says:

    l read that Timothy means honoring God! Perhaps a barrage of prayer through his namesake might make this man consider doing what his name proposes. It is believed that Timothy tried to halt a procession of idols, ceremonies and songs in Ephesus where he was bishop. Now this is a coincidence too far! Let’s get SS Timothy and Paul onto this one sharpish.

  15. APX says:

    @Michaelus
    I sometimes think that most people think “homosexual” means “good looking and fun with great fashion sense”.

    I thought that’s what metrosexual meant. If I want good fashion sense and honesty about whether or not something makes me look fat, I ask my heterosexual brother. I never really found homosexuals to have good fashion sense. They always dress so flouncy and prissy. And maybe it’s just me, but some of them wear more make-up than I do.

  16. pm125 says:

    Sick. Insanity was never contagious, but that may have changed since they closed asylums and programmed victims.
    ‘Artist’ in residence for a month!
    Leading students! to hell.
    Proud of and inspired by ACT UP. The Executive Branch is howling.

  17. tcreek says:

    All manner of explicit sexual activity is shown on TV and in the movies.

    A question. —- Why then isn’t explicit sexual activity shown between “gay” men?

    Easy answer — Their sexual calisthenics would be so disgusting that even college students would no longer think that homosexuality is cool.

  18. wmeyer says:

    tcreek, My wife and I watched an episode of a BBC mini-series the other night which presented a quite offensive scene of open-mouth kissing between two men. A kiss would have been sufficient to convey the understanding of who these men were to one another. But the scene presented several kisses, in closeup, so went well beyond anything which might have been needed for dramatic reasons. As we have not yet watched the remaining episodes, I have no idea whether the scene was only offensive, or if it was also gratuitous–if no future action in the story is dependent on the relation between these two characters, then it will have been gratuitously offensive, and inserted for political reasons only.

  19. Denis says:

    I’m curious…would Villanova ever host the SSPX? Does it make the Extraordinary Form of the Mass available to students?

    Yet another one of the ‘fruits’ of Vatican II: everything is to be permitted and tolerated except the idea that the Church might have been right about something before 1962.

  20. Clinton R. says:

    Oh the apostasy! Why call yourself a Catholic university when you don’t care in the least for the Catholic faith? May the Lord have mercy on us.

  21. mysticalrose says:

    I wish I could say I was surprised, but if you’ve ever been to NOVA . . .sigh.

  22. philologus says:

    Easy guys. He was invited by an Associate Professor in the Communications department. It’s just now coming to the attention of higher-ups and there’s no way Mr. Miller will ever set foot on campus as an artist in residence.

  23. tcreek says:

    Then there is this.

    The Cardinal Newman Society can confirm that nine Catholic colleges and universities will be hosting productions of the depraved play The V…… Monologues in 2012. Fewer than in the past if that be any consolation.

    Bellarmine University
    Boston College
    College of the Holy Cross
    College of Saint Rose
    Depaul University
    Dominican University of California
    Fordham University
    Georgetown University
    Seattle University

  24. Girgadis says:

    I am not surprised. Some of the Augustinians can give the Jesuits a run for their money when it comes to laxity. I count some very fine and orthodox Augustinians among my priest friends and increasingly, they seem like the exception rather than the rule. I was on Villanova’s campus a few times over the years with the purpose of visiting an infirm priest friend who resided in the healthcare facility ( and who passed away a few months back, God rest his holy soul). The Church of St. Thomas didn’t even have kneelers. If able-bodied college kids and Augustinian priests can’t be bothered to kneel for the consecration, something’s bound to be amiss elsewhere, imho.

  25. philologus says:

    Girgadis, I’m not sure when you visited St. Thomas of Villanova church but I can assure you there are kneelers.

    There are some folks here who are a bit quick to judge this situation. Mr. Miller will not be visiting Villanova.

  26. RobertK says:

    Sent a message to the provincial of the OSA at Villinova. See if I get a reply.

  27. AnAmericanMother says:

    philologus,
    That’s good news that the guy won’t be in residence — but when stories like this get out, it’s important to “judge” to the extent of making swift inquiry and following up to ensure that the situation is verified — and corrected if it exists.
    If there was no “judging”, certain people at the school (like whoever it was in the English department that came up with this bright idea) would figure they could sneak the next outrageous action under the radar. That’s how the “V- monologues” got spread everywhere like a termite infestation – nobody spoke up and now it’s everywhere.

  28. philologus says:

    AnAmericanMother,

    I agree entirely that action needed to take place – swift action. The judgement I was referring to was the judgement against Villanova and the Friars by certain posters here who seemed to jump to uninformed conclusions about the university and the Augustinians. Just because some rogue professor tries to sneak in an activist doesn’t mean that the school at large has lost its Catholic identity. As the reading from James today instructs: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. It is true that we have come to expect the worst from many American Catholic universities. But they are not all the same, nor are they all run by the same men.

  29. Girgadis says:

    philologus

    Let’s not forget that Mrs. Obama, who supports partial-birth abortion, was permitted to speak at Villanova four years ago over the objections of pro-life students.

    I am in the difficult position of having OSA priest friends who are orthodox and faithful to church teaching. I was also urged to become a tertiary in the order so I am not someone who decided to randomly pick on the friars. On the other hand, I’ve often encountered an Augustinian who taunts the congregation to get out paper and pens to write to the bishop as he advocates for women’s ordination from the pulpit, and that’s not all. I could give you a litany of laxity, to put it charitably, that saddens me beyond words.

  30. CharlesRS says:

    Kudos to Villanova for canceling this performance.

  31. ARKloster says:

    I work for a group (FIRE) trying to get Villanova to either (1) un-cancel the talk, or else (2) be explicit about its Catholic identity. We never critique Catholic University, for example, as a genuinely sectarian institution with a right to clamp down on speech contrary to its mission. The problem with Villanova, however, is that it hosts a “Gay Straight Alliance” among other things. So it’s pro-gay where convenient, and anti-gay where convenient. It really needs to “put up or shut up” on fidelity to the Magesterium or liberal values. This fence-sitting is ridiculous.

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