To:
Subject: Re: For those who do not have a voice.
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2007 20:51:09
Dear ...,
Thank you for your message. I commend your concern for the unborn.
However, I cannot look at the Alliance on Teen Pregnancy as simplistically as you seem to do.
It is not and has never been the mainstream Catholic position, and certainly is not the Jesuit position, that we should run away from public discussions of issues that are important to us just because of the presence of those whose positions or activities we find to be wrong...I must point out that the strategy of some pro-life groups to shun Planned Parenthood and thus discredit them in the public eye, however justified in theory, has been a miserable failure in practice. To the extent that the Church has tried it, all it has done is marginalize its own voice, which is tragic.
By refusing to take part in broad-based efforts to help young girls and their children, we play into the hands of Planned Parenthood, who want to portray us as only caring for our own ideology and not for the welfare of women. I think that...a much sounder strategy of involving itself in important efforts to protect the welfare of children and young people in ways that we find morally acceptable. If successful these efforts could lead to fewer abortions. In any event, given importance of the work done by the Alliance and the involvement of Catholic Charities and other Catholic groups, I don't see that we are compelled to withdraw from the agreement to rent space to them.
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