News

Updated: 02/02/11 at 16:22

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 1, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Georgetown University, a Catholic academic institution run by the Society of Jesus, has given a platform to the nation’s leading homosexual activist organization, the Human Rights Campaign.

According to a listing on Georgetown University’s website, HRC President Joe Solmonese was scheduled to give a lecture in Copley Hall Tuesday, today, at 4 pm. The lecture is entitled “Beyond DADT Repeal: The Future of the LGBTQ Rights Movement.”

The lecture was restricted to students, faculty, and staff at Georgetown University, and was sponsored by the Georgetown Lecture Fund, LGBTQ Resource Center, and Georgetown Pride.

Solmonese is one of the foremost advocates for same-sex “marriage” and lobbied hard to get Congress to rescind its ban on homosexuals in the military.

His planned lecture at Georgetown drew criticism from the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS), a Catholic education watchdog organization.

According to CNS, by hosting the president of the Human Rights Campaign, Georgetown University “is in direct violation” of a United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) directive called “Catholics in Political Life,” which says those who oppose the teachings of the Church should not be given “platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” (see document here)

However, Anna O. Thomas, Vice Chair for External Affairs for the Georgetown University Lecture Fund, said that the Lecture Fund in no way meant to suggest that they support Solmonese or his views.

“As a non-partisan organization, we do not endorse any comments made by speakers we host,” Thomas told LifeSiteNews.com in an email. “[L]ikewise, such views are in no way representative of the beliefs of our members.”

Thomas said they were trying to provide the Georgetown community with “a diverse menu of speakers” and they selected Solmonese because he has “undoubtedly played a pivotal role in the gay rights movement in the United States, a subject which has captured the attention of many Americans.”

She also added that the Lecture Fund was seeking “suggestions or contacts for an alternative viewpoint” to Solmonese and that they “are currently working to develop an event that provides such a perspective.”

The Georgetown Lecture Fund describes itself as a non-partisan student-run organization whose mission “to broaden and enrich Georgetown University’s student body by encouraging dialogue and debate.”