On March 8, Jesuit University of San Francisco (USF) hosted the performance of a play that challenges Church teaching on homosexuality after San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer cancelled its performance at diocesan parish, according to a story in California Catholic Daily. Student actors from Sacred Heart Preparatory School planned to perform “Be Still and Know” at a San Francisco-area parish until Archbishop Niederauer cancelled the performance. After the cancellation, the play’s promoters moved the production to Jesuit-run University of San Francisco.

An advertisement for “Be Still and Know” said that it “presents the struggles of teenagers with Christian teaching on homosexuality.” After the play was performed at USF, Archdiocese of San Francisco spokesman Maurice Healy said in a statement, “I had not heard this. The Archbishop, I am sure, was not aware of this. He presently is in Rome at a communications seminar.”

The day following the play’s performance, the University’s Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought and LGBTQ Caucus hosted a talk by an openly gay, former Jesuit priest, James Nicholoff, on Proposition 8, the California marriage amendment. The talk was described by USF as “a community conversation exploring gay marriage and Catholic identity in light of Proposition 8.”

The Cardinal Newman Society reported last month about USF’s sponsorship of The Vagina Monologues. The Jesuit school was one of a dwindling number of Catholic campuses that hosted the Monologues in 2009. Source: California Catholic Daily