In frigid air, a quiet crowd armed with signs gathered in front of campus for what they called a “prayerful protest” of Loyola’s production of “The Vagina Monologues.”

Alumni and members from various prayer groups protested the March 4 showing of the play, which they believe compromises Catholic values.

“This is my alma mater, and I’m so depressed about what’s happening at Loyola,” protestor Thais Carrere, A’62, said. “I’m very disappointed that my university is not Catholic anymore.”

Funds from ticket sales are going to the New Orleans Battered Women’s Association, but one protester said this does not justify the play’s content.

“I know the money goes to battered women, but you can’t do wrong to get to a right,” Miriam Ogden said. “It is wrong and degrading to women. I’m sorry young girls are being exposed to this.”

Play director Gabriela Rivera, mass communication sophomore, said that while she knows the protesters were peaceful, she also wishes they would give the play a chance.

“(The protestors) were elderly, they weren’t shouting, they weren’t throwing eggs at us – it was a peaceful protest,” she said. “But they didn’t fully understand … I wish they knew what the ‘Vagina Monologues’ was all about.”

While many protesters said they had not seen the play – just heard about it – Thomas Drake from the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property has read the play. He referred to the monologue “The Little Coochie-Snorter That Could,” in which the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl – who had been formerly abused by an older man – by a 24-year-old woman is referred to as “a good rape” by the girl.

“How is this on a Catholic campus when it is so contrary to Catholic morals and teachings?” Drake said.

Defending the monologue, Rivera said that while legally, the girl was raped, she thinks that the connotation of the word does not accurately describe the events.

“It’s not the way she feels about it,” she said about the girl. “She genuinely had feelings for her. It was an experience that changed her life.” She also added that the monologues in the play were based on interviews, and were not word fo word accounts.

The noticeably cold protesters, who stood holding up signs and a statue of Mary, planned to dissipate as the show was getting ready to begin.

“We’ll be here not much longer,” Drake said. “It’s cold.”

Lauren LaBorde can be reached at [email protected].