SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Kerry Walsh knew there'd be talk when a group of students proposed putting on "The Vagina Monologues" at the University of Notre Dame.

The Eve Ensler play, based on discussions with 200 girls and women about their feelings for their anatomy, includes sections about homosexuality, orgasms and rape.

"I knew from the get-go there was going to be some point where the university or someone would put their foot down and say, 'We really need to talk about this,' " said Walsh, who was a senior English major when she directed the play.

Four years later, that time has come.

The Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, announced last month he was scaling back the play this year — limiting it to a classroom setting and barring ticket sales. He is seeking input from students, faculty and alumni on whether it and another controversial event, previously called The Queer Film Festival, should be allowed at all.

It's a discussion more Catholic universities are having as "The Vagina Monologues" becomes a seemingly unsolvable dilemma for the schools. Allow the performance and they are criticized for going against church teachings. Ban it and they're accused of stifling academic freedom.

"When you put Catholic university in your title and your Web site looks like the 'Bells of St. Mary's,' you set up an image that students expect," said Malcolm A. Kline, executive director of Accuracy in Academia, a nonprofit watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.

The play, usually performed around Valentine's Day, is being put on by students from about 20 Roman Catholic schools this year, including DePaul and Georgetown universities and Boston College. But several schools — including Providence College — have banned it, saying it sends the wrong message.

"A Catholic university that sponsors a production of 'The Vagina Monologues' would be running at odds with its Catholic mission by promoting and providing time, space and money ... to a production that is so deeply antithetical to the way Catholics think about sex," said the Rev. Brian Shanley, Providence College's president.

Walsh, now a civil rights lawyer in Chicago, said she understands the problem the universities face. "They do have a responsibility to follow the values of the morality of Catholicism," she said.

At the same time, she said, Catholic schools are still "100 percent a university. And a university is meant to be a place of learning, a place of ideas, a place where you can say what you want and learn from what others say and what others think."

Walsh thinks the argument over "The Vagina Monologues" helps elevate awareness of violence against women, and she hopes it continues.

"I hope the debate goes on forever," she said. "Will there ever be an answer? I don't know. Whatever happens, it's wonderful to see how we get there."