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A Richer Liturgical Translation: Interview With Bishop Roche Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:09 pm (GMT -5) A Richer Liturgical Translation: Interview With Bishop Roche Zenit November 13, 2007 http://www.zenit.org/article-20991?l=english LEEDS, England, NOV. 13, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The English translation of the 2002 Roman Missal in Latin will be an opportunity for the faithful to discover the great theological richness of the text, according to the bishop in charge of the translation process. Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, chairman of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), announced Nov. 1 that the draft phase of the process to translate the 2002 Roman Missal from Latin to English has been completed. He reported that the last installment -- the appendices -- of the draft version of the English translation was sent to the bishops of the commission's 11 member conferences. In this interview with ZENIT, the bishop comments on the five-year process of translating the sacred liturgy, and how he thinks this translation will serve as an opportunity for catechesis. Q: Can you describe the process of translation from the original text in Latin? How many editors and translators have worked on the text sent out now to the bishops? Bishop Roche: It is quite a long process and very thorough as it involves a wide number of people. For example, each text is translated initially by a base translator, who has the "nihil obstat" of the Holy See. This version is seen by three or four revisors, who send their comments to the secretariat of ICEL, where a revised version is prepared that takes these comments into account. This revised version then goes before an editorial committee composed of six people, the majority of whom are bishops. They further revise the text and propose a version for submission to the 11 bishops of the commission. When the commission meets it discusses the text, amends it if necessary, and then sends it out as a draft version in a Green Book to all the bishops of ICEL's member conferences. These bishops consult whom they wish, and send their comments to the secretariat; local liturgical commissions often assist in this process by making a provisional collation of the comments. By this time the text has been seen by a great number of people. The commission then reviews the text once again in the light of comments received, and either sends out another Green Book for further consultation, or issues a Gray Book, which contains its final version. It is at this point that the bishops take a canonical vote on the text and forward it to Rome for the "recognitio" by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. Q: In translations, a decision often has to be made between translating exact words and translating concepts (formal equivalence versus dynamic equivalence). In translating the liturgy, how is that decision made, and what are the implications for bad liturgical translations? Bishop Roche: The terms "formal equivalence" and "dynamic equivalence" are outmoded these days. They have been abandoned by their originator, Eugene Nida, who considered that his theories had been misunderstood and abused. Translation theory has moved on since the 1960s. Language conveys not only facts and concepts but also images and feelings. We use words not only to say things but also to do things. These considerations are clearly important for the translation of the liturgy. Just a quick example. There are various ways in which one can ask a person to close a door: "Shut the door"; "Shut the door, please"; "Would you mind closing the door, please?" Which, if any, of the courteous forms is appropriate for the liturgy? The prayers of the Roman rite do not order God around, they respectfully request and plead. Nor do they tell God who he is, they acknowledge his greatness and his power, his love and his compassion and generosity. Q: Other than the problem of literal-versus-conceptual translation, what is the main difficulty in translating Latin texts into the vernacular? Bishop Roche: Latin shows the function of a word by means of its ending, English by its place in the sentence. In Latin, word order often expresses emphasis. English has to try to convey this, but has fewer means for doing so. In some cases, Latin has many words for a concept for which English has few -- for example, "love." Sometimes, the reverse is true. Q: Can you comment on some of the principal differences between the translation of the 2002 Roman Missal, and that of the one translated more than 30 years ago? Bishop Roche: When the present English missal was published back in the 1970s, it was readily accepted by the bishops of the day that the translation would need to be revisited, because the translation had been done speedily in order to supply an English text, as quickly as possible, for the revised liturgy. The new English translation of the now third edition of the Latin "Missale Romanum" will be a fuller and therefore a more faithful translation. We have endeavored to ensure a nobility of language as well as faithfulness to the Latin words and to the origins of the prayers themselves. A great deal more time and expertise, from a very wide range of scholars as well as bishops, has been employed producing the new translation. So, for example, the new English texts will show more clearly the relationship between the liturgical texts and their scriptural origins. Let me give you an example in order to demonstrate this as well as the painstaking scholarship that goes into the translation of a text. Sometimes at Mass we hear the priest greet us with these words: "The grace and peace of God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, be with you all." ICEL is proposing this: "Grace to you and peace from God, Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Some will wonder "why make such a trivial change, what difference does it make?" Well, that greeting, "Grace to you and peace from God, Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," comes eight times in those exact words, in the letters of St. Paul. Outside the writings of St. Paul in the New Testament, the phrase, "Grace to you and peace," occurs in the First and Second letters of St. Peter and in the Book of Revelation. It is a slightly odd form, "Grace to you and peace from God," with the two nouns, "grace" and "peace," and the "to you" between them. Wouldn't it be more natural to say, "Grace and peace to you?" I think it probably would be. But the fact that it occurs so often in the New Testament, no less than 11 times, suggests that that distinctive form of words has been a greeting among the Christian people from the very earliest times. And you know the way it is sometimes, when you greet somebody or somebody greets you, the way they greet you tells you what sort of person they are, where they come from, from where they belong. Sometimes it's a secret sign, maybe a handshake or a wink. Or it might be a particular way of speaking, like "G'day sport." If you hear someone speak to you that way you would assume that the person came from Australia. Well that slightly quirky form of words, "Grace to you and peace" seems to be an indication from the earliest times of the way Christians have greeted each other. The Greek, as well as the Latin, translation keeps that same word order: "Grace to you and peace." Even Martin Luther, one of the first translators of the Bible into the vernacular in modern times, kept that order of words, "Grace to you and peace." And in the King James Version, produced for the Church of England, your find the same: "Grace to you and peace." It's the same in the Douay Bible, the Catholic version that was made in the 16th century: "Grace to you and peace." Then if you come up to more recent times, the Revised Standard Version, the New Revised Standard Version, those two also have that form of the words, "Grace to you and peace." So across 2,000 years, translators have thought it wise to preserve that distinctive pattern, the distinctive word order, that distinctively Christian greeting, "Grace to you and peace." ICEL is proposing that this word order continue to be used in the Christian assembly, 2,000 years on. It puts us in touch with a very early stratum of Christian tradition. There are lots of other examples, too: e.g., "The Lord be with you. And with your spirit" (Galatians 6:18; 2 Timothy 4:22); "Behold the Lamb of God" (John 1:29); and "Blessed are those called to the banquet of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9). Q: How will the eventual changes be introduced? What consequences will this have for the Catholic in the pews? Will the new translation be problematic or helpful for the faithful? Bishop Roche: The introduction of new texts is a matter for local bishops' conferences. With good catechesis, on which work is already in progress, the new translation will help deepen the understanding and spirituality of everyone in the Church. I believe that Catholics will welcome these next texts -- they are fuller and very beautiful. Of course, anything new always takes a little getting used to, but Catholics are generous and I believe that the Catholic instinct for truth, depth, accuracy and nobility of language will dispose them to the beauty of these new texts. It has not been uncommon for me to hear from those with whom I have shared the new texts, comments like: "But I had no idea that this is what the text was trying to say!" There is a great theological richness being uncovered in these translations which itself will be highly catechetical. We have a saying: "lex orandi lex credendi." In other words, the way we pray is formative of our faith. The Roman Missal conveys the faith of the Church, carefully handed down to us century by century since earliest times. This is a treasure from which we shall be fed and nurtured each day and one that needs to be carefully handed on. Q: It has been stated that the post-conciliar Roman breviary also has many translation problems. How did these problems arise? Will a new version of the breviary be issued? Bishop Roche: Like the missal, the breviary was translated in a hurry for the same understandable reasons. From what I can gather, there seems to have been little overall editorial control on the translations we have and therefore, there is an unevenness in the translation of the texts. A new version is most certainly needed, but until the Roman Missal is completed, it would be impossible to embark on such a project. It will be for the member conferences of ICEL and for the Holy See to consider what should then follow.

Catholic University to Give Award to Goddess-Worshipping Nun Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:04 pm (GMT -5) Catholic University to Give Award to Goddess-Worshipping Theologian Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson advocates calling God 'She Who Is' By Thaddeus M. Baklinski LifeSiteNews November 13, 2007 http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/nov/07111305.html Miami, November 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Department of Theology and Philosophy of Barry University which is run by the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, will give an Award for Theological Excellence in January to radical feminist theologian Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson, a professor at Jesuit run Fordham University. Sister Elizabeth is a radical feminist theologian who advocates goddess worship, actively dissents from the Church's infallible teaching on the invalidity of women's ordinations and promotes the cause of world government and a one-world religion. In her book She Who Is (Crossroad, 1993) Sister Elizabeth announced "that the time has come to stop addressing God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to begin addressing Him as 'She Who Is.'" For this she won awards and a promotion to "Distinguished" Professor of Theology at Catholic Fordham University. Here she joins the ranks of such notables as Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, professor of New Testament at Berkeley's Jesuit School of Theology, who has vilified the Faith for two decades. In Beyond Patching (Paulist, 1990) Schneiders wrote that "every aspect" of the Catholic faith "is not just tainted but perverted by the evil of patriarchy. It is not that the tradition has some problems; the tradition is the problem." In an article in the National Catholic Reporter, Nov 17, 2000, Sister Elizabeth said women have long been "denied equality with men in access to sacred ties, places, actions and even identity," and "women have been consistently robbed of our full dignity as friends of God and prophets," by the likes of St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. She bemoans the church statements forbidding the ordination of women, that in her words, "locate the image of Christ in the male body rather than in the whole person being made christomorphic by entering into the dying and rising of Christ." That Jesus Christ was a man seems to elude her. Sister Elizabeth endorses Call To Action, a radical anti-Catholic group founded in the 1960's to agitate within the Catholic Church to overturn Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life, marriage and the meaning of the priesthood. The group has been excommunicated for "causing damage to the Church of Christ" (Giovanni Cardinal Battista Re, Apostolic Signatura) and being "totally incompatible with the Catholic faith" (Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, Lincoln, Nebraska). When asked for a comment on the award being given to Sr. Elizabeth, the office of the Archbishop of Miami had difficulty finding someone who would make a statement. Barry University was founded in 1940 by Patrick Barry, Bishop of St. Augustine, and Reverend Mother M. Gerald Barry, Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan. The University is listed as a "Gay-Friendly University" by the Conference for Catholic Lesbians. To express concerns to the Archdiocese of Miami contact: Archbishop John C. Favalora 9401 Biscayne Boulevard Miami Shores, FL 33138 Phone: (305) 757-6241 Fax: (305) 754-1797 To express concerns to Barry University contact: Sister Linda Bevilacqua, OP, Ph.D., President of Barry University 11300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695 Phone number: 305-899-3014 Toll-free: 1-800-756-6000, ext. 3014 and William J. Heffernan, Chairman Barry University Board of Trustees 11300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695 Phone number: 305-899-3100 Toll-free: 1-800-695-2279

Reproductive health mortality not considered serious problem Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:42 pm (GMT -5) Deaths, Sickness Result From Abuse, Misuse of USAID, Ipas Family Planning Programs Reproductive health mortality not considered serious problem by aid agencies by Steven Mosher and Colin Mason November 13, 2007 (pop.org) – Population controllers are constantly talking about "reproductive health," and their burning desire to reduce maternal mortality worldwide. This is the excuse that they use for pushing contraception, legalized abortion, and sterilization on developing countries all over the world. However, this is simply a ploy to make their real purpose more palatable: controlling the world's "booming" population. Babies and children are not the only ones who suffer from this misguided mission. Mothers and families, whose lives would have been bettered by actual relief work and health care, suffer as well. In other words: not only does the abortion/contraception-related work of USAID or Ipas fail in its mission to provide legitimate reproductive health, it actually causes more harm to women. Obsessed with reducing the fertility of as many of the poor as possible, the controllers have long advocated turning a blind eye to their other health needs. Here are a few examples: Family planning programs deliberately court medical problems by denying routine medical care, such as physical exams, in the name of efficiency. Other times they inadvertently or otherwise cause health problems, such as ectopic pregnancies subsequent to sterilization, which they then routinely ignore. In a few cases, such as the dumping of unsterilized and dangerous IUDs on the developing world, or the testing of powerful, steroid-based contraceptives on unsuspecting women, they have engaged in acts that appear criminal in retrospect. USAID cares more about how many women are sterilized or contracepted than about how many are made healthier. Each of these practices injures or even kills women. This is what we mean by "reproductive health" mortality: The deaths that result from the abuse and misuse of family planning programs. "I'd rather do less good service to more people, than perfect service to fewer people," Frances Hand Ferguson, one-time vice-president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, said. This attitude continues to hold sway at PPFA, to judge from Pamela Maraldo's brief tenure as president in the nineties, which ended when she tried to broaden the range of health services offered by Planned Parenthood clinics. The nation's premier abortion, sterilization, and contraception organization was having none of that. The situation is similar at USAID, which even officially rebuked Planned Parenthood for providing "unnecessary" health care. "All too often," they complained, "family planning programs impose numerous medical barriers to service which we are convinced hinder program effectiveness and impact, especially for hormonal contraceptives. Common examples of what we mean by medical barriers include unnecessary laboratory tests; excessive physical exams. . . excessive counseling and history -- taking in such a way as to include a lot of irrelevant information rather than the important things, the net effect being to increase waiting time and see few[er] clients." Such practices lend credence to the assertion that, when it comes to women's health, USAID cares more about how many women are sterilized or contracepted than about how many are made healthier, even when health is defined strictly in "reproductive" terms. Most so-called "modern" contraceptives have been tested in field trials on healthy women of the developed world. Their indiscriminate use on women in the developing world who are malnourished, anemic, or suffer from other health problems can have a devastating effect on women there. Many women in Bangladesh who were given Norplant, for instance, suffered serious side effects. According to Farida Ahktar, an activist concerned with the plight of poor women, Bangladeshi women who had received Norplant suffered side-effects much more serious than those admitted by Norplant's proponents: continuous bleeding far heavier than a normal menses, weakness in the limbs, severe pain and, significantly, blurred or double vision. Dr. Stephen Karanja, the former Secretary of the Kenyan Medical Association and an obstetrician-gynecologist by training, often sees patients who have been harmed by these powerful, steroid-based contraceptives. "High blood pressure was never really a major African disease," he explains, "but now we have blood clots, liver problems, and problems with bleeding. In Africa where tropical disease already cause women to be weak with poor blood levels, when they start bleeding irregularly or continuously because of these contraceptives, you literally reduce them to cripples. The woman is the center of the African family. If you want to destroy the African family, attack the mother. And I ask myself, why does the US attack the center of the African family? These women walk around with difficulty because of anemia, with swollen legs, with livers damaged. There are women who are going into heart failure because of bleeding, because of [contraceptive] drugs." The African women who are so cavalierly given powerful, steroid-based contraceptives are often not informed of the serious side effects that can result. And, as Dr. Karanja suggests, the lack of follow-up care can in some cases be fatal. Take the danger of ectopic pregnancy following sterilization, for instance. Cutting the fallopian tubes of a woman does not always prevent conception, but it does prevent the developing embryo from entering the uterus. Instead, the embryo implants at the site of the blockage, a dangerous condition commonly known as a tubal pregnancy. The problem is that the thin-walled tube cannot support a pregnancy beyond a couple months of gestation, and when it ruptures the resulting hemorrhaging is often deadly. Women who have been sterilized, assembly-line fashion, in population control campaigns are at particular risk of dying because they are given no warning about the possibility that they might become pregnant again in this way. In some cases, the controllers do not merely turn a blind eye to problems, but have deliberately engaged in seemingly unethical, if not criminal, acts. After the FDA in 1970 declared high-estrogen birth-control pills to be unsafe, the pharmaceutical companies were left with warehouses full of the now-unmarketable contraceptive. Syntex executives offered to sell USAID their entire stock at a heavily discounted price, an offer that USAID's Office of Population, less concerned about safety than in checking fertility cheaply, was only too happy to accept. Encouraging the self-injection of Depo-Provera is another example of a questionable practice that violates FDA regulations and may lead to serious side effects or even death. The population controllers' dream of the over-the-counter sale of Depo-Provera and birth control pills, and their widespread distribution by "paramedical" staff with only minimal training -- both practices which also contravene FDA regulations -- has become a reality. Even today, the controllers do not seem so terribly concerned about the safety of the devices, drugs and practices that they promote around the world to curb fertility. After all, they argue, the risks of dying in childbirth in the developing world are so great that the use of almost any contraceptive device or sterilization technique is justified to spare a woman this fate. The former director of USAID's Bureau of Global Health used a similar line of argument to deflect my concerns about post-sterilization ectopic pregnancies. Whatever the cost of Peru's coercive sterilization of 300,000 women a few years ago, she implied, it had benefited women by reducing the number of pregnancies and hence maternal mortality. If a few women died from ectopic pregnancies, that was a small price to pay. In the words of Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), "we have turned pregnancy into a sexually transmitted disease." Only when this "disease" is completely cured will the population controllers be content to cease their activities. And it doesn't matter how many women die from family planning abuses in the meantime. Steven Mosher is the President of the Population Research Institute. _________________ http://www.geocities.com/demographic_crash

Personhood initiative wins Colo. court nod Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:34 pm (GMT -5) "Personhood" initiative wins Colo. court nod By Electa Draper The Denver Post Article Last Updated: 11/13/2007 04:47:09 PM MST The Colorado Supreme Court today released a decision giving proponents the go-ahead for a ballot initiative that would amend the state Constitution in 2008 to define personhood as a fertilized egg. Opponents of the measure, which would lay the constitutional foundation for making abortion illegal in the state, asked the court to reject the ballot title as misleading to voters. The court ruled that the measure's wording is clear and meets state requirements in terms of covering a single subject. The measure, if approved by voters, would extend constitutional protection from the moment of conception with regard to rights of life, liberty, equality of justice and due process of law. The group pushing the measure, Colorado for Equal Rights, can now begin gathering the 76,000 signatures required to put the issue on the November 2008 ballot. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains is one of the reproductive-rights groups opposing the measure, which it said in a statement would have sweeping consequences for women using contraception to prevent pregnancy as well as for couples using in-vitro fertilization to start families. Planned Parenthood has called the ballot initiative "deceptive and dangerous." Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com _________________ http://www.geocities.com/demographic_crash

Chavez Equates Himself With Jesus Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 8:31 pm (GMT -5) Chavez Equates Himself With Jesus By Patrick Goodenough CNSNews.com International Editor November 13, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - Likening himself to Jesus Christ, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that if he stops talking -- as suggested at the weekend by an irate Spanish monarch -- "the stones of Latin America will cry out." Chavez was speaking on his return from an Ibero-American summit in Chile, which took a sour turn when the outspoken Venezuelan leader repeatedly called conservative former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar a "fascist," prompting Spain's King Juan Carlos to tell Chavez to "shut up." "When the king explodes because of the statements of an Indian, it is the explosion of 500 years of imperial arrogance, 500 years of royalism, of outrages, 500 years of feelings of superiority," Chavez said, in reference to Spain's colonial legacy in Latin America. "If I stopped talking, the stones of Latin America would cry out, because the people are willing to be free of any kind of colonialism after 500 years," he added. In case the allusion to Jesus was missed, the office of the presidency issued a statement giving the biblical reference (Luke 19:38-40). Urged by his critics to rebuke his disciples for praising him as one sent from God, Jesus replied, "I tell you, if these keep silent, the stones would cry out." The self-styled Bolivarian revolutionary has invoked Jesus before. When he took an oath starting his new presidential term last January, he did so in the name of "Christ, the greatest socialist in history." He also told his critics, including Roman Catholic bishops, that they should read the Bible (and Marx and Lenin). "Christ was an authentic communist, anti-imperialist and enemy of the oligarchy," he said. More recently, reacting this month to bishops' opposition to controversial attempts to amend Venezuela's constitution, Chavez called them Pharisees, and said "if Christ was alive, was here physically, he would drive them out with a whip." Among other things, the proposed changes will eliminate term limits for the president. The country is deeply divided over the changes, which will be put to a referendum on Dec. 2. _________________ http://www.geocities.com/demographic_crash

Vatican called on to reject excessive political correctness Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 8:29 pm (GMT -5) 12 November 2007, 16:39 The Moscow Patriarchate calls Vatican to reject excessive political correctness link to original Moscow, November 12, Interfax - The high official of the Russian Orthodox Church has warned Vatican from excessive compliance with political correctness. "The Roman Catholic Church is in the difficult position in the West. One would think the West to be free, yet in fact the voice of the Roman Church's voice is hardly heard there. More than one generation of Roman Catholics hierarchs have been taught with the political correctness idea," stated the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad at the meeting with Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard) movement's activists and the Moscow State Technical University students. As the metropolitan mentioned that someway the Russian Orthodox Church's representatives "helped our Roman Catholic's partners to understand that if one followed the political correctness principle nowadays, than one might turn traitor of his own identity." "I do not mean that we have made some serious influence on the Roman Catholic Church, but there is such influence. There is the great distance between the first statements we heard during our bilateral relations and the statements that are made as our joined ones or as just Roman Catholic Church's own," Metropolitan Kirill commented. As he stated the matter most of all concerns the unique position that there is no real freedom without moral responsibility.

PBS Telling Teachers to Violate First Amendment, Group Says Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 8:22 pm (GMT -5) PBS Telling Teachers to Violate First Amendment, Group Says By Randy Hall CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor November 13, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - A packet for educators issued by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) in conjunction with the NOVA program "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" encourages teaching practices that are probably unconstitutional, a conservative organization stated on Tuesday. "The NOVA/PBS teaching guide encourages the injection of religion into classroom teaching about evolution in a way that likely would violate current Supreme Court precedents about the First Amendment's Establishment Clause," said John West, vice president for public policy and legal affairs at the Discovery Institute, in a news release. The 22-page document is a companion piece to the two-hour NOVA docudrama, "Judgment Day," airing on most network affiliates Tuesday night. The film is about a trial concerning intelligent design that took place in Dover, Pa., in 2005. The guide claims to provide teachers with "easily digestible information to guide and support you in facing challenges to evolution." In the booklet, teachers are instructed to use such discussion questions as: "Can you accept evolution and still believe in religion?" The answer to that query is provided as: "Yes. The common view that evolution is inherently antireligious is simply false." "This statement is simplistic and not neutral among different religions, and in that sense arguably inconsistent with Supreme Court teachings concerning neutrality," said attorney Casey Luskin, program officer for public policy and legal affairs at the institute. "The Supreme Court ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas that the government must maintain 'neutrality between religion and religion,'" said Randal Wenger, a Pennsylvania attorney who filed amicus briefs in the Kitzmiller v. Dover School District case. "Because the briefing packet only promotes religious viewpoints that are friendly towards evolution, this is not neutral, and PBS is encouraging teachers to violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause," Wenger added. In its news release, the Discovery Institute indicates that it has enlisted more than a dozen attorneys and legal scholars, including Wenger, to review the PBS teaching guide with an eye to its constitutionality. "The PBS materials, in suggesting that students need not be concerned that evolution violates their religion, ironically equip public school teachers to violate our current conception of the First Amendment by explicitly teaching students concerning matters of religious belief," Wenger said. "The irony is that discussing intelligent design would not teach any student about any religious belief - the PBS materials, on the other hand, will," he said. Luskin noted that the teaching guide also presents false information about the theory of intelligent design. "The teaching guide is also riddled with factual errors that misrepresent both the standard definition of intelligent design and the beliefs of those scientists and scholars who support the theory," the attorney added. As a result, the institute is providing its own guide for educators, "The Theory of Intelligent Design," which will help teachers better understand the debate between Darwinian evolution and intelligent design. Cybercast News Service previously reported that in December 2004, parents in Dover filed the first-ever challenge to intelligent design being taught in public schools, claiming it violated their religious liberty by promoting particular religious beliefs to their children under the guise of science education. Just over a year later, U.S. District Judge John Jones III ruled that the school system may not include intelligent design in its science curriculum because intelligent design is not a scientific concept. Telephone calls and e-mails seeking a response from the Public Broadcasting System were not returned by press time. However, on the PBS Web site, the program is described as capturing "the turmoil that tore apart the community of Dover, Pa., in one of the latest battles over teaching evolution in public schools." "Featuring trial reenactments based on court transcripts and interviews with key participants - including expert scientists and Dover parents, teachers and town officials - 'Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial' follows the celebrated federal case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District," the site states. "In 2004, the Dover school board ordered science teachers to read a statement to high school biology students suggesting that there is an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution called intelligent design - the idea that life is too complex to have evolved naturally and therefore must have been designed by an intelligent agent," the Web site says. "The teachers refused to comply," it adds. "'Judgment Day' captures on film a landmark court case with a powerful scientific message at its core," said Paula Apsell, NOVA's senior executive producer. "Evolution is one of the most essential, yet - for many people - least understood of all scientific theories, the foundation of biological science." "We felt it was important for NOVA to do this program to heighten the public understanding of what constitutes science and what does not and, therefore, what is acceptable for inclusion in the science curriculum in our public schools," Apsell said. Nevertheless, Discovery Institute attorney Casey Luskin disagreed that the program is just about science. "PBS gives a false definition of intelligent design that is a complete straw man argument," Luskin said. "Scientists who support intelligent design seek evidence of design in nature, and argue that such evidence points to intelligent design, based on our historical knowledge of cause and effect." "So intelligent design theory is not an argument based on what we don't know, but rather an argument about what we do know," he said. _________________ http://www.geocities.com/demographic_crash

Italian bishop rules: no Muslim services at Catholic parish Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:32 am (GMT -5) Italian bishop rules: no Muslim services at Catholic parish Catholic World News November 12, 2007 http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=54726 Rome, Nov. 12, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Lay Catholics in the town of Ponzano Veneto, Italy, have complained that their pastor has allowed local Muslims to gather on parish property for prayer services on Friday, the Islamic Sabbath, Italian media sources report. The complaints by parishioners, supported by local government officials, prompted Bishop Andrea Mazzocato of Treviso, ordered the pastor of Ponzano Veneto to instruct the pastor to discontinue any apparent sponsorship of Muslim services.

"We are all dealing with dysfunctional secrets" Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:30 am (GMT -5) "We are all dealing with dysfunctional secrets" Anti-abuse group protests outside Pleasanton parish over appointment of pastor with arrest record for lewd conduct California Catholic Daily November 13, 2007 http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=bf4bcdc6-0af5-4c2c-8821-50aaa0e4f826 Members of the Northern California Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) distributed flyers at a Catholic parish in Pleasanton on Sunday, Nov. 11, to protest the appointment as pastor of a priest who was arrested in 1999 for lewd behavior. On Jan. 1, 2008, the Rev. Padraig Greene will take over the leadership of the Catholic Community of Pleasanton, a parish cluster including St. Augustine's and St. Elizabeth Seton's Catholic churches. On Sunday, Northern California SNAP director Joey Piscitelli and others were at St. Augustine's to alert parishioners of Fr. Padraig's past. Piscitelli told the Nov. 12 San Jose Mercury News that Greene's appointment is "a red flag for us as a survival group. We're also worried the bishop of Oakland would make him the top man in Pleasanton." Piscitelli said Oakland police arrested Greene in 1999 for performing lewd acts in a restroom, according to the newspaper. The current Pleasanton pastor, Fr. Dan Danielson, told the Mercury News that Greene underwent counseling in St. Louis after the arrest, that no minors were involved, and that the charges against Greene were dismissed. Danielson told the newspaper "there's no official record of this at all. [Greene] has done wonderful work after that very dark moment in his life." Greene's wonderful work presumably includes his Family Care Ministry, which he began in Ireland in 1988. The Jan. 17, 2004 Hayward Daily Review said Greene worked as principle of a boys' school in the west Ireland Elphin diocese, but grew tired of it. His bishop encouraged him to study family ministry, and Greene earned a Master's in family ministry at Fordham University in New York. He returned to Ireland to found the ministry, which has had a place at Pleasanton's Catholic Community since 1999. The Daily Review called Greene the program director of Pleasanton's Family Care Ministry, a support ministry for the bereaved, those who have undergone a divorce, need marriage counseling or preparation, or who have a homosexual son or daughter. The program uses lay ministers who have gone through the program themselves. A lay participant working with engaged couples in the program told the Daily Review that the Pleasanton parish "is a lot more progressive and open. We have many members who aren't even Catholic. You won't find another parish like it." A co-director of the single-mothers' group noted that "the Catholic Church in general is evolving. There has been a gradual change within the last 10 to 15 years. The church is much more open now." The director of the divorce and separated group explained that, "traditionally, there is a stigma attached to divorce. But at our group, we provide a safe haven to grieve and heal. It wasn't like that in the old days of Catholicism." "Many people come to us feeling shamed by the fact that their son or daughter is gay or that their marriage has failed," Greene told the Daily Review. "They feel shame and pressure from their family and society. We are all dealing with dysfunctional secrets. We are all God's children, and we help them to see that."

"....disputed ordination of two women as priests" Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:43 am (GMT -5) Cheering crowd attends disputed ordination of two women as priests By Michele Munz ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 11/12/2007 Rose Marie Dunn Hudson (left) and Elsie Hainz McGrath (right) are congratulated by Bishop Patricia Fresen (center) during their Celebration of Ordination as priests of a group called the Roman Catholic Womanpriests on Sunday at Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis. (Erik M. Lunsford/P-D) ST. LOUIS — To the Roman Catholic Church, the ceremony was not an ordination. In fact, it wasn't even Roman Catholic. But to two women and the approximately 600 people who came to cheer them on, history was made Sunday in St. Louis as the two became the first women ever in the city to be ordained as Catholic priests. And the first ever, perhaps in the world, to be ordained in a synagogue. Rose Marie Hudson, 67, of Festus, and Elsie Hainz McGrath, 69, of St. Louis, were ordained as priests by an organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which defines itself "as an international initiative within the Roman Catholic Church." Not only is the Archdiocese of St. Louis upset about the women participating in an ordination ceremony, but the church and others in the interfaith community were upset that the Central Reform Congregation, in the Central West End, hosted the event. "The event of today is really very sad because the name Roman Catholic has been misused and misapplied," said Dr. Lawrence J. Welch, a Kenrick-Glennon Seminary theology professor. "There's been no ordination of Roman Catholic priests. In fact, there has been a profaning of something Roman Catholics believe is very sacred." To members of the diverse crowd — the dozen ministers in robes and stoles of different colors, those wearing yarmulke, and some wearing buttons saying "God loves us, just ask her" — the ceremony showed unity and understanding. "What a day, what an occasion, what a case, what a rabbi," said Patricia Fresen, the ordaining bishop with Roman Catholic Womenpriests, referring to the synagogue's rabbi, Susan Talve. The room boomed with applause. Fresen, from Germany, told the audience how when she saw the St. Louis Arch, she asked what it was for. She was told it was the symbol for the Gateway to the West. She added: "For us in St. Louis today, the Arch is a symbol for the gateway to justice and equality for women." Hudson said that after she turned 60, she had thought she would never realize her calling of becoming a priest — a calling she said she's had since she was 14 — until she heard Fresen talk in April 2006 at the Ecumenical Catholic Church in Webster Groves. Hudson told Fresen she wanted to be ordained, and Fresen began the process. Hudson enlisted the support of the local Catholic Action Network, a grass-roots group that works for social justice within the Catholic Church. It was there she met McGrath and learned of her calling, and they began their journey to ordination together. The process brought them close — so close that they will co-pastor a faith community at First Unitarian Church of St. Louis in the Central West End. Their first service will be Dec. 1. Three months ago, Hudson and McGrath were looking for a place to hold the ordination ceremony. After visiting several Protestant churches, they visited Central Reform at the suggestion of a friend. Talve immediately welcomed them, telling them that opening her sanctuary to them was what she was all about. "It felt right," Hudson said. Talve's board agreed as well, unanimously agreeing to host the ceremony. The action irked some. The Rev. Vincent Heir, who directs the Catholic Church's interfaith efforts in St. Louis, said the archdiocese will not participate in any more interfaith events if Central Reform Congregation is "a leading player." St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, who has threatened to excommunicate Hudson and McGrath, asked Talve to reconsider hosting the ceremony. Though she felt support among the throng of people there Sunday, Talve said, "There is still work to do, still conversations to have to help people to understand why we chose to do what we did. Hospitality outweighed other issues that presented a challenge." As Hudson and McGrath welcomed hugs and congratulations in their new white vestments, Andrew Wolf, 34, of south St. Louis County, made his way to Hudson. He said that as a homosexual, he fell away from Catholicism when he was 17. He recently wanted to return but wasn't sure how — until Sunday. "I look forward to coming to your service," he told her. "As a lifelong Catholic, you have given me hope." mmunz@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8263

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