V-Day supports the dedicated student organizers at the University of Notre Dame and we encourage the Notre Dame community to embrace them and their efforts.

Last year, V-Day events on the Notre Dame campus raised over $15,000 for local women’s shelters and raised the national awareness of the issue of violence against women. For years, the Notre Dame events have enjoyed widespread community support from civic and academic leaders, media, and the community at large.

We are dismayed by President John Jenkins’ decision to restrict the full-scale benefit production this year and from barring the organizers from charging admission to the event, effectively denying critical funds to local organizations working to end violence against women and girls.

President Jenkins’ discussion on reconciling “catholic values” and academic freedom does not change the fact that the true and often devastating stories that are the foundation of "The Vagina Monologues" have inspired thousands, if not millions, of people to join V-Day in its efforts to stop all violence against women and girls.

The heart of these V-Day productions is to raise critical funds and awareness to end the violence that will affect one in three women in their lifetime. The V-Day movement grew out of audience reactions to seeing performances of “The Vagina Monologues,” and the telling of these stories is cathartic, allowing women who hear them to know that they are not alone in their experience, and helping them to heal.

“The Vagina Monologues” is a literary and dramatic text. We are troubled by religious voices that ignore the real world suffering of women and that cannot reconcile their teachings with reality. It would be sad to witness funds that could have been raised to prevent and heal rape and violence be curtailed by a spiritual institution.

V-Day