Posted on 01/25/2003 8:14:12 AM PST by Akron Al
Retreat for Gay and Lesbian Catholics
September 27-29, 2002
Jesuit Retreat House, Parma
You're close. How about paternal? Yesterday I heard a great sermon about the lack of true fatherhood in the priesthood. This priest held no punches. He said the pre-Vatican II system went too far in the exercise of authority by pastors and bishops (and fathers) and the post-Vatican II system has gone too far in the opposite direction. I'm sure he riled many on both sides. Oh well...
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----- Original Message -----
From: Rjssj@aol.com
To: bjkdig@floodcity.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 11:09 AM
Subject: Response
Dear Dr. Kopp:
I received your e-mail. I have asked the JRH director to respond to all e-mails regarding the speaking event with a text that also expresses my position on this event.
Robert Scullin, S.J.
rjssj@aol.com
*****
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 1:01 PM
Subject: JRH program
Dear Dr. Kopp,
For your information, Regina Brett has been invited to speak at Jesuit Retreat House on integrating spirituality and daily life and not on matters dealing with Church teaching on moral issues. Jesuit Retreat House's invitation to her to speak on this specific topic implies no endorsement on the the part of the retreat house or the Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus of any position contrary to Church teaching. Church teaching on specific moral issues is simply not the focus of this event. Those who make a different assumption are free to do so, of course. But her speaking at JRH on retreats and everyday spirituality implies no endorsement of any position contrary to Church teaching.
Fr. Clem Metzger, SJ
JRH Director
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CC: pburnsjrh@att.net; c.metzgersj@att.net; jrhcleve@att.net; rjssj@aol.com; ljurcak@dioceseofcleveland.org; eestok@dioceseofcleveland.org ----- Original Message -----
From: Dr. Brian Kopp
To: pburnsjrh@att.net
Cc: Fr. Ed Estok
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 3:09 PM
Subject: Re: JRH program
Dear Mr. Burns,
Regina Brett has a history of public statements wholly at odds with Church moral teachings. Her dissenting comments noted in this particular column, i.e.,
* Don't tell us to oppose sex education. We should try everything to prevent unplanned pregnancies, including teaching abstinence and birth control.
* Don't lump pregnancies from rape and incest with those who choose abortion out of convenience or use it as birth control.
* Don't tell us you are proudly pro-life but refuse to discuss stem-cell research that could save existing lives. * Don't tell us we should make every abortion illegal, even when a mother's life is in jeopardy. Is it pro-life to let a pregnant woman die?
* Don't tell us that a full human being begins at conception. It's not that simple, when we have embryos conceived in petri dishes and frozen for years for infertile couples. .
* Tell us what you will do to make sure all insurance companies cover birth control.
simply cannot be spun or explained away by an appeal to St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises.
Your attempt at doing so is disingenuous at best. This speaker is a known vocal public dissenter on the Church's teachings on sex education, abortion, and birth control.
It is a grave scandal in having her speak at a Catholic retreat, regardless of the subject matter on which she is speaking there.
Pope John Paul II has made it quite clear that the roots of the present crisis in our Church is an acceptance of and fostering of dissent, especially in moral theology.
Regina Brett's views on sex education, abortion, and birth control typify the dissent to which our Holy Father refers.
I'd like to know if you are planning to cancel Ms. Brett's talk now that I have made you aware of her various public opinions which are supportive of the Culture of Death and stand in direct opposition to Church teaching.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter. I await your response.
In Christ,
Dr. Brian J. Kopp
303 Budfield St.
Johnstown PA 15904
Vice President, Catholic Family Association of America, http://www.cathfam.org/
Officer of the Board, The Polycarp Research Institute, http://www.polycarp.org/
Board Member, Counselors for Life
Board Member, Lay Stewardship
Former Trustee at Large, Mom's House Inc. National Headquarters, http://www.momshouse.org/johnstownhq.html
Instructor, Natural Family Planning of the Alleghenies
Freelance writer, with articles published in New Oxford Review, The Wanderer, Podiatry Today, various Catholic internet websites, as well as local newspapers and diocesan Catholic papers, some of which are linked here: http://www.marysremnant.org/Friends/DBK/index.html
Podiatric Physician/surgeon, and homeschooling dad of three.
*****(
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 2:29 PM
Subject: re: JRH program
Dear Dr. Koop,
Thank you for contacting me about your concern that Regina Brett has been asked to speak at JRH. We have asked Ms. Brett to speak about her experience of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and her efforts to live her spirituality in her daily life. We have known her for many years as a practitioner of the Spiritual Exercises. Her presentation is part of a series of occasional talks by lay men and women from many walks of professional life. All are asked to speak about the same topic. We ask your prayers that this day and the entire series will be helpful and challenging to all who participate.
As for your concern that she is writing things contrary to the teaching of the Church, perhaps it is pertintent for all of us to reflect on the "Presupposition" the St. Ignatius himself puts at the beginning of his Spiritual Exercises:
PRESUPPOSITION
"That both the giver and maker of the spiritual Exercises may be of greater help and benefit to each other, it should be presupposed that every good Christian ought to be more eager to put a good interpretation on a neighbor's statement than to condemn it. Further, if we cannot interpret it favorably, one should ask how the other means it. If that meaning is wrong, one should correct the person with love; and if this is not enough, one should search out every appropriate means through which, by understanding the statement in a good way, it may be saved."
Thank you for your concern,
Patrick W. Burns
Development Director
Jesuit Retreat House
Indeed.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Brian Kopp"
To: pburnsjrh@att.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 2:23 PM
Subject: Re: JRH program
Dear Fr. Metzger,
An individual who dissents from the Church on abortion, contraception, sex ed, and homosexuality (see below), could not possibly have either a mature integrated personality nor a faithful, cohesive spirituality, Ignatian or otherwise. One cannot call oneself "Catholic" when they are diametrically opposed to basic tenents of Catholic moral theology, as our Pope recently pointed out.
Your response is inadequate.
Having this individual speak at your retreat house is indeed an endorsement of her dissent from the Church on abortion, contraception, sex ed, and homosexuality. One does not grant the podium to such unless one is tolerant of or in agreement with such dissent.
I suggest you reconsider this ringing endorsement of a vocal public proponent of the Culture of Death, especially abortion, this being the 30th anniversary of Roe versus Wade.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kopp
I doubt they will cancel the speaker, but at least we can write them to voice our outrage at this scandal.
pburnsjrh@att.net; c.metzgersj@att.net; jrhcleve@att.net; rjssj@aol.com; ljurcak@dioceseofcleveland.org; eestok@dioceseofcleveland.org
"Dear Father Metzger:
"I learned that the Jesuit Retreat House has invited Regina Brett to speak on February 2, 2003 after the Magis Mass and Brunch. This is an outrage and an affront to the Catholic Faith. Ms. Brett has publicly advocated radical doctrines that are directly contrary to the Church, particularly with regard to homosexuality and abortion. In one article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer addressing homosexual “marriage,” Ms.Brett directly took issue with the Church’s teaching on the disordered nature of homosexual actions and essentially mocked the Book of Exodus as unjust. Moreover, Ms. Brett’s musings on abortion are particularly offensive, as she shows no regard for the innocent human life so cruelly destroyed in the name of “choice.”
"Ms. Brett is free to express her opinions, but to afford her the podium at a Jesuit institution is appalling. It is no answer to say that Ms. Brett will not be spouting her opinions on morals; her body of professional work shows that she is opposed to basic Catholic moral tenets, most starkly illustrated by her public pronouncements on a woman’s “right” to kill her unborn child in utero. Clearly, Ms. Brett’s public positions should preclude any thinking Catholic organization from giving her a forum. Would you let a public racist like David Duke speak at the Jesuit Retreat House, even if the subject was completely unrelated to racial issues? Of course not, because Duke’s offensive views on race are contrary to Catholic teachings. You wouldn’t let David Duke speak about his golf game at the Jesuit Retreat House. So why is the virulently pro-abortion columnist Regina Brett invited to speak at the Jesuit Retreat House?
"You should be ashamed of yourself, Father. In the name of Saint Ignatius and all the great Jesuit saints, martyrs, and priests, what are you thinking?
Very truly yours, [D-Back]"
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