Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I would like to introduce myself, my name is Jose Espinoza and I am also the founder and President of the Catholic Newman Club on campus.

For those of you who might not know who we are: we are a new club on campus that is trying to reach out to the Catholic community on campus. We are also here to educate and to bring awareness about the Catholic faith to the students, faculty and staff. Our mission is to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Rio Hondo campus. To promote activities such as bible study, Catholic apologetics, guest speakers and social justice. So, now, with this information all of you now know who we are and how we are a ministry.

At this point in time I would like to address a recent article that came out in the El Paisano paper on May 1st regarding an incident that happened on Monday April 27th. On this day, a man named Paul Mitchell came on to campus where he proclaimed to be teaching students on campus about the Bible and scriptures. This person is pretty well known on college campuses for making provocative statements and creating controversy based on religious beliefs.

The article written by Salomon Baeza, goes on to mention that a student affiliated with the Newman Club spoke up in defense of Mitchell and his guest, saying that Mitchell was just here to "save you because he's your neighbor."

I know that this student, who may or may not have been with the Newman Club, had the best of intentions. He was trying to be a peacemaker between Mitchell and the booing students, however as the president of Newman Club would wish that our name will not be drag into this incident. I would like to make clear that Newman Club is not in any way affiliated or in alliance with these individuals that came to campus.

Instead, I would ask that those of you who believe in prayer to pray for those two men who came on campus using confrontational methods to spread Jesus's message of peace and love.

I would also like to address an article that came out in the El Paisano two or three months ago.

This particular article was written by Stefanie Rojas and her thesis was anger towards the current Pope of the Catholic Church. Her report was about how the Pope had pardoned a holocaust denial.

Rojas was giving her opinion that the previous successor was a better Pope than the current one today because he was more tolerant towards the Jewish faith.

The writer was also accusing the pope of being part of the Nazi youth group and directly participated in atrocities against Jews. There is so much misinformation that I do not know where to start, but I can tell you, as a Catholic I was upset that this person has a gripe with the current pope and the church in general, if this person would like to find out issues about the catholic church and if any one has any disagreements or questions I encourage all students on campus to check us out.

You may contact the Catholic Newman Club on campus by contacting the student activities at (562) 692-0921 ext 6647, Hannah Perstano is the person to speak with. You can also email Newman Club at newmanclub.rio@gmail.com. I would also like to invite Ms. Rojas to our club and get some answers about the current Pope,

In conclusion I hope I have made clear that we are just a group of Catholic students who love the students and the campus of Rio Hondo College and we are always praying for everyone on this campus.


Jose Espinoza
President
Catholic Newman Club