NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      SOUTH BEND, Indiana (CWNews.com) - Trustees of the University of Notre Dame will meet this weekend consider whether to adopt a new anti-discrimination policy that would explicitly include homosexuals as a protected group for the first time.

      Discrimination over gender, race, or creed is already forbidden, and university officials have said they don't believe the policy needs to be expanded. "The primary spirit animating this is moral, because whereas in a secular environment this is seen as a simple matter of civil rights, that's not the way it's viewed through a Catholic prism," said spokesman Dennis Moore. However, about 100 students began a hunger strike on Wednesday to protest the current policy.

      The proposed policy change was approved last year by the Faculty Senate and the Academic Council. University President Father Edward Malloy had urged the Academic Council to reject the proposal last November, and Moore said Father Malloy would argue against it again this week when the trustees meet in London.