Good letter, Bill. Following is what I sent to Father Jenkins a couple weeks ago: Dear Father Jenkins, I read that the Monologues are or may be making a comeback at Notre Dame this year. I have always opposed that idea, but I never expressed my opposition nearly as well as Notre Dame’s new President did in January 2006 (below). I know you modified this position after consultation, but you were right before the modification, Father. My prayer ever since has been that you were working your way back toward the inspired model you outlined in your initial speeches to the faculty and students. It’s still my prayer today. Notre Dame must be a Catholic beacon to the world. Our decisions must be guided by what we know Our Lady and her Son would want from us. You have a tough job, and we continue to keep you in our prayers. Jack Hart ’79, father of two alumni and one current student “The Vagina Monologues and Queer Film Festival have raised difficulties because they either are or appear to be at odds with certain fundamental values of a Catholic university. The fact that they have been sponsored annually by units of the university, and have been widely publicized, prominently associates the university’s name with them. Such occurrences suggest the university endorses or at least finds compatible with its values certain views which are not in fact compatible. The wide publicity and prominence given such events tends to instrumentalize our collective identity and our higher meaning. “The position I am inviting you to consider, then, is that an event which has the implicit or explicit sponsorship of the university as a whole, one of its units, or a university recognized organization, and which either is or appears to be in name or content clearly and egregiously contrary to or inconsistent with the fundamental values of a Catholic university, should not be allowed at Notre Dame. As I said, the sponsors of the Vagina Monologues have many laudable goals: that women should be aided to affirm their own bodies, the gift of their sexuality, and their identity as women; that we should form communities and a culture that can support this; and, most pressingly, that we work to eliminate violence against women. I pledge myself to work to advance such goals at Notre Dame. I fail to see, however, how the annual performance of the Vagina Monologues is the appropriate means to these ends.”