Catholic Church Permitting Pro-Abortion Group in Schools

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I came across this on the website of the American Jewish Committee:

"C/JEEP, a six-year old exchange program sends rabbis into Catholic high schools and priests and sisters into Jewish high schools in an educational effort to deepen mutual understanding about Judaism and Catholicism. Operating in five cities across the nation, the program is funded by a grant from Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation, and administered by Dr. Amy Rosenbaum, AJC's Assistant Director of Interreligious Affairs."

This is quite sad since the AJC is pro-abortion (go to the section marked "family life"). Does the Roman Catholic Church consider the AJC a good representative of Judaism? Also, why would the Catholic church want to be associated with a Hollywood type like Spielberg?

The wesbite is http://www.ajc.com

-- Steve Jackson (SteveJ100@Hotmail.com), May 05, 2000

Answers

From Mark 2 ...
16: And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" 17: And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

In imitation of her founder, Steve, full Christianity (Catholicism) is not a religion that shuns outsiders, even if they are notorious sinners or approve of evil deeds (such as abortion). The only chance of helping a person draw nearer to conversion of heart is to remain in contact with him and show him that he is loved and respected. [I'm ashamed to say that I too often fail in this way myself.]

Folks have reminded you of this in the past, Steve. I'm sorry to see that you have forgotten or rejected their reasoning. It almost seems as those you have a self-righteous, ongoing project of unearthing and exposing ways that the Catholic Church has contact with unsavory characters, in order to tear her down in our eyes. Such a project is a waste of time and must be displeasing to Our Lord.

Shalom.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), May 05, 2000.

For my part, I think Spielberg is a fantastic movie director. He produced films that were very entertaining at the same time as promoting good values. I think he is a rather approacheable Jew. His masterpiece "Schindler4s List" is awesome and made me burst into tears more than once (I watch this film whenever I can)... By the way, the Pope has seen this film again and again and was deeply moved by it (see "Inside the Vatican" magazine). The only flaw is a sex scene which was not necessary, but this does not invalidate the overall film4s value.

God Bless, Atila

-- Atila (atila@b.c), May 05, 2000.


John: So loving sinners means permitting them to corrupt your childrens' morals in schools?

Atila: Good to know that you and the Pope watch dirty movies.

-- Steve Jackson (SteveJ100@hotmail.com), May 05, 2000.


Steve,
Your question does not merit an answer, because it implies that you hate sinners. If you really do, you are endangering your soul.
I pointed out how Jesus loved sinners and treated them well. He did not FORCE them to reform. You unrealistically seem to require Catholics to FORCE pro-death Jewish people to reform. I will not able to take your messages seriously until a light comes on in your head.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), May 05, 2000.

Atila, You said,

For my part, I think Spielberg is a fantastic movie director.

Now this is pretty OT, but I take it you didn't see the newest Star Wars? That had to be the most *boring* movie I've seen in a long time. It was SO bad, I won't see the next one at all, or if I do, I'll wait till it hits video.

JFG,

I understand what you're saying, but I'm sending my kids to Catholic schools to help teach them a code of values in addition to education in the three Rs. I would hope that if a pro-abortion platform was presented to them, the faculty of the schools would disagree, and not just go along silently with it to avoid offending their guests.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), May 06, 2000.



Oh, I agree with you absolutely, Frank.

But I was not led, by Steve's original message, to believe that any pro-abort propaganda would come before the Catholic students. Here is what he quoted:

"C/JEEP, a six-year old exchange program sends rabbis into Catholic high schools and priests and sisters into Jewish high schools in an educational effort to deepen mutual understanding about Judaism and Catholicism. Operating in five cities across the nation, the program is funded by a grant from Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation, and administered by Dr. Amy Rosenbaum, AJC's Assistant Director of Interreligious Affairs." [In other words, it seems unlikely to involve pro-death indoctrination.]

To play it safe, since folks from the AJC (rather than Orthodox Jewish rabbis, who are pro-life) are involved, I think that a faithful Catholic faculty member should sit in on every session and watch for trouble. The guest lecturers should be advised in advance not to promote certain ideas. Any violation should result in the lecture (and probably the whole program) being ended.
God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), May 06, 2000.

Maybe the group shouldn't be let in at all. If I were a RC parent spending my hard-earned money on a Catholic school, I would be outraged at this. Moreover, having Orthodox rabbis teach children would be equally bad, considering what their "religion" teaches about our Lord and His mother.

-- Steve Jackson (SteveJ100@hotmail.com), May 07, 2000.

Dear Steve, I'm not a Spielberg fan at all. Even in Saving Private Ryan an otherwise fine movie, he descended to juvenile puerility having the Private entertain his friends with the 'story' of his martyred brothers' sexual escapades [rape on the farm], as if this made the boys even more lovable. --Stupid.

However, his association with this AJC isn't about to corrupt any Catholic kids. Not half as much as prime time TV does. Nor is AJC coming into a Catholic school aiming at converting kids to pro-abortion. That would be like saying everybody that listens to Barbra Streisand is going to fall into the abortion camp without realizing it. If you are in doubt about it, why don't you contact Dr. Amy Rosenbaum? Not just this forum.

-- Eugene Chavez (rechavez@popmail.ucsd.edu), May 07, 2000.


Eugene,

I did contact Amy Rosenbaum to find out more about this program; however, I got an automatic response that she's out on maternity leave.

-- Steve Jackson (SteveJ100@hotmail.com), May 09, 2000.


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