Dr. Janet Smith, professor of Moral Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, presented the Catholic church’s views on homosexuality to 250 students, faculty and staff on Tuesday.

Smith is a noted expert on ethics and bioethics issues and has published numerous articles pertaining to the church’s view on homosexuality.

Her presentation was co-sponsored by Creighton Students Union, Creighton Knights of Columbus and Creighton Students for Life.

Smith said the church does not see homosexuals as inherently evil, but said the act of homosexuality is evil in itself.

“The sexual relationship is meant to be a sacramental sign, and the homosexual relationship can’t do that,” Smith said. “It is not natural. It is not the way nature was designed.”

Smith said the desire to fulfill this sexual need is a universal problem and is not a problem unique to homosexuals.

“There is a universal need for chastity,” Smith said. “Just because I have this desperate need, does not mean I can satisfy it in anyway. I must satisfy it the right way.”

Smith welcomed questions from the crowd and encouraged those who object to the church’s teaching to share their views. As with all controversial issues, some debate was sparked.

She discussed counseling options for individuals struggling with homosexuality, though the Catholic doctrine does not specifically mention this as an option.

“The church has not made a final statement to it being an inborn or genetic disorder. It maintains that it is a disordered desire, but it is not morally evil to be homosexual,” said Eileen Burke-Sullivan, director of Master of Arts in Ministry. “This is still an area of development.”

Members of the Gay-Straight Alliance expressed concerns to a variety of university and student officials about this portion of Smith’s presentation before the talk.

Members of the organization do not believe this teaching is in line with the mission statement of Creighton.

“Speaking for the organization, our problem does not lie with Janet Smith. The majority of what she taught was Catholic teaching, however the prevention and treatment aspects of her teaching were not catholic teaching,” said Marie Young, Arts & Sciences junior and Gay-Straight Alliance vice president for educational programming.

In that sense, we were upset she was paid to come to campus.”

Business junior Micah White, Creighton Students Union president, said Wednesday that just because CSU funds an event, it does not necessarily mean the organization endorses that event. She also said that CSU tries not to take stances on issues, and she is glad the event created dialogue.

Still, GSA members are concerned about the effects of the discussion on Creighton students.

“From the standpoint of our organization, we want students to be educated, and we don’t want them to be educated to the point that it is detrimental to their health,” Young said. “To ask someone to change something that is so big a part of them is a scary message to send to people.”

Administrators said they followed up on students’ concerns and consulted the Rev. Andy Alexander, S.J., in University Ministry about the issue to decide if Smith’s talk would be appropriate.

Tanya Winegard, assistant vice president for Student Life, said they are willing to listen to students and want to create dialogue as an institution dedicated to learning. She said the administration consulted Alexander as an expert on the issue.

“Our mission statement says that we are here to pursue the truth in all its forms,” Alexander said. “People can disagree but we should be open to dialogue with people who are presenting different data to us.”

Alexander said creating dialogue between students is the most important point of Smith’s visit to Creighton.

“I think this is very important. There is no place on this campus for bigotry. There is no place on this campus for the kind of prejudice that categorizes people and judges them,” Alexander said. “That is what we talk about when we talk about dialogue. So if we had a speaker who came and spoke respectfully with a different point of view about the Catholic view of sexuality perhaps that is a good thing.”