Jennifer Lopez may not be a model of modesty, but in other areas of her life she appears to have not forgotten her roots in New York City Catholic schools.

In the upcoming movie “The Back-Up Plan,” Lopez plays a woman who becomes pregnant via in vitro fertilization with an anonymous sperm donor. In a recent interview with Elle magazine, when asked how she feels about artificial means of procreation, the actress answered:

“When it comes to family and relationships, I’m quite traditional. Just because of the way I was raised ... And I also believe in God and I have a lot of faith in that, so I just felt like you don’t mess with things like that.”

She did not say that IVF is wrong. She did not even mention the grave injustice done to embryos that are “discarded” when it’s determined that they are no longer needed.

And yet her words have ruffled feathers anyway.

A Fox News Story quotes some couples who have undergone IVF treatments in order to conceive their children:

“It’s not ‘messing’ or intruding in God’s plan, you go after things in life that you want and don’t sit back and wait for things to happen. God helps those who help themselves.”

and

“I am Catholic, but I believe in life if you want something, you have to make it happen yourself regardless of whether you believe in God. We had faith in what we were doing, and IVF was there to help us.”

There’s a striking focus on “what I want” instead of “what is right.”

You’ll find a clear explanation of Catholic teaching on the subject of IVF and other reproductive technologies in Begotten Not Made: A Catholic View of Reproductive Technology, a short article by Dr. John M. Haas, President of the National Catholic Bioethics Center.