St. Mary’s College, located next to the famous Notre Dame in Indiana, has approximately 1,600 undergraduate students, all females. Its founding dates back to 1844.
According to a College Fix story, St. Mary’s student Claire Bettag submitted an application to recognize a Turning Point chapter but it was rejected by the school for Turning Point's stance of transgenders, such as men competing in women’s sports.
“Why should I have to fight to allow Catholicism to be taught at a Catholic university?” Bettag told the Fix. “If I wanted to attend a liberal school, I would have considered an Ivy League university.”
Bettag told the Fix the application was rejected by two college officials, Dean of Students Gloria Jenkins and the vice president of enrollment, Lori Johnson. Both of them researched Turning Point USA and were unhappy with its stances on politics and cultural issues, the student said.
Matt Lamb, associated editor of The College Fix, tells AFN the Catholic college openly and proudly supports homosexual ideology, which the Catholic Church opposes. The watchdog group discovered St. Mary’s allows a “Sexuality and Gender Equity Club” on campus.
"That doesn't send a very strong message about the university's Catholic faith,” he observes. “I mean, it also raises questions about their theology department, philosophy department, the departments where we would expect these views to come up."
Lamb says parents who are sending their children to St. Mary’s, and are assuming they are getting a traditional Catholic education, should be sending them to a school that promotes those beliefs.
