"He's my hero," said Kristen Lewandowzki, A&S '08. The senior member of the group Allies, which encourages discussion of sexual orientation on the Boston College campus, was referring to the Rev. James Keenan, S.J., a professor in the theology department. In the wake of years of sexual scandal within the church, Keenan has become a hero to many, both inside and outside of the BC community.
Keenan is widely known as a major voice not only on BC's campus, but also throughout the state of Massachusetts for his stance on issues of sexuality and faith. Perhaps best remembered in Massachusetts for his controversial testimony in court opposing a bill that sought to make gay union illegal, after which he lost his full-time professorship at the Weston School of Theology; Keenan is certainly not a man afraid to foster discussion.
This made Keenan the perfect choice for the second part of a multi-part series, sponsored by the GLBTQ Leadership Council (GLC) and the theology department, that will continue into the spring semester, entitled, "Sexuality and Catholicism: Conversation and Conflict." His lecture, which focused on the issue of virtue and sexual ethics, brought to light the poor state of sexual health on BC's campus, as proven by the University's failing grade on the Trojan sexual health report card earlier this semester, and how BC can work to rectify this problem within the context of the Catholic tradition.
"We're at a point [in human history] where we know sex is important, but we don't know how to talk about it. This is because we don't have a safe place to talk about it, and this is where perhaps universities come in," Keenan said.
Keenan's dialogue with the approximately 30 students who showed up to the event centered on his idea that we have become an "act-based ethical society," meaning we concentrate on what one can or can't do in regard to sexual acts. He believes, however, that we should look back to the ancient thinkers, including Plato and Aristotle, who focused on virtue. Virtue, he argued, is more beneficial in our postmodern society because it allows for the cultivation of a self-identity, training students to look at their sexual ethics and how they shape who they are.
2008 Woodie Awards
