Friday, December 1, 2006

HELL NO! WE WANT NOE!

Brian Noe, that is! Brian is the beloved host of the Verbum Domini Podcast. He's also taken a royal screwing by the USCCB.

You see, the USCCB administers the copyright to the New American Bible, the translation of Holy Scripture that is used for the Lectionary for Mass in the United States. Brian Noe, a faithful podcaster who is also a longtime member of Disciples with Microphones (which I am also a member of), proclaims the readings of the day regularly, as he has been for well over a year. Until the cease and desist order he received from the USCCB, he was using the NAB readings faithfully. Apparently, the Bishops don't want the word spread around that badly - at least not their own version of it. So much for the "new evangelization", right?

Brian regrouped and got permission from other copyright holders of translations such as NSRB and NIV with absolutely no fuss whatsoever. He's been podcasting on those translations, legally.

So now - the straw that broke the camel's back - the USCCB now does their own podcasts, on their own translation. I just don't get it. They prescribe it for Holy Mass. It gets used in every parish church in the United States (well, the majority that are doing things right anyways). It gets read when the Mass is broadcast on TV (EWTN, local channels, etc.). But you can't podcast on it, despite the fact that the majority of us Disciples with Microphones folk are doing this for nothing but the love of Jesus Christ, our Eucharistic Lord, unless you're the USCCB.

Sounds like a double standard to me. Oh well - back to the familiar militant chant:
HELL NO! WE WANT NOE!

We at DwM are pulling for you, Brian!
Peace,
BMP

2 comments:

Dad29 said...

It must be about the money.

Now here's the REAL question: how come USCC needs more money?

Jason Pennington said...

Hmm..This makes me start wondering about various clerical (i.e. clergy-related) double standards that go on. Regarding Holy Writ, it's absolutely RIDICULOUS that anyone would raise a question about "copyrighted material" regarding Scripture. I would have assumed that Scripture is something rather like a public domain item. This says much about the old story regarding Martin Luther and the clerics chaining the copy of Scripture shut so that he couldn't read and study it. Way to go U.S. Bishops. Thumbs down on that one. There are many more issues worth considering than wasting time locking away Scripture from the general public.

That brings me to my recent rant, namely certain clergy (I don't by any means see this as a general trend, of course, because there are many clergy who realize that they put their pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us mortals) who uphold one standard for themselves and legislate another for non-clergy. For example, those who go on an extended (3 weeks/3 Sundays) junket to Paris in October, yet demand that their organist never take any vacation for any reason between September and June.

My very earthy observation: The little white square looking out from a shirt collar does not entitle a human being to proclaim that his feces are really incense or that they may be melted into a base metal for sacred vessels. I applaud the many clergy who consider themselves shepherds of their flocks and who dedicate their lives to the work for the Kingdom of God, as opposed to those who work for the good of their own pfeifdoms.

JP