catholics preparing for the vatican's controversial changes in the language of the mass. >> now they've added "thru my fault, thru my fault, thru my most grievous fault," and you say "i get it. it's my fault. i get it." also, renovating old houses about to be demolished and turning them into new homes for the working poor. >> it's just wonderful to say that i actually own a piece of land in this world. major funding for "religion and ethics newsweekly" is provided by the lilly endowment, an indianapolis based private family foundation dedicated to its founders' interest in religion, community development,

and education. additional funding by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. and the corporation for public broadcasting. welcome. i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. amid continued violence and unrest in north africa and the middle east, president obama announced this week the united states will fully support countries seeking reform. during a speech at the state department, the president promised to aid new democracies, and he said the u.s. will oppose any leaders or groups who restrict rights, including religious freedom. >> in a region that was the birthplace of three world religions, intolerance can lead only to suffering and stagnation. >> the president also addressed the stalled middle east peace process. >> a lasting peace will involve

two states for two peoples. israel as a jewish state and the homeland for the jewish people, and the state of palestine as the homeland for the palestinian people. >> negotiations, said the president, should be based on the 1967 borders. in other news, a highly anticipated report on the causes of the clergy sex abuse crisis in the u.s. roman catholic church was released this week by the john jay college of criminal justice. the lead researcher said no one factor was responsible for the actions of the priests. both celibacy and homosexuality were ruled out as causes. instead, researchers found that priests were influenced by societal changes during the 1960s and 1970s, what they called an increase in "deviant behavior." several victims groups denounced the report, saying it does not place enough blame on the bishops who covered up abuse. we discuss the report and the

reaction to it with kevin eckstrom, editor of "religion news service," and kim lawton, the managing editor of this program. kim, is it the case that the report has something in it to make everybody unhappy? >> well, a little bit. when this crisis here in the united states really hit a boiling point in 2002, a lot of liberals in the church said, well, the problem is this all male priesthood and enforced celibacy and that's creating the problem. a lot of conservatives said it's homosexuality and gay priests and that's the problem. and this report said it's not either one of those. but the report did say the social upheaval in the '60s and '70s, and there were critics who didn't like that sort of blame it all on woodstock idea. the report said that in seminaries, priests weren't being trained to handle the new sexual morays of the united

states at that time and there was a lot of stress, and that generated the problem, but that makes a lot of critics frustrated because they say it makes it a sociological problem and not a systematic problem, and a spiritual problem within the church. >> and the fact is, kevin, the abuses happened, whatever the causes. >> that's right. whether it's gay priests or celibacy or anything else, the fact is that this happened within a very particular institution, the catholic church, that was incapable for 50 or 60 years of really handling this problem and dealing with it in an effective way, and a lot of times what they did was they shuffled it off to the side or they said, "oh, well, this isn't really that big of a deal" or "we can reassign this problematic priest somewhere else" and this -- the way that this problem was handled did not happen in the same way in say public schools or boy scouts or whatever. so i think the bishops, to their credit, and the church, to its credit, gets -- should be acknowledged that this is the widest study that's ever been done chi abuse, chd sexual abuse, but they don't really quite go far enough, i don't think, in saying how the church's own responsibility contributed to it. >> and there was nothing in the

report, was there, about the bishops who moved around the people who were committing these terrible acts? >> well, the report does say that the bishops were part of the problem in that they didn't deal with it or they spent more time focusing on the priests and not the victims who were being abused. but what the report doesn't do is then come up with suggestions for dealing with that, for punishments, or for mandatory things that the bishops have to do when this happens and that's a frustration. >> do they have to report to law enforcement? >> if it's a state law, they do. the guidelines set up by the bishops encourage the local dioceses to report allegations to the authorities. but again, it's not mandatory, it's knotted not binding, and that's no enforcement mechanism. >> i think one of the big numbers, sort of one of the hidden numbers actually, in this report was that only 14% of these cases over the 60 year period were turn over to law enforcement. that means that 86% of cases

were handled internally in the church. and the big criticism of the church has always been that they don't know how to handle it internally. and they say, "oh trust us, we'll take care of it, don't worry about it." but they're not referring these to law enforcement, which is what a lot of people say they should be. >> is the problem over? to what extent has it peaked and gone away? there was something in there about -- >> yeah, the report says it was a historical problem and there certainly has been a decrease in the number of cases being reported. however, we've seen, we're seeing right now, in philadelphia, in the arciocese of philadelphia, there's a situation going on right now where a local grand jury has suggested that 37 priests who were accused, with credible allegations of abuse, were allowed to remain in their posts. and the lay review boards that have been set up to help the church monitor this, they were shocked to hear that. so there are clearly still a lot of issues. >> kevin, very quickly. is it over or not? >> last year, in 2010, there were just seven cases reported of abuse that was alleged to

have occurred in 2010. so in that case, you are not seeing hundreds of cases of abuse, but what's problematic for a lot of people is that the church is not reporting any cases and they are not releasing the names of accused priests that might encourage of other victims to come forward. >> many thanks. kevin eckstrom. kim lawton. there's another issue simmering among catholics. in the year 2000, at the vatican, the late pope joh pauii oered a new translation of the roman missal, which includes the words used every sunday at catholic mass. the results go into effect next november, on the first sunday of advent, but now around the country catholics are preparing for the change. in many cases that means bracing for it because the new translation is being met with resistance, especially among

some priests. judy valente reports from chicago. >> my name is lorie crepeau. i'm the director of faith formation here. >> these parishioners at st. edna's church in suburban chicago are about to get a crash course in the changes coming to the catholic mass. >> i don't want you to think of this as, "oh great, come advent i'm going to walk into church and the communion rail's going to be back and ladies are going to have to wear kleenex on their head and oh me, oh my." that is not what is happening here. >> what is going to happen is that the words to some of the prayers and music these people have known for the past 40 years will change. it's the most significant retooling of the mass since 1973, when it went from latin to english. >> we wanted to make it simple for the people to understand, so we didn't stay true to the actual latin translation. we wanted to find words that people felt comfortable with. well, now you're comfortable. 40 years later you're

comfortable. now we're going to try to make you uncomfortable by going back to where it should have been, all right? >> the vatican says the mass will now be more authentic, more accurately reflecting the meaning of the original latin. >> will the changing of this frequent used dialogue be easy? certainly not. >> in the current translation we say that "i have sinned through my own fault." now i'm going to say, "i have greatly sinned," but then they want to reinforce this, obviously, because now they've added "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault," and you say, "i get it! it's my fault! i get it!" >> some of the changes don't fall trippingly off the tongue. in the creed, for example, the part about jesus being one with the father becomes "consubstantial with the father." >> it is a $50 word. now imagine a third-grader

trying to do this, because third grade is where they teach the creed. >> "dominus vobiscum," and the response, "et cum spiritu tuo," presently translated as "the lord be with you" "and also with you." >> "and also with you" will become "and with your spirit." other changes are more extensive. >> indeed, as you can see, the entire hymn iseimagined and restructured. >> for priests, the mass will be quite different. >> the new translations of the roman missal involve a new way of speaking for the priest at mass. >> but many priests are not happy with the changes. they've called the new translation archaic, ugly, even wrong. >> i haven't met a priest yet who feels that this is a good thing, that this is an improvement in the liturgy. >> father larry janowski is a franciscan priest in the chicago dioce who objects to the literal translation of words

from the original latin. >> from what i've seen they're like sawdust in the mouth. they're difficult to say. >> for example, this prayer -- >> "therefore, lord, we pray, graciously accept this oblation of our service, that of your whole family, which we make to you also for those to whom you have been pleased to give the new birth of water and the holy spirit, granting them forgiveness of all their sins. order our daysn your peacend mmend that we be delivered from eternal damnation and counted among the flock of those you have chosen." that's quite a mouthful. >> janowski was so concerned that he wrote a letter to chicago's cardinal francis george, which said in part -- >> english has the greatest vocabulary of any living language on earth, yet the prescription is that we not only adhere to a stiff, ugly, nonvernacular translation, but actually delights in convoluted sentence structure and

anachronistic language, and then callst reverence. >> the retranslation procs began in the 1980s with a group of theologians working in concert with linguists, writers, even poets. but the vatican rejected that translation and instead decided to rewrite the entire roman missal or prayer book, of which the mass is only a part. >> then, in 2000, pope john paul ii announced there would be a new missal, and if there was going to be a new missal, you had to start the entire translation process all over again. it begangain. >> father edward foley is a professor of liturgy and music. >> i think the most problematic part of the whole thing has been the process. i think it was much more secretive than the previous translation process. we knew who the translators were in the previous process. here, we did not. >> in an open letter to the u.s.

bishops, father anthony ruff, a liturgist who had been heavily involved in the new translation, refused to promote it, saying "the holy see allowed a small group to hijack the translation at the final stagehow unsatisfactory the final text is, how much deception and mischief have marked this process. and then when i think of our lord's teachings on service and love and unity i weep." >> "when supper was ended, he took the cup." >> the consecration is the holiest part of the mass. even a small change here from the word "all" to the word "many" has proven controversial. >> "he gave the cup to his disciples and said, take this all of you and drink from it. this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. it will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven." >> our understanding of the sacrifice of christ in the world today is that it is for all

people, and to say "for many" is a very difficult thing for a priest to even get out. i know priests who say it violates their conscience to say that. >> change is always hard. so i think there will be some pushback from some people, especially because we've been doing it for so long. >> i think they're good, i think they're good. some will take getting used to. >> i lived thru vatican ii and all of that change, and that was something else, and like she was saying, there were a number of pastors who were not fully involved. they fought it. >> despite the controversy, the mass remains the heart of their faith to most catholics. >> remember, the eucharist is who we are. it is everything that we do. it's the center of what we are, and everything else comes out from that. >> the roman catholic church is not a democracy, and we do have a pope and we do have bishops, and they are the arbiters. the mass does not belong to me.

the liturgy belongs to, the mass belongs to the church, and i have been called to be an official representative of the church, and it's not for me to change. it's for me to do it as effectively and as well as possible. >> in a statement, the u.s. bishops said there is "an openness and readiness to receive the new text." some priests clearly aren't ready yet. >> at some point, i will be required to teach the congregation about what is coming, and i cannot lie to the people. i cannot pretend to be enthusiastic about a translation that i don't believe in. i will say what needs to be said, but i will have to say to those people whom i love that my heart isn't in it, and i dread saying that. >> but for now, it seems, catholics will have to learn to live with the changes, whether they ke them or not. for "religion and ethics

newsweekly," this is judy valente in chicago. >> we have a report today on a remarkable housing program in north carolina called builders of hope. nancy murray, who runs the project, learned the construction business from her late father and is now using that knowledge and her inheritance, plus funds she raises, to take old houses about to be demolished and turn them into new homes for the working poor, almost a hundred of them so far. as bob faw reports, everybody seems to benefit -- workers, donors and new owners alike. >> question, what do this longtime alcoholic, this up and coming project manager, this receptionist who was homeless, and noah haynes, who just turned 1, have in common? answer -- the chance at a better life because of this former corporate high-flyer and mother

of four. >> we're building houses. we're rescuing houses that are slated for demolition, rebuilding them and making them available and affordable to families who otherwise would be living in pretty substandard conditions. >> for the past five years, her program, builders of hope, has found houses about to be demolished and put in a landfill. >> so far, to date builders of hope has rescued 11 million pounds of debris from the landfill. the only inventory that we work with is inventory slated for demolition. i'd say 99% of the homes that are donated that are older have hardwood floors in them. we're able to rtore those. throofs, the rafr syems, the floor systems all in really great shape and very usable. >> nancy murray's nonprofit group rescues houses from commercial, road and hospital expansion as well as private donors who want to build larger homes. the houses are rebuilt and refurbished into energy-efficient green houses, as josh thompson learned when he

moved into his builders of hope home. >> all the paints that they use are all low-chemical and designed to kind of produce a healthy environment. >> now that's what we see. what we don't see -- tell me about the insulation. >> yeah, what you don't see is spray-on foam insulation across the whole house. amazing energy efficiency with that. you got all these windows are the double-paned. >> in raleigh, durham, charlotte, and other north carolina cities, nancy murray's builders of hope, with help from private and government funds, has restored nearly 100 houses, selling them at an average cost of $135,000. putting them on land she has bought or that has been donated, murray sells them at cost to low and modete iome wage earner she calls the working poor. >> you say affordable housing and everybody thinks, "oh, those people." well, those people are your teachers, your firefighters, your police officers, your nurse. it's 70% of the working population of any major city,

and those are the people who need affordable housing. >> people like noah's parents, dana and robbie haynes. >> there's houses like this in the downtown area, but it's just not with our price range. we couldn't afford to have those upgrades and different things. >> new home ownersike receptionist nikki mckinnon who also could not afford to buy much of anything on her $25,000 a year salary. >> just having your own, it's nothing like it. it gives you just a sense of pride and worth. it's just wonderful just to say that i actually own a piece of land in this world, you know. it's nice. >> nancy murray gave up her job as a marketing and advertising executive to start builders of hope with money she inherited from her father and with the knowledge of one of his businesses -- construction. >> we were building million-dollar vacation town homes, and we were displacing people when we bought property that were renting.

we would tear them down and build something else, and i thought, "wow, what we're doing is wrong." you know, i started getting a conscience, like this is terrible. >> so she traded in her stilettos for steel-tipped boots, even bought her own earth-mover. it is, she says, a kind of ministry. >> there's a verse in matthew that states that you shouldn't store your money up, you know, where moths and rt and decay set in, but to take that money and invest it in kingdom work and to really be able to use it to make a difference in loving others and caring for others while we're here on earth. >> with a staff of 60, her builders of hope scours a 50-mile radius looking for houses, some donated by homeowners like attorney bryan brice, who get a handsome tax write-off and satisfaction. >> this is reuse and recycle and and hope in a way that is affording home ownership to

lower and middle-income families, and if you look at this whole neighborhood it's just amazing what they're doing here to rebuild this area. we're glad to be a part of it. >> but there is more here being rebuilt than houses. once, this neighborhood was crime-infested. >> gang members were giving some problems to some of our first homeowners here, actually. this was gang territory. >> now the area is virtually crime-free. >> that demonstrates that revitalization really does work. >> her builders of hope also refurbishes and rebuildsental units. that restoration and the rebuilding of the houses is performed in part through a mentoring and training program established by murray. her organization hires hard-to-employ men who've had prison records or substance abuse problems, like the long-term alcoholic kennie byrum. >> i could see that they cared about not only just me, not focusing on let's stop what we're doing and care about kennie, but let's bring kennie

along and show him that he can be part of something that deals with caring about others. it's a fellowship that i've never witnessed before or been part of before. >> so lives are also being transformed here as well as houses. phillip brickle, once a longtime drug addict who became a pastor, now owns one of nancy murray's houses. >> it's a place of peace. it's a place of joy. >> what's it do to someone like that? do they change because they now can live in a home like this? >> i believe it gives an individual selforth. you know, it also gives an individual a feeling of ownership, and any time you have a feeling of ownership it gives responsibility. so i do think it does bring about responsibility, and whenever you have more responsibility, it brings about change. >> juggling house moving schedules with city zoning permits, among other issues, is a true test of nancy's faith. >> i would get mad at god, you know.

it was like, okay, you brought me here, you convinced me to do this, you know, this project is about to fall apart. everything is going to go by the wayside. >> finally, she says she put her fate in god's hands to guide her to make the right decisions. it was then, she says, builders of hope took off. >> you're saying, okay, we're here for a reason. why are we here? what do i need to learn? what people are going to interface with me because we're in the midst of this problem that maybe because i've met them something else is going to happen? so you trust that everything happens for a reason, and it's all connected, and ultimately gets you to the place where god wants you to be. >> in addition to the projects in north carolina, nancy's builders of hope moved, refurbished, and relocated 76 homes in new orleans that were about to be demolished to make room for a new hospital. it's estimated about 250,000 houses a year in the united states get torn down. cities like detroit and dallas have contacted nancy about her

work. >> this is a model that can replicate, and then it does have very important ramifications, i think, nationally in terms of being able to rebuild neighborhoods and to get people back in housing, but we do need funding. we need supporters. >> with the constant fundraising it is a struggle, but the satisfaction, she says, is worth all the uncertainty and aggravation. >> you move them in over there, and the eyes and the excitement and the warmth and the pride, it's just so sweet to see that when you do give them an opportunity and you give them a chance and something beautiful that they deserve, they take care of it and they blossom and they grow, and they really create a new community for themselves. >> here, where because of one woman's faith a house is not just a home, it's a new egiing. for "religion and ethics newsweekly," this is bob faw in raleigh, north carolina.

finally, on our calendar this week, bahai's celebrate the declaration of the bab. it's the day in 1844 when a spiritual leader known as the bab announced that he had been sent to prepare the way for god's universal messenger. that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. you can follow us on facebook and twitter, find uon yoube, and watch usnytime, anywhere on smartphones and iphones. there's also much more on our website, including a link to the new report on the catholic sex abuse crisis and more of our interview with reverend edward foley about the new roman missal. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, buddhist celebrations last tuesday for the buddha's birthday.

major funding for "religion and ethics newsweekly" is provided by the lilly endowment, an indianapolis based private family foundation dedicated to its founders' interest in religion, community development, and education. additional funding by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. and the corporation for public broadcasting.

next time, we get a glimpse into the mysterious and often vilified world of voodoo, as described by a voodoo priestess in new orleans. >> voodoo recognizes an invisible world of great power and of spiritual power, and that the surface reality is really just the surface of things. >> i'm bob abernethy. join us for the next "religion and ethics newsweekly."