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Connections

Coming up on Connections: Friday, February 9

First hour: The role of women in the modern Catholic Church

Second hour: Are we ready for driverless cars?

On Friday, Reverend Denise Donato – the founding pastor at Mary Magdalene Parish in East Rochester – will become the first ordained female bishop of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC). The ECC broke off from the Roman Catholic Church over the issue of the pope’s infallibility in the late 19th century. In 1994, Pope John Paul II wrote, “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.” Both of his successors upheld that statement. What do parishioners think? A new survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University shows 60 percent of American Catholic women support the possibility of women being ordained. Does this signal change? This hour, we talk about the modern Catholic Church and the role of women in it. Our guests:

  • Reverend Denise Donato, founding pastor at Mary Magdalene Parish
  • Julie Byrne, professor and chair of  the Department of Religion at Hofstra University, and author of The Other Catholics

Then in our second hour, would you ride in a driverless car? GM says its driverless car could be in fleets by next year. But some polls show Americans are still skeptical about the idea of this technology. Are driverless cars safe? Who would be liable in an accident? Advocates of driverless cars say they could benefit the environment and improve everyday lifestyles. We’ll talk about our future as drivers…or riders. Our guests:

  • Arian Horbovetz, creator of The Urban Phoenix
  • Howard Decker, board member for the Community Design Center Rochester
  • Clark Hochgraf, associate professor of electrical, computer and telecommunications engineering technology at RIT
  • Roger Dube, research professor and director of the Science Exploration Program at RIT
Connections
Evan Dawson is the host of "Connections with Evan Dawson." He joined WXXI in January 2014 after working at 13WHAM-TV, where he served as morning news anchor. He was hired as a reporter for 13WHAM-TV in 2003 before being promoted to anchor in 2007.
Megan Mack is the executive producer of "Connections with Evan Dawson" and live/televised engagement programming.