♪ >> coming up, roman catholics are adjusting to a new english translation of the mass. and not everyone is welcoming in changes. plus, on going controversy in the ancient debate over whether there's a heavenwh, gets in and what happens to those who don't. >> major funding for religion and ethics news weekly is provided by the lily endowment, a private family foundation dedicated to its founders and christian religion, community development and education.

additional funding provided by mutual of america, designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. the estate of william j. carter, the jane hensen foundation and the corporation for public broadcasting. >> welcome. i'm kim lawson sitting in. thank you for joining us. 93-year-old e vvangelist billy graham was hospitaled on wednesday with pneumonia. a spokesman says he was alert and upbeat. in may, he recovered from a case of pneumonia. thursday was world aids day and religious leaders were among those recommitting their efforts to combat the deadly disease. at an event in washington, president obama announced new funding for getting life-saving drugs to more hiv positive people. especially pregnant women. former president george w. bush

and bill clinton participated via satellite. people of faith gathered in south africa to mark the opening of a united nation's meeting on climate change. a rally led by anglican archbishop urged leaders to reach an agreement on reducing greenhouse gases. in rome, pope benedict xvi also urged deliberations on the environ. delegates in the u.s. religious leaders travel to cuba this week. this trip was led by national council of churches general secretary. there were meetings with cuban government and religious leaders and a visit with the families of a group of cubans imprisoned in the u.s. as cuban spies. some members of the delegation were also able to see american prisoner allen gross.

the u.s. government subcontractor was arrested in september, 2009 for bringing electronic equipment into cuba. gross has lost a significant amount of weight but appear today be in good spirits. here at home, charitable giving in 2010 after two straight years of decline. according to the center on philanthropy, u.s. senators took in an increase of 3% from 2009. but the center says it could still take years for nonprofits to see prerecession levels of giving. last sunday, roman catholic churches began using a new english translation of the mass. the new roman missal contains several changes to the prayers and music that american catholics have been using for the past 40 years.

the revised missal is intended to be truer to the original latin, but as judy reports, a number of priests don't like it. >> my name is laurie. >> neez parishioners at saint e dna's church got a crash course on the changes in the catholic mass. >> i don't want you to think of this as, oh, great, come advent, i'm going to walk in the church and the communion rail is going to be back and ladies are going to have to wear kleenex on their heads and oh me, oh my. that is not what is happening here. >> what has happened is that the words to some of the prayers and music these people have known for the past 40 years have changed. 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 is now more authentic. more accurately reflecting the meaning of the original latin. >> will the changing of this frequently used dialogue be easy? sem se certainly not. >> in the current translation, we say i have sinned through my own fault. now we're going to say i have greatly sinned. and then they're going to reenforce this because they've added through my fault, through my fault, through my most fault. and you say i get it. it's my fault. i get it. and you're trying to -- some of the changes don't fall trippingly off the tongues. in the creed, for example, the part about jesus being one with the father becomes substantial

with the father. >> it's a $50 word. imagine the third grader trying to do this? because the third grade is where they teach the creed. >> presently translated as the lord be with you and also with you. >> and also with you becomes and with your spirit. other changes are more extensive. >> indeed, as you can see, the entire hymn is reimagined and restructured. >> for priests, the mass becomes quite different. >> the new translations of the roman missal involve a new way of speaking for the priests at mass. >> but many priests are not happy with the changes. they call 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 is a franciscan

priest who objects to the literal translation of words from the original latin. >> from what i've seen, they are like sawdust in the mouth. they're difficult the say. >> for example, this prayer. >> therefore, lord, we pray graciously accept this obamalation 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 of their sins. order our days in your peace and command 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 chica chicago's cardinal francis george which says. >> 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 delight in

convoluted sentence structure and anan ro nisic language and calls it reverence. >> the retranslation process began in the 1980s working with concert with linguists, writers, even poets. but the vatican rejected that translatiind,east 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. so it began again. >> 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 translaters were in the previous process. here, we did not. >> in an open letter to the u.s.

bishops, father anthony ruff, a lit you are gist who had been heavily involve nd the new translation refused to promote it saying the holy seed allowed a small group to hijack the translation at the final stage. how unsatisfactory the final step is. how much deception and mischief have mark third-degree process. and then, when i think of our lord's teachings, our 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 day s sieples and said, take this all of you and drink from it, this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and ever lasting covenant. it will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. >> our understanding that 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, you know, pushback from some people especially because we've been doing it for so long. >> i think it's good. it will take some getting used to. >> but, you know, we lived through vatican ii and all of that change. and that was something else. and, like she was saying, there were a number of pastors at the time. we're 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 is 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 ash tr b arbit. the mass belongs to the church. and i am call today be an official representative of the church. it's not for me to change. it's for me to do it as effectively 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 like them or not. >> this past year, there was a wave of new books examining age old questions about the afterlife. do heaven and held really exist? what are they like and who goes where. one of the best selling of these books was pastor robb bell. it ignited a fierce debate. >> i can only imagine when all ki co. >> for millennia, people have been trying to imagine what happens after death. is there a heaven? who gets in? and what happens to those who don't? >> everybody dies. >> and we want to hope that the people we love will see again and we want to hope that our own

identities and our own consciousness and maybe even our own bodies exist in some other realm after we're gone from this earth. >> books trying to provide answers to these age old questions continue to be best sellers. one of them, love winds by michigan megachurch pastor robb bell has ignited an intense new debate, particularly among evangelical christians. >> a lot of people, the conception they were handed over the christian faith, is that you go around making judgments. we know for sure it's burning forever in that place. you don't

eternal life. >> author of the book heaven, our enduring fascination with the afterlife. >> it's a mistake to think you can talk about -- even talk about god in the western tradition without talking about hel heaven, right? how you get to heaven, the question is essential to islamic. >> people must accept jesus as a personal savior. >> jesus said there are two roads in life. one is the broad road that leads to the destruction and judgment and held. the other is a narrow road that leads to heaven and paradise. >> mary vandenburg is assistant

process forin grand rapids michigan. >> there is one sure way to know you will spend eternal life in the presence of god and that is through faith in jesus christ. >> will only a few select people make it to heaven? and will billions and billions of people burn forever in held? >> bell offers a more expansive view. he's pastor of the morris bible church just outside grand rapids which has some 10,000 weekly contenders. he's also a popular speaker who has a huge international following. >> for me, interacting with countless people over the years, who literally are carrying around an image, god is not good. and god is not good because my grandmother died and at the funeral, the pastor wanted us all to know for sure that my

grandmother was burning in torment forever. >> bow points to scriptures where jesus says he's restoring all things and drawing all people to himself. >> and jesus tells stories in which the key character doesn't give up on whatever is lost. and i think we should take that seriously. i don't know what god has in mind. but i do know that this story that jesus held causes us to pause before we make any of those sorts ofs judgments. be very careful because god may be up to something way, way bigger than you've ever been able to comprehend. >> heaven is not a fair away place, but a renewal of the earth that begins here and now. bell believes a spectrum of people who will be part of it is wide and expansive. he says is a consequence of choosing not to be part of god's massive embrace. >> god is throwing a party and everybody is invited. but if you don't want to come,

you are given that option. >> and one of the most controversial parts of his book still takes issue with traditional christian teaching that death ends any opportunity to make that choice. >> so 17-year-old atheist dies, god will punish this 17-year-old atheist forever. yep. so 17 million years from now, god will be tormenting and punishing the 17-year-old atheist. yep. and this is okay with god. yep. that's how it is. and, for me, it just seems like -- it's not compelling. that doesn't seem to be what jesus was talking about. >> maybe we can think about those things. and maybe we can wonder about those things. but the bible is pretty clear that when the end comes, that's the end. you don't have a second chance. n now, might there be? could god do that? i don't know of any theologian

that would say god couldn't. god can do whatever god wants to do. but the biblical text doesn't indicate this at all. >> vandenburg says while she believes bell raises some interesting questions, she's concerned a few particular verses without taking the full biblical narrative into account. >> i'm uncomfortable with the way he frames things in the book that make it sound like sort of like don't worry about it because it's just going to be okay. and i'm not convinced that the bible says that. i'm fairly convinced that the bible says if you reject me, i'll reject you. >> some evangelicals say bell doesn't give enough importance to god's judgment towards sin. >> whenl they talk about god's great love, it's always set against the backdrop of god's righteousness, god's wrath, god's holiness. >> i think what happens for many people is they heard about the judgment before the love. but if you start with the love and the judgment flows out of

that, god's love is for us to flourish in god's good world. for us to flourish in god's good world, judgments have to be made. well, that puts judgment in its proper place. >> many evangelicals have been severe in a condemnation of bell. some even call them a heretic. >> we care about people and people who have grown up in the church who have sung the same songs who are being won over by somebody who has produced great videos and is a good communic e communicatcommunicat communicator but is ultimately teaching a false gospel. >> he calls himself a conservative evangelical. and he believes in a much looser idea of heaven and salvation than conservative evangelicals, traditionally believe in. so if he had called himself and episcopal yan, for example, nobody would have batted an eye. >> miller says the conversation itself isn't new, but the fact that it's taking place so openly

within evangelicalism is. >> this is a radical upheaval of that entire world view. then what does that do to your doctrine? to your creeds? to your world view? to your mission for evangelism? what are you going to teach to people if they're going to get in anyway. it's a real theological struggle. >> miller says bell has particular resonance who increasingly have friends from different faith traditions. and that's precisely what troubles conservatives. >> i think that's why we have to talk about this because we are very concerned about the loss of the gospel. not just getting a doctrine wrong, but the loss of the gospel in this. >> in june, the southern baptist convention voted to reaffirm its belief in the reality of hell as

an eternal conscious punishment. bell says he wants to people to see god's message is about love. >> jesus didn't come along and say you don't want to be a part of that thing, do you? trust me, something big is going down. here, here's a taste. >> he says he's not bothered by those who accuse him of him citing a dangerous conversation. >> it seems to me like the church would be the place that would lead the way in having dangerous conversations. i mean, isn't that what faith is? >> and the conversation isn't ending any time soon. since that story first aired, rob bell announced he was leaving bible church and moving to los angeles to focus on reaching a broader audience. one of the projects he's reportedly working on is a television program with spiritual overtones. speaking of tv shows, houston

me megachurch pastor announced he's signed an agreement with producer mark burnett for a new reality show. lakewood is the largest congregation in america. some 3 million russians came out to see a sacred relic of the virgin mary that was on rare public display. the relic is a sash bhooefed to have been worn by mary. it's associated with fertility and good health. in moscow, thousands waited in long lines to see the sash. some reportedly for up to 24 hours. this week, the relic was flown back to the greek monastery where it's kept. we have a busy calendar this week. the death of the prophet moe

hamd's grandson who was killed in a 7th century battle. his death is kmcommemorated in somber processions. on december 6th, christians celebrate the feast day of saint nicholas. december 8th would have celebrated body day when buddha each it had state of nirvana. he did so while sitting under a body tree. also on december 8th, catholics celebrate the feast of the immaculate conception whom they believe was born without original sin. finally, for most of the world's christians, festive and diverse advent activities are in full swing. in bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of jesus, local officials hope the christmas season will bring an influx of tourists. they're making preparations for much needed renovations to the 1500-year-old church of the nativity.

the city of graz unvailed the life size nativity scene carved entirely out of ice. the sculpture will look its best on the weekend when most visitors come to see it. meanwhile, ree you day ja nar row kicked off with 3.3 million lightbulbs. many locales here in the u.s. also lit public christmas trees. although, in some places, they're called holiday trees. that's the case in rhode island where the governor says the state house holiday tree is in keeping with their tradition of religious freedom. he says rather than complain, those who are unhappy with his decision should spend their energies feeding the poor. that's our program for now. i'm kim walton. you can follow us on twitter and facebook and watch us any time, anywhere on smart phones. that's much more on our web site including more of my interview with robb bell.

you can comment and share them. audio and video pod casts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, music from this week's passion of peace when president obama lit what is still known as the national christmas tree. ♪ ♪

♪ >> major funding is provided by the lily endowment, an indianapolis-based private family foundation dedicated to its founders and christian religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america, designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. the estate of william j. carter, the jane hensen foundation and the corporation for public broadcasting.