Religion: Catholic and Queer

Religion: Catholic and Queer

Copyright by Newsweek © 2006 Newsweek, Inc.
Feb. 27, 2006 issue - DePaul University in Chicago recently announced that it's offering a new "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer Studies" minor. That wouldn't normally turn heads (several universities have similar offerings), but DePaul is the nation's largest Roman Catholic university—and the Vatican's official teaching is that homosexuality is "objectively disordered." "I understand that there's a tension there," says Assistant Prof. Gary Cestaro, the program's director.

So do some conservative Catholic groups, who are calling for the program to be abolished. "It's clearly portraying the culture in a favorable way," says Patrick J. Reilly, founder of the Cardinal Newman Society, an organization that promotes conservative teaching on Catholic campuses. "There's no doubt that this program, at least in a subtle way, is undermining Catholic teaching on homosexuality."

Cestaro, who largely developed the program from already existing classes on campus, disagrees, noting that he's even considering adding a class, taught by the campus's Catholic Studies Department, that would address the church's stances on homosexuality. He defends the program's merit—and the university's right to offer it. "Institutions of higher learning, even if they are Catholic, aren't spokespeople for the Vatican," he says. "Like any university, there should be room for free inquiry."

Jennifer Evrard, a DePaul sophomore who identifies as straight, says she's excited that the university "wised up" and started offering more courses in this field. "Some people take this university's values a lot more to heart than others," she says. "I'm not saying this university's values are something to be taken lightly, but there are varying degrees of faith that come with them."

—Elise Soukup