Letters to USD – Page 1
Sat 4/7/2012 1:13 PM
Dear President Lyons:
Peace and grace to you on this most Holy Saturday.
This past week, I attended a funeral for my son’s school-counselor at the
Immaculata. As my son and I walked from the parking structure on USD to
the Church, my Junior aged son and I observed a large sign advertising for a
DRAG QUEEN performance. Within second’s my son’s first introduction to my
Alma Mater left both of us questioning the Catholic identity of the
University I had been proud to call mine.
President Lyons, as educators you and I both know the serious duty we are
called upon to uphold and instruct the truth. Men who cross-dress as women
must be lovingly lifted up with prayer for their disordered passions, but
not supported in acts which rob an individual of their God-given dignity.
To host such events in the public arena is not only wrong but gives scandal
and confusion to the dignity of both men and women. As a woman I find it
degrading to see my Alma Mater fund entertainment which makes sport of
femininity.
“Every man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.
Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented
towards the good of marriage and the flourishing of family life. ” (CCC
2333)
And so President Lyons, I call on your charity and courage to cancel the
April 11th performance which gives scandal to our youth. I will keep you as
well as the University of San Diego in our family prayer this Easter season.
Your Sister in Christ,
Educational Facilitato
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Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:28:37 -0700
To: Mary Lyons <president@sandiego.edu>
Conversation: USD’s First Drag Show on April 11, 2012 Subject: FW: USD’s First Drag Show on April 11, 2012
Dear Mary,
Greeting! I who you peace!
I am sure you have been getting emails as below all through the day and night, and you are sick of it all by now. But, behold, here comes an other one!!!!!
We all love our Holy Mother, The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and I would die for Her if needed by at anytime any place and will not blink! I lived under Communism and I witness what they did to our Church in China! In no way will I standing around and watching the YOUNG PEOPLE being leading astray by the power of Darkness in any one of our Church Schools! All of Our Catholic Schools, each and everyone of them must be a Light of Christ to the world, and nothing else, period! Are those beings who are trying to bring Darkness into God’s School so the shun God’s Light?
Are the leaders of the school supporting it? “He who is not with me is against me!” “Thou shall not serve two masters, for thou will love one and hates the other!” “The enemy of a man is from his own household!” Are the schools built in His Name hosting His enemy?
How our society has come to this point of moral decay? It is the result of a prolonged collectively practicing of the “Sins of Omission!” We are afraid of offending another person who is as sinful we are but we have no fear of offending God Who is the our Loving ,Giving, most Merciful Father to us all that He even allowed His Son to die for our sins so that we may all be able to return to Him at the end of our lives! As we are soon to celebrate His Resurrection………How deserving are we at this moment to receive His mercy when we know we have deliberately allowing temptations to enter into the lives of our young whose souls are under our care into sinning against His every teaching, and, we consider them Normal and Acceptable! Shame on us!!!! “we are in the world but we are not of the world!” Never be a hypocrite! “You hypocrites, you vipers, you sepulcher of the bleached bones….”
Mary, I will give you my heart of prayer for you to handle this with all the Strength you must master! Don’t give into the Tempters!!!!! One doesn’t loses one’s soul over night, one does it a little at a time, get used to I, before long one no longer can see Good and Righteousness anymore and God is only a word, in time to come that word becomes a dirty word. The slop going downhill only gets faster…….
God bless!
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| From:
Sent: To: Cc: Subject: |
Monday, April 02, 2012 11:29 <president@sandiego.edu> USD’s First Drag Show on April 11, 2012 |
Dear President Lyons:
I am an alumni of USD, and I am saddened to hear of the planned drag show. Why would a “Catholic oriented” university permit such an event?
I have a 17 your old son who is considering universities in San Diego. I also have a daughter and two other sons who will be attending university in San Diego. I would love to send them to a genuinely Catholic university. Unfortunately, because of USD’s un-Catholic behavior and values, USD isn’t even on our list of options. Should USD change course and begin to truly respect the teaching of the Magisterium, I would love to be able to send my kids there.
Apart from this, there is something else you should consider. When you stand before God at your judgment, how will you answer Him when He asks, “Why did you not use your talents and accomplishments to protect those in your professional care from scandal; why did you permit those under your authority to lead souls away from me?”
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Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 5:09 PM To:president@sandiego.edu
I graduated from USD Magna Cum Laude in May 1977. As a practicing Catholic I strongly object to the Drag Show planned at USD. I believe this event does irreparable harm to the students, faculty, administration and alumni of USD because it promotes values contrary to the Catholic faith. I am saddened but not surprised that USD is further distancing itself from Catholic moral teaching, the same quality that was and is used to draw students’ and their parents’ money to USD. I will pray this Holy Week that Jesus Himself looks mercifully at those responsible for this travesty, and that the leadership of USD has the courage to follow His Church’s teaching about promoting sinful behavior.
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From: –
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2012 9:07 PM
To: president@sandiego.edu
Subject: Drag Show at USD
Dear Ms. Lyons and Mr. Bass:
I am writing to urge you to cancel the Drag Show that will take place at USD on April ii, 2012. I earned my J.D. from USD School of Law in 2009 and my wife earned her B.S. in Business and M.S. in Finance from USD in 2006. I have over 15 cousins that have earned degrees from USD and many more that are likely future students. We are part of the growing and close-nit Chaldean Catholic community, and many of us have been strong supporters of USD and dedicated alums. I personally make time to regularly volunteer at USD by sitting on alumni panels, participating in mock interviews, and mentoring many law students.
As I’m sure you know, many of us chose to attend USD in large part because of its Catholic identity and its commitment to upholding fundamental Catholic principles and values. In describing its Mission to the public (http://www.sandiego.edu/about/mission_andvision.php), the University’s website states that USD “expresses its Catholic identity by witnessing and probing the Christian message as proclaimed by time Roman Catholic Church. U What message is USD sending to the community by hosting a drag show?
This event alienates all practicing Catholics affiliated with the University and serves no meaningful purpose. I urge you to use the power entrusted to you properly, and to cancel this scandalous event. If this event goes forward, I will have no choice but to stop supporting USD and to encourage everyone I know to do the same.
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From: –
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 11:12 AM
To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Cc:
Subject: FW: Message/Action Alert from Charles Limandri re USD’s First Drag Show on April 11, 2012
President Lyons,
My name is ________. I’m an alumnus of USD, Class of 1999 and 2000. I’m also an active, practicing Catholic
and have been my entire life. I received the email below regarding an event on campus called ‘Drag Show” from Charles Limandri. I have to say, I’m appalled by the notion that this would be a welcomed event on campus. I recognize that not everyone in attendance of the university is a Catholic. However, the institution itself is Catholic and sponsored events should not be in direct conflict with the core values of the institution. I have never had a problem with the choice people make in terms of their sexual orientation. I do not agree with the choice, but what I’ve learned through my faith and religious education/upbringing to not judge and to love the person regardless of their beliefs or practices.
Part of the appeal that led to my decision to attend USD was the fact that it was a Catholic institution. This is however, in direct opposition to what I would have expected to see on campus. I would urge the university to rethink allowing this event to occur on campus, or for the university itself to be in support of such an event.
That is one notion that I’ve never quite understand about the PRIDE movement, I don’t need to have a parade to express my feelings about who I chose to love or whom I feel an attraction towards. To me, that is a private matter.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
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Please Stop the Drag Queen Promotion
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 8:09 PM
Cc:
President Lyons,
USD was a school I had hoped that my daughter would be able to attend one day. I had very high hopes because of its stellar academic reputation. But now I wonder about the decision.
I am profoundly disappointed that my daughter is attending a school that identifies itself with Christ and His teachings yet promotes the very kind of immorality for which He suffered and died. When is USD going to simply follow The One with whom they seem happy to associate when it’s convenient, but fail to do so when it requires them to stand for Christian morality?
Can anyone at USD please justify this proposed “Drag Queen” competition, and the promotion of other illicit sexual behavior, based upon Scripture or Catholic moral teaching? You cannot because it is impossible. There is an obvious difference between ministering to people with sexual disorders and endorsing their sinful behavior.
I had much higher hopes for my daughter’s education at a religious institution than at a secular school. USD has a great academic reputation, but it seems there is functionally little difference with it and the secular school from which my daughter transferred. Actually, it is in some ways worse to be at USD because of the hypocrisy involved.
Apparently USD has lost its moral compass. While is is beyond insulting to host such an event any time, it is acutely so immediately following Holy Week and Easter. This requires a very profound kind of spiritual insensitivity.
But, this week would be a most appropriate one for USD to get its moral compass recalibrated. Please, tell me how the suffering of our Lord has led to promoting the public mockery of Christian virtue at USD? The fact that you have no apparent sense of the inherent vice of this “drag show” and must be lobbied to cancel it ought to give you pause.
Here’s a good moral test. Will you be having a minister there at the transsexual Drag Queen event to invoke God’s blessing on what you are allowing? If you would not have a minister there, then it ought not to be done. If you do, then USD is more lost than even its harshest critics allege. Any lack of leadership by USD to stop this event must be considered an endorsement of it.
I pray this is the beginning of a humble turn back toward sound, Christian moral standards on campus. May I humbly recommend that the entire facility and staff meditate on these very sobering words of the Savior from Matthew 18:6: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be betterfor him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
May God grant you and us all the grace to hear and obey His Word.
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From:
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 10:46 AM
To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Cc:
Subject: USD “drag show”
Dear Dr. Lyons,
I’m writing with reference to the “drag show” scheduled for later this month. I should start with some caveats: First, I’m writing on the basis mainly of the publicly announced information, so I don’t know exactly who authorized or who is promoting this event. Second, I’m not Catholic, and so perhaps I lack standing to say what the Catholic attitude toward this issue is or should be. Third, I understand that operating an institution that aspires to be both Catholic and a university in a largely secular and pluralistic culture requires some difficult and delicate judgments.
That said, I would have thought that the goal of a Catholic university would be to promote mutual respect and compassion for all, as well as recognition of a diversity of beliefs, without actually celebrating and promoting ways of life that are not congruent with a Catholic and Christian outlook. In this respect, the university’s sponsorship of a “drag show” encouraging students to compete to be “USD’s first Supreme Drag Superstar” seems to me to show a serious and regrettable lapse in
J udgment. I think this sort of event and policy makes universities like USD less able to perform the distinctive and valuable service that they are potentially able to offer the world.
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Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2012 8:54 PM
To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Cc:
Subject: USD’s First Drag Show on April 11, 2012
Dear President Mary Lyons,
USD will learn a painful lesson from accepting diversity and multiculturism goals and programs. USD now joins Georgetown, Notre Dame and other Catholic institutions on this demoniac decline.
The Bishop and several clergy are on my mailing list to whom I will announce that my bequest to the Church will be sent elsewhere, if this “Drag Show” takes place on the USD campus.
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Re Drag Show
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 5:52 PM To: president@sandlego.edu
Cc:
I am a graduate of USD, class of 1963, and am writing to express my displeasure for the Drag Show to be held at USD. As USD is a Catholic university, It should be first in the community in instilling Catholilic values and beliefs in its graduate and undergraduate students and I do not believe a “Drag Show” is designed to do that. The Church does not actively support such events, so far as a I know. The Church does teach us not to discriminate against homosexual/lesbian people, which I too agree with. But this event far exceeds what the church teaches.
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From:
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2012 9:25 FM
To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Subject: “drag Queen” contest
Dear President Mary Lyons,
We are alarmed and dismayed that USD would consider a “Drag Queen” contest on campus.
As an active member of our Catholic community, we learned through our Legatus friends that USD is planning a “Drag Queen” contest on campus. It is beyond imagination the damage an event like this would have on the school. For instance, will this event be explained to the parents of the incoming freshman class in time for them to switch to another school because the value of a degree from USD will be greatly diminished?
Ten years ago my wife and I paid the tuition for our niece from Pennsylvania to attend USD to obtain her undergraduate education and we have always spoken well of the University.
If USD goes ahead with a “Drag Queen” contest we will do whatever we can to let as many people as possible know what kind of education USD is promoting.
Thank you for reading this email. We apologize if this email sound threatening and nasty, but we are really, really upset.
Should the school reconsider holding this event you can count on our continued support of USD.
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To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Sent: Mon, Apr 2, 2012 5:23 pm
Subject: April 11 “Drag Event”
Dear Mary,
As an alumnae of CSH El Cajon and attendee at SDCW and immediate past president of the Associated Alumnae/i of the Sacred Heart Los Angeles, I am writing you to express my distress and concern about the April 11th “Drag” event scheduled to celebrate lifestyles which are not in accord with the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church. Tolerance for individuals who pursue such a lifestyle is one thing and is an integral part of our tradition. Actively promoting and celebrating such is another. My dear father, who helped
Bishop Buddy found the Law School at USD must be “turning over in his grave.”
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From:
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 1:14 PM
To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Cc:
Subject: Drag Queen event
Dear Mary:
I have reviewed and concienciously considered the email from Chuck LiMandri about the drag competition to be held at USD. If it had come from any other source I would have considered it to be an April Fool joke. But unfortunately, it does no appear to be a joke.
I attended San Diego College for Women from 1957 to 1961. One of my daughters graduated in 1989 after her 4 years of study. Had they had such an event at the school neither one of us would have attended the college much less the event.
This event does not further the principles established by Rev Mother Hill nor Bishop Buddy and I doubt that it will attract future students of a mind like the school has traditionally fostered.
Please cancel this event.
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From:
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 1:16 PM
To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Subject: Drag Show
Dear President Lyons,
The fact that such an event as the ‘First Drag Show’ would be allowed at the University of San Diego is an EMBARRASSMENT to the entire Catholic Community of San Diego.
I urge you to cancel this event.
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The Drag Show
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 6:03 PM To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Dear President Lyons,
I am going to make this brief, Cancel the show, or stop pretending to be a “Catholic University” and remove all affiliation to the church that Jesus Christ established, It is unacceptable to provide a forum for something that is so offensive to catholic morality.
In Charity replace the show with an outreach to those who are afflicted with same-sex attraction and other abnormal gender related afflictions.
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From:
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 10:37 AM
To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Subject: FW: USD’s First Drag Show on April 11, 2012
Dear President Lyons,
As a former alum and active member/donor of the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate, it is very unfortunate to hear about such activities on campus. I agree with Mr. LiMandri’s position below and am hoping these activities do not continue on campus, 1 have several family members and friends attending the university or soon to be attending and these activities are a disgrace to the campus and an attack against our Catholic faith. As president of the school, I know your plate is full, but I will pray that the Lord guide you on this decision. Thank you for all you do for our university and students.
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“A Bridge Too Far”
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 8:58 PM
To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Dear President Lyons:
I am writing to express my utmost disappointment and dismay at the potential “First Drag Show” in the University Center on April 11, 2012.
I urge you to reconsider holding such an event on the University of San Diego campus.
The repercussions and ramifications towards the entire University and its’ Alumni will only serve to exacerbate the highest degree of negativity and polarization of an honored tradition of Catholic values and moral beliefs.
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From:
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 3:08 PM
To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Cc: Charles Limandri
Subject: Drag Show
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Dear Dr. Lyons,
am a proud alumna of the USD School of Law, Class of ’96. While I was attending, there was an outraged hue and cry when crosses were painted over the doors of the classrooms. I was perplexed all these whiners knew they had enrolled in a CATHOLIC school. Today I learned that USD is permitting a drag show to be performed on campus, and that you do not intend to do anything about it. With the passage of time and the promotion of a licentious agenda, USD has apparently lost touch with its . . . “authentic self.” Please give some thought to the encouragement of Christian virtue and reconsider allowing this pandering and depraved event to take place on USD’s campus.
Sincerely,
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From:
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 10:37 AM
To: <president@sandiego.edu>
Cc: Charles Limandri
Subject: PLEASE STOP THIS AFFRONT
Dear President Mary Lyons,
It is an outrage to learn about the planned events at USD, a Catholic Institution, to host a
‘drag show next week. To host this event any time, but particularly in the Week of Mercy following Easter, it is an obnoxious affront to Christ’s message of forgiveness. One cannot receive forgiveness unless one is sorry. But this rubs salt into the wounds of Christ. The thought is most offensive, as it encourages confusion, depravity, and is plainly wrong.
I keep you and all at USD administration in prayer for return to the Catholic faith (all of it) on which Christ’s Church is built.
Only in that way will there be God’s peace and order.