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No one has an automatic right to marry: Pope

Pope Benedict has asked Catholic priests to do a better job preparing people for marriage, saying that no one has an automatic right to wed.

Benedict said that the church should make sure those who decide to get married will be able to make the marriage last.

He made the comments on Saturday to the Roman Rota, the Vatican's tribunal on marriage annulments.

In the case of an annulment, the church effectively declares that a marriage never took place.

Benedict said that it is difficult to identify problems that would allow a marriage to be annulled in advance, but better pre-marriage counselling could help avoid a "vicious circle" of invalid marriages.

Benedict said the right to a church wedding requires a couple intends to be authentic and truthful in their marriage.

Benedict's comments on marriage came one day after he put pressure on Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi over his dalliances with young women.

On Friday, Benedict said that public officials must set a good moral example for society, but did not mention Berlusconi by name.

His comments came on day after a bishop said the Vatican was concerned about the scandal.

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FROM INSIDE TV

Exclusive: Discovery, Catholic Church team for exorcism series
by James Hibberd


Discovery Channel is teaming with the Vatican for an unprecedented new series hunting the deadliest catch of all: Demons.

The Exorcist Files will recreate stories of real-life hauntings and demonic possession, based on cases investigated by the Catholic Church. The project includes access into the Vatican’s case files, as well as interviews with the organization’s top exorcists — religious experts who are rarely seen on television.

“The Vatican is an extraordinarily hard place to get access to, but we explained we’re not going to try to tell people what to think,” says Discovery president and GM Clark Bunting.

Bunting says the investigators believe a demon can inhabit an inanimate object (like a home) or a person. The network executive says he was initially skeptical when first meeting the team but was won over after more than three hours of talks.

“The work these folks do, and their conviction in their beliefs, make for fascinating stories,” Bunting says.

If the show’s first season is successful, the network hopes its partnership with the Church will pave the way for producers GoGo Luckey to take the series to the next level — joining Catholic investigators on live demon-purging ride-alongs. (Move over, Syfy’s Ghost Hunters.)

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FROM NEWSAU
Computer model shows how the Red Sea parted
A strong wind at a bend in a river creates ideal conditions
It's possible the waters parted for Moses

COMPUTER modelling has explained how the Red Sea parted for Moses and the Israelites escaping from the Pharoah.
The story, told in biblical writings and in the Koran, describes an east wind blowing the water apart, leaving a dry tract of land for the group to flee across.

When the Pharoah's army tries to follow, the walls of water rush back and drown the soldiers.
While this sounds like fantasy, an American research team at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder  has created a computer simulation model to show that given the right circumstances, it is possible that the waters did indeed part for Moses.

The computer simulations, part of a greater study on how wind affects water, have shown that with a strong east wind blowing overnight at a bend where a river merges with a lagoon, the waters would be pushed back, exposing a land bridge for a short time.

It is due to a phenomenon known as a "wind setdown" where a strong and persistent wind can push a body of water and "pile it up" downwind.

Carl Drew who led the study, says in a video that this phenomenon is well-known, but to re-enact the biblical story, "the tricky part is to get water on both sides of the crossing".

They found that at a point where a river bends to merge with a coastal lagoon, the water "splits at the point of the bend".
"So there's water on both sides and a bunch of refugees can come walking or running across," he said.
Such a place occurred in the ancient Eastern Nile Delta.

Mr Drews and CU oceanographer Weiqing Han analysed archaeological records, satellite measurements and maps and applied the data to ancient topography of an area of the Nile Delta which they believed provided both the right geographical conditions and a plausible site for the Bible story.

Mr Drews told news.com.au that he ran 14 simulation experiments. "They tested various configurations of the geography and the wind (direction and speed). The short answer is that the crossing has some tolerance to variations, but not a whole lot. It's a rare event."
They found that if the wind blows for 12 hours at 63 miles per hour (just over 101km/h) it would push back nearly two metres of deep water.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/computer-model-shows-how-the-red-sea-parted-for-moses/story-e6frfro0-1225927783666#ixzz10FoKlaOz
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Faith Implant 02/24/2010
 
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