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The Council of Centers on Jewish Christian Relations invited our President and Mary McCallugh to the 8th. Annual meeting to take place Nov 1 & 2 in Boca Raton.

1. September 2, 2010:
   MINUTES FROM THE MEETING WITH ARCHBISHOP THOMAS WENSKI
   Bernardo began by telling the Archbishop of the meeting with Cardinal Keeler 6 months ago and getting his agreement to send the letter to all Bishops the priests offering the brochures.
   He told the Archbishop of the mailings we have done to various dioceses and schools/universities.
   He agreed to have brochures distributed to the priests of the Archdiocese at the 21 September meeting. We are delivering the brochures to Bishop Noonan who is responsible for preparing the materials for that 21 Sept meeting.
   Archbishop Dolan is now the contact (replaced Cardinal Keeler).
   Archbishop Wenksi agreed to email Archbishop Dolan to remind him of the request to send the letter to all priests about the brochures.
   Sam Miller was brought up as a potential contact with donors for the STU Institute as well as for the Archdiocese and its schools.
   The Archbishop also mentioned names an individual to contact:
   Mons. Carruthers at St. Augustine Church at UMiami
   The Archbishop said that our work is an “important effort.”
   He recounted his recent meeting with Rabbi Schiff and his experiences preparing for the visit of Pope John Paul II to Miami.
2. August 11, 2010:
   We are happy to report that on Wednesday, August 11, we met with Msgr. Franklyn Casale, President of St. Thomas University.
   In one sentence he said: "Bernardo we are inviting you to house OEBS as part of an Interreligious Institute at STU". We were extraordinarily happy and surprised to hear this proposition.
   
   Some of the items mentioned at the meeting were:
   
   1. OEBS needs to develop a plan for the creation and activities of the Institute. We would continue to do what we are doing, plus some community and academic activities.
      
      
   2. Since STU may not have the resources to underwrite our activities, OEBS needs also to develop a plan to fund the Institute.
      This meeting was acknowledged by all to be a very preliminary step to explore the possibilities and opportunities afforded by Msgr. Casale's proposal. I will continue to inform you of progress made as we look into all aspects of this extraordinary event.
3. March 30, 2009:
   Letter from Cardinal William H Keeler
4. March 05, 2009:
   "On March 5, 2009, Fr. Patrick Desbois, a French Catholic priest, was invited to make a presentation at the Shul of Surfside-Rabbi, Shalom Lipskar has been its founder and Rabbi all this time"...read more
5. February 24th, 2009:
   A most auspicious event took place recently (Feb 24) at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami....read more
   
6. Tidbit
7. Tidbit (November 18-22, 2008: Panama)
   
8. From the President's Desk.
   (30 Things Everyone Should Know about Our Foundation)
9. Brief report of activities
10. From the President's Desk.
    (The day we met with pope Benedict XVI- Washington ,D.C.- April 17,2008)
11. XIX National Convention of the Polish American Priests Association (P.A.P.A.). Orlando, Florida, April 1, 2008.
12. Activities at the Vatican - 2007
    Comments and activities as a result of our visit to the Vatican
    Letter from Rev. Msgr. James F. Checchio, JCD, MBA
    Letter from Walter Cardinal Kasper
13. Sandra Ramirez: As a result of her extraordinary performance as our appointment secretary and assistant while we were visiting the Vatican, we appointed Sandra Ramirez as our representative in Europe with residence in Rome. Sandra was born in Mexico and resides in Rome. She is a graduate of communications at the Pontifician Universita Gregoriana . She has been working with Fr. Ernesto Fernadez-Travieso S.J at the Radio Vaticana.
14. We have been invited to the First Conference at the Vatican of Lay Catholic and Jewish Leaders of 25 Cities in the United States. There will be 50 leaders invited of members of each religion. The purpose is to discuss the reconciliation of Catholis and Jews. Date: October 21 - 25, 2007 .
15. We have a visual DVD to be used in fund-raising parlor meetings.
16. A very consistent solicitation of funds program is being developed at the present time.
17. Our office is at: 2350 Coral Way, Suite 301, Miami, FL 33145
18. Educational Component which includes a Certificate Program, suggestions on Curricula for Seminaries and other institutions of higher learning and other relevant events around Pope John Paul II.
19. April 13 Universal Celebration- joint venture with the American Jewish Committee and others.
20. Participating in the First Conference in the Vatican of Lay Catholic and Jewish leaders- Oct.21-25- 2007.
    1. We are making and effort to meet with Cardinal Pio Laghi Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Catholic Education-Seminaries and Universities-to review our Educational Program.
    2. We will meet privately with Jerzy Kluger- the childhood Jewish friend of John Paul II and member of our Advisory Board.
21. We have already the DVD-gift of Omar Romay, owner of Channel 41, Miami, which allows us to make presentations of our Foundation. In addition we have 500 brochures to distribute to potential donors. This means that NOW we are ready to organize parlor meetings at private homes- or offices for fund raising purposes. ( We would appreciate if you can suggest some names of individuals who will be willing to organize such meetings).
22. Educational: We met with senior staff of the ADL. and agreed that we should joint venture our educational programs. They currently offer the Bearing Witness Program- training teachers in Catholic Schools-and we have already a Program for Seminaries and Colleges. The ADL will support our Program in any community where they have an office in the United States.. Together we are working on a memorandum of understanding on curriculum matters. We will recommend their Bearing Witness Program to any higher educational Institution that we contact. In addition, we will support the ADL in their Spanish Speaking efforts.
23. Dr. Eugene Fisher an Advisor to Our Elders Brothers and Sisters: We are extraordinary happy to announce that we have engaged the professional services of Gene who retired after more than 30 years as an interreligious officer of the USCCB. He will be acting as our Senior Advisor. Gene has also agreed to edit 3 books to use as text books in Seminaries and Colleges who agreed to change their Curriculum to include studies of John Paul II and the Jews.
24. We have reached out to the following communities to present our Program. There are different levels of involvement in each of the following communities:
    1. Cleveland, Ohio: Sam Miller, a member of the Board of Advisor convened a meeting in his office, attended by all of the individuals invited representing very significant sectors of the community. An excellent atmosphere prevailed, where a number of potential activities were discussed to be developed in their community.The Most Reverend Richard Gerard Lennon has approved the distribution of our brochures in the Diocese of Cleveland. We appreciate the support we have received from Fr. Joseph Hilinski, Director of the Interreligious Office of the Diocese of Cleveland.
    2. Charlotte, NC, : Tony Lopez-Ibanez, our Vice President has been communicating with different senior member of the Diocese and they have shown interest in developing our Program in their City.
    3. Orlando, Florida: Bishop Thomas Wenski, our friend of many years, has asked us to describe the program to his staff. We are almost certain that he will get involved. d) Dallas: Mrs. Garland Pohl has agreed to start our program in her community. We URGE any individual reading this to refer to us any names of individuals or organizations that might like to take the initiative of developing any of our Programs in their communities.

AN IMPORTANT EVENT: On August 1, 2007, U. S. Congressman Tom Lantos (D- CA), Cochairman of the Congressional Caucus on Human Rights announced the launching of a Bi partisan Task Force on anti Semitism. The Cochairmen are U. S. Representatives Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Ron Kline (D-Fl).

25. As soon as we read this we became very happy because we believe that it will be very important for the development of our organization. We have a plan of action that I have already discusses with Dr. Fisher and Dr. Moncarz.

We are having a meeting on August 20/ 2007 with US Congressman Ron Klein (D-FL) to discuss a strategy we want to suggest to him.