Professors Ellen Kennedy and Leigh Lawton had traveled together before for the University of St. Thomas. Where they slept was never an issue.
But last month, as they prepared for a long-planned trip with students to Australia, they got a call from a St. Thomas official asking about their "living" arrangements for the trip.
Kennedy, 57, and Lawton, 61, live together as unmarried, heterosexual partners. The university decided they could go to Australia only if they took separate rooms. They refused, considering it deceitful.
The flight left Friday with other faculty on board. The controversy won’t be leaving any time soon.
Kennedy and Lawton’s story is the talk among faculty and staff at the Catholic university. It comes months after St. Thomas told a lesbian choral director she couldn’t officially bring her partner along on a trip to France with a university choir.
That story, playing out the past few weeks in the campus newspaper, and the emerging account of Kennedy and Lawton have spawned a complex campus debate over Catholic doctrine, the teachings of Jesus and the university’s legal reach.
There’s no doubt where the church stands on homosexuality and unmarried couples living together. Others ask how far the university intends to go to enforce Catholic values.
"If sin and vice become disqualifying factors for university employees, then students might have to start teaching themselves," theology professor David Landry wrote in a recent faculty newsletter. [Source]
First off bravo for the university for not turning the blind eye that is so prevalent in Catholic education now.
Why am I not surprised that a theology professor could say something so stupid? What silliness for a associate theology professor at a university named after St. Thomas Aquinas. This is an argument you might expect from a teenager, or someone who has no understanding of the impact of sin both on both an individual and the Mystical Body of Christ. A view where scandal means nothing and Jesus’ words of "go and sin no more" get left out. Mark Shea says "Sin makes you stupid" and the corollary to that is that "Excusal of sin also makes you stupid."
Though no surprise that he links to the Jesus Seminar and also in an article where he for the most part debunks the Da Vinci Code says:
It is especially true, in my judgment, that the role of Mary Magdalene (and Jesus’ other female followers) was probably much more important than the canonical gospels allow, and that turning to other sources (such as noncanonical gospels) and utilizing feminist criticism of the gospels is one way to begin rectifying this injustice. Here is a case where good revisionist history would be both true and helpful. But I think it does not serve the cause of either Christian women’s liberation or the “feminine divine” to manufacture evidence, especially when that phony evidence only serves to turn Mary Magdalene into Jesus’ sex partner and wife, and the repository of his seed.
Just what we need "good revisionist history."
Update: Clayton has information related to Canon 810 on this subject.
19 comments
Gee, when I traveled for my sales job w/other employees, I delighted greatly when I was allowed to have my “own” accommodations!!!
One question is, “will the University pick up the extra room accommodation cost?”
Another observation is to allow these two heterosexual women to share a room and save University travel money seem okay with me, and I don’t think it is hypocritical to the other circumstance that is also highlighted …. the other would be similar to the University allowing a male professor to bring along his girlfriend and paying for their room together …. sheesh, it is pretty obvious that a Catholic University shouldn’t allow it … no?
Get A Room! (Not!?)
The Curt Jester notes some curtailed co-habitation by Professors at a Catholic University….
I wonder if anyone will raise the question about canon 810 at Catholic universities…
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I can’t believe this is happening again. I go to the St. John Vianney Seminary at the University of St. Thomas. I remember earlier this year when the issue came up about the homosexual couple trying to travel to France together with the choir. The school newspaper had a fit. The only reason it actually became news, however, was because it was a response to some other things that have been happening on campus. Namely: a GLBT club being formed and those on campus who are angry with the school’s decision to give them funding. But this is all one big can of worms right now.
I know “Leigh” is usually a female name in the US, but it was originally a male one (last name based). Professor Leigh Lawton is male. Please see his picture.
http://www.stthomas.edu/cob/faculty/lawton.html
The thing is, ideally a chaperone shouldn’t be sleeping with another chaperone, even if they’re married. The chaperones have to be out and about chaperoning at odd hours of the night, not getting comfy.
Frankly, even if you were secular enough not to be worried about students having sex, you ought to be worried about students sneaking off to get so bombed they miss the bus, or students disappearing like that girl in the Caribbean. So you ought to be spending a substantial amount of your evening camped out in the hallway.
I have no fond memories of the trip we took in high school where my English teacher and her husband decided their duties were over once we got back to the hotel. They booked the girls and the boys into rooms with adjoining doors, and themselves into a room with blissful solitude. Which was particularly stupid, since we included a dating couple who spent their nights out on the balcony snogging loudly (and probably doing more than that, but I’m being polite).
You know, it’s hard to win an academic competition when half the team is snogging all night and the other half can’t get any sleep for all the snogging noise. Personally, I wonder how my teacher and her husband could sleep through it!
I say, congrats to St. Thomas for showing some spine. Shea has an award for this, something about backbone. I like it, and would like to see more of it. At places like….Marquette U.
St. Thomas U 2
the statement
“that phony evidence only serves to turn Mary Magdalene into Jesus� sex partner and wife, and the repository of his seed.”
really makes one wonder. He’s a man who sounds like a 70s radical man-hating feminist. “Repository of his …
I’m with Nancy here too. A “Backbone Award” would be nice for those who manage to show it where others seem to turn the other way. Good job St. Thomas.
Always cracks me up when people are shocked that Catholic universities enforce Catholic standards. Of course, given the history of the last few decades, they are justifiably surprised, in a way.
This is especially interesting to me as Bishop DiNardo will be taking over at the end of this month from Bp. Fiorenza. Bp. DiNardo is speaking to our parish this coming Saturday. Though directed towards those in lay ministries (EMHC, lectors, etc.), his talk is open to our parish.
I will be there with bated breath. Hopefully Bishop DiNardo will be supportive of decisions like this one at UST.
Prayers for our diocese at this time of change are greatly appreciated.
In Christ’s peace and joy,
Robin L. in TX
Robin,
Given the context and the principals mentioned, I think this issue concerns ANOTHER University of St. Thomas – the one in St. Paul, MN, NOT Houston, TX.
Maureen, I was a little confused about “Leigh” and “Ellen” myself (I made the assumption that Leigh was a woman’s name, so I was having a hard time deciphering in what manner they were a “heterosexual couple”, thanks for the clarification on that point.
AS to the article which states: “…Others ask how far the university intends to go to enforce Catholic values.” I would like to correct the paper – this is not “enforcing” values, but rather proposing values. Neither the church nor “the vatican” has a squad of stormtroopers who go about enforcing Catholic values. What she does is to propose the values, and she does that, among other ways, through her institutions.
One wonders, If Leigh and Ellen were snorting lines of cocaine in their hotel room(s), would there be an uproar about University officials trying to “enforce Catholic values” by insisting that these two people set a positive example for their students?
I am also a seminarian at St. John Vianney College Seminary which is on the campus of the University of St. Thomas which is indeed in St. Paul MN like Fr. Totton said. Nick basically told the whole story with the previous incident. As you noticed our Theology department isn�t the best, luckily I get to wait for my Theology in major seminary. I am glad that UST has done something about these two incidents because this shows that we are growing for the better. I belief the strong presence of 110 college seminarians (we are over capacity, but that�s another story) is helping the University.
In regard to Robin�s concern:
You don�t need to worry about Bishop DiNardo. I am from Sioux Falls SD, which is an hour away from Bishop DiNardo�s last Diocese, Sioux City IA. I have heard only good things about him especially from his seminarians. In general priests and bishops from the Mid West are strong and orthodox. I�m sure that he would stand up to anything like this incident.
The sin isn’t making it a disqualifying factor. It’s the denial that it is a sin!
It make me crazy when people claim you can’t label behavior unacceptable as long as you’re a sinner.
You bet I’m a big, fat sinner. I sin ALOT! The difference is that I do hate those sins I commit whereas the couple in this situation obviously don’t see anything wrong with their behavior.
Question: why are these people allowed to teach at the school while living in an unmaried relationship?
Many Catholic schools require teachers or profs to live lives of (at least seemingly) virtue outside te job.
Why is it only an issue while traveling? Shouldn’t they be teaching at a secular university of they live a secular lifestyle?
I think Cin makes a good point! We should call for their immediate resignation. I will give the University some credit for beginning to address such situations (though you know they would not have bothered if it had not been for the lesbian incident) we can pray that they will continue down this path.
When traveling for business with the very large company I work for, we are not allowed to room together. Separate accommodations are always made. I believe it’s against company policy.
Well, Father, I was certainly surprised that our UST would have done something like this, but hope springs eternal. ;^)
Thank you for the report on Bp. DiNardo from Sioux Falls. I’ve met him once or twice, and heard a couple of his homilies–have to admit that I’ve been looking forward to Bp. DiNardo’s term, and can’t wait to hear what he has to say this weekend.
BTW, I also believe that it is important for Catholic colleges to provide good role models for our youth. We, as well as the world, need to see more examples of the joy and happiness that flow from living as God created us to live, not more examples of the opposite!
In Christ’s peace and joy,
Robin
I am nonplussed by the “modern” doctrine that brazenness is, as Lewis would say, “some sort of moral disinfectant.”
“Goodness, I couldn’t possibly accept my host’s standards during the course of my visit. That would be HYPOCRISY!”
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