“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:18
Last weekend, Notre Dame students had the opportunity to spend their Friday night watching university-sponsored porn. At the on-campus movie theater.
The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center’s (DPAC) Browning Cinema screened the pornographic film Babygirl, an “erotic thriller” detailing the collapse of a woman’s family and career after her affair with a much younger intern. As reported by the Rover, “The film contains, according to reviews, ‘extremely long, graphic sexual scenes,’ ‘consensually unclear moments,’ extensive nudity, homosexual relationships, and instances of masturbation and pornography.”
Babygirl was co-presented by the Gender Studies Program and open to the public.
Aside from this scandal, the university’s record hasn’t been spotless, to say the least. The last decade has seen a consistent willingness from the university to excuse depraved immorality under the name of academic freedom and expression.
Starting in 2019, Fr. Jenkins rejected a student-led petition to install a campus-wide pornography filter. It happened again in 2023.
Last year, a coalition of departments hosted a drag show, also in DPAC, as part of a class titled “What a Drag: Drag on Screen—Variations and Meanings.” After students, parents, faculty, and alumni expressed outrage, the Office of the President responded via email, citing “academic freedom.” It stated, “We defend this freedom even when the content of the presentation is objectionable to some or even many. The event you reference is part of a one-credit course in Film, Television, and Theatre on the history of drag, and the principle of academic freedom applies.”
And now, pornographic films are shown at the campus performing arts center—a venue regularly attended by students, faculty, and families of Notre Dame, as well as members of the South Bend community.
This doesn’t seem to be a delivery of the university’s commitment to educating the “mind, body, and spirit” of every Notre Dame student.
Let’s be clear. Babygirl—as well as several other explicit films of the season—was pornographic. Merriam-Webster defines pornography as “the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church writes clearly on this topic:
“Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.”
At a university, particularly a Catholic one, conversations about the truth can, and should abound. Academic freedom is not the enemy of Catholic doctrine; in fact, a Catholic university’s openness to Faith and Reason makes it especially suited to pursue Truth. So why can’t sexually explicit movies be defended under academic freedom?
The purpose of genuine academic freedom is a discovery of and adherence to the truth. This film is completely alien to the search for truth that we aspire to as a Catholic university. In her Mission Statement, Notre Dame pledges to protect this academic freedom, but places a caveat: “The University welcomes all areas of scholarly activity as consonant with its mission, subject to appropriate critical refinement.” If pornographic films aren’t “subject to appropriate critical refinement,” then nothing is.
This blatant disregard for Church teaching must end. If the Catholic Church teaches that civil authorities have a responsibility to prohibit pornography in society, then Notre Dame holds an even greater duty. We ask that Fr. Dowd and his administration immediately end the exposure of students to pornographic and dehumanizing material. We’ve had enough.
Bridgette Rodgers is a junior studying political science and theology. You can contact her at brodger4@nd.edu.
Photo Credit: Matthew Rice
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