religion in the news!

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Pope's Rewrite of Latin Prayer Draws Criticism From 2 Sides

By IAN FISHER
February 6, 2008

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday issued a replacement for a
contentious Good Friday prayer in Latin, removing language that many
Jewish groups found offensive but still calling for the Jews'
conversion.

However, representatives of Jewish groups as well as traditionalist
Catholics quickly condemned the new prayer, though for different
reasons. Jewish groups said it was still offensive, and
traditionalists said they preferred the version that was replaced.

"It's disappointing," said Rabbi David Rosen, director of
inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, who for 20
years has worked on Jewish-Catholic relations with Benedict as pope
and, earlier, when he was a cardinal.

The prayer was a focus of dispute last year when Benedict allowed for
greater use of a traditional version of the Latin Mass, called the
Tridentine rite. That decree improved ties with Catholic
traditionalists, who oppose the sweeping changes to church liturgy
made from 1962 through 1965 during the Second Vatican Council.

The prayer is not part of the standard service used by most of the
world's 1.1 billion Catholics, who celebrate Mass in their local
languages.

The new prayer, published only in Latin on Tuesday in the Vatican
newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, deletes a reference to Jews'
"blindness" and a call that God "may lift the veil from their hearts."

An unofficial translation of the new prayer reads: "Let us pray for
the Jews. May the Lord Our God enlighten their hearts so that they may
acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men.

"Almighty and everlasting God," it continues, "you who want all men to
be saved and to reach the awareness of the truth, graciously grant
that, with the fullness of peoples entering into your church, all
Israel may be saved."

comment: why should the Pope listen to either side? he's infallible, no?

The New York Times
Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Storms Across 5 States Leave at Least 50 Dead
By JOHN HOLUSHA
Authorities were searching for victims after a wide swath
of thunderstorms packing tornadoes, high winds and hail
swept through the South.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/us/06cnd-storm.html?8au&emc=au

comment: why does God hate the South?

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Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) --  Karl, paraphrasing Dante.