University President John J. DeGioia will not formally respond to anti-gay remarks made by Cardinal Francis Arinze at last May’s graduation as requested by the Faculty Senate in a resolution passed on Oct. 21, according to Assistant Vice President of Communication Julie Bataille.
This resolution follows several months of conterversy concerning Arinze’s remarks, which denounced homosexuality. Georgetown College Dean Jane McAuliffe responded to the controversy almost immediately after the graduation in a public meeting and letter to faculty and graduates, in which she reaffirmed the University’s commitment to diversity. However, DeGioia has not made a formal speech or written response to the comments.
Bataille said that faculty should not expect such a statement. “He has a very busy schedule,” she said. “But if you look at what he has done in the past year and what he will do this year in particular, he will make Georgetown’s values clear.”
DeGioia responded to Arinze’s comments at a meeting with student press in September. However, history professor Tommaso Astarita, who authored the resolution, said he felt that a more formal public response was required.
At the meeting, DeGioia reaffirmed the University’s commitment to inclusiveness. “I want to ensure that no one would interpret [the remarks] as a huge shift in our underlying ethos,” he said, as reported in the Hoya.
Bataille said that DeGioia’s comments were intended as an official response to the Arinze speech. “He clearly articulated his views on that topic at that time,” she said.
Rev. Ed Ingebretsen, an English professor who wrote a response to Arinze’s comments in an August issue of the Voice, felt that the request for a response from the University was superfluous. “The Dean very effectively addressed the issue,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, when the Dean speaks, she speaks for the President.”
However, Charles VanSant, the Interim Coordinator of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning resources, said that it is important to continually reaffirm the University’s values. “Some people may think it’s repetitive and unnecessary,” he said. “But we should do it every day.”
In addition to asking for a response from the University, the resolution reaffirms the faculty’s commitment to inclusiveness.
In his speech, Arinze suggested that homosexuality damaged the instituion of the family. “In many parts of the world, the family is under siege,” he said. “It is scorned and banalized by pornography, desecrated by fornication and adultery, mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut in two by divorce.”
Astarita said that one of his main goals was to ensure that members of Georgetown’s homosexual community felt safe and welcome on this campus, “because the Commencement speech so explicitly excluded homosexuals from its vision of the proper Catholic community.”
The resolution cites sexual orientation specifically in its discussion of diversity. “Distinctions based on gender, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, political views, social and economic background, marital status, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or disability should never be used to disadvantage any member of our community,” it said.
Astarita said that he also wanted to connect Georgetown’s Catholic identity with a commitment to inclusiveness and pluralism. “The latter is not to be called into question by possible restrictive interpretations of the former,” he said.
The resolution was passed without any negative votes or abstentions. “I believe that the resolution addressed all the concerns that Astarita had and that the Senate had,” said government professor Anthony Arend, the vice president of the Senate.
The Faculty Senate is an elected body made up of seventy-five members of the faculty as well as seven administrators. Created in the 1970’s, the Senate expresses the concerns of the faculty about issues affecting the entire University. While it has no concrete authority, it makes recommendations to the President and the Board of Directors.
Arinze was previously president of the Pontifical Council of Interreligious Dialogue. He is now the Prefect of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. He has been named as a possible successor to Pope John Paul II.
