42 for ‘Monologues’

CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY — The Falls Church, Va.-based group said 42 Catholic colleges were scheduled to hold productions of “The Vagina Monologues,” a graphic play about feminist views of sexuality, in February and March.

The society, an organization that promotes Catholic identity in higher education, issued a press release to protest the productions.

Some of the colleges that planned to host the play this year included: Creighton University, Omaha, Neb.; DePaul University and Loyola University, Chicago; Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.; St. Louis University; the University of Dayton in Ohio; the University of Notre Dame; and the University of San Francisco.

Pere Marquette

THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL, Feb. 13 — Archbishop Desmond Tutu became only the fourth recipient of Marquette University's highest honor, the Pere Marquette Discovery Award, said the Milwaukee daily.

The retired head of the Anglican church in South Africa, Archbishop Tutu used the occasion to speak in opposition to a war in Iraq.

The Pere Marquette Discovery Award, named after Pere or Father Jacques Marquette, the Jesuit missionary and explorer, was first presented in 1969 to the crew of Apollo 11 — astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins. In 1979, the award was presented to Jesuit theologian Father Karl Rahner, and in 1981 it went to Mother Teresa.

Play Ball

ST. BONAVENTURE UNIVERSITY, Feb. 20 — Franciscan Sister Miriam Cecil, 95, a former professional baseball player, received a distinguished achievement award during the National Girls and Women's Sports Day celebration at the Olean, N.Y., university.

A tomboy, Miriam Rohr played for the New York City Bloomer Girls and eventually earned $25 per game after joining a men's team that was built around her, Kitty Kelly's All-Stars.

After a 16-year career that included being hailed by Babe Ruth as the best female baseball player around, Miriam made a career change.

In 1941, she took the habit of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, N.Y., and has served the Church for more than six decades.

Shock Prof

THE SETONIAN, Feb. 18 — Mary Ann Swissler was fired as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University after sending a profanity-laced e-mail message to her freshmen communications students in which she called them, among other things, “homophobic, sexist” and “racist,” reported the undergraduate newspaper.

The e-mail was a reaction to students’ negative comments about Swissler, a freelance writer and editor, which had been posted on a Web site that lets students rate their professors while remaining anonymous.

The university, administered by the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., apologized to the students.

Bible Talk

FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY, Feb. 20 — A new summer institute on ancient and biblical languages will be inaugurated this year on the Steubenville, Ohio, campus and will include intensive courses in Latin and Greek and introductory courses in biblical Hebrew, the university announced.

The institute is designed to give students the opportunity to study and read classical, early Christian and biblical texts. They can earn 12 foreign language credits by completing the summer Greek or Latin programs and six credits for Hebrew.