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There’s a very popular school of thought, particularly among left-leaning denominations, that the bible in general is not to be taken literally. In the 70s, this had begun to catch on in the United States even among Catholics. The Vatican has weighed in strongly, and it is popular mostly among only borderline (non-observant) Catholics and those on the left who are heretics for many other reasons as well.

::Facepalm again!::

I literally cannot believe you are making such a statement. It didn't start in the Seventies. It's been in the Catholic Church for a century. Furthermore it isn't just "left-leaning" Catholics; it's almost the entire church including the Vatican and at least the last two popes (and probably the last six). Why don't you read now Pope Benedict's book In the Beginning (written back when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger) in which he denies the historicity of Genesis and attributes it to pagan creation myths? You can get it from the so-called "conservative Catholics" at Ignatius Press.

There are many young-earth Creationist Catholics,

Where are they? Among the traditionalists that "real" Catholics routinely accuse of Protestantism? Why aren't there more on Free Republic? How does the premier conservative forum on the Internet have such a vast majority of Catholics committed to evolution?

Probably the largest group in the United States are those who read Genesis 1 literally,

Yes! They're called "Fundamentalist Protestants" and Catholics look down on them for being an "embarrassment to religion!"

except for the issue of time periods. Genesis 1 refers to “days” before the earth was set in motion around the sun, so these people simply hold that “day” means simply a period of time, during which God executed Intelligent Design throughout the universe.

The point is that the creation of the universe was not a natural phenomenon! It was an act of omnipotence acting on nothingness. This being the case, there is simply no need to stretch the "six days" into billions of years so the universe could form "naturally!"

Finally, there are many who are largely literalists, but regard the first 11 chapters of Genesis as a “special case.” They hold that with most of the bible, what is recorded is revelation: People witnessing the action of God, and recording it, protected from error by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Genesis 11 represents a pre-history, where instead of writing down the absolute and literal truth as they witnessed it, they wrote down creation as they understood it, guided by the Holy Spirit to infuse it with powerful, deep, and true revelations about the human condition.

::How many times do I have to facepalm???::

The Torah was not written by inspired men, not even Moses. It was in its entirety written by G-d and then dictated to Moses letter-for-letter. Furthermore, the generation that received the Torah was only the 26th generation of humanity. There were ten generations from Adam to Noach, ten generations from Noach to Abraham, and six generations from Abraham to Moses. All the Israelites at Sinai knew their ancestry. Furthermore, Moses' father `Amram was born during the lifetime of Jacob. Jacob was born during the lifetime of Shem the son of Noah (and studied under him), Shem was born during the lifetime of his grandfather Methuselah, and Methuselah's life overlapped that of Adam himself for 243 years. All this information was known by the Israelites who left Egypt a mere 210 years after Jacob and his family moved there.

The only reason to reject the historicity of the first eleven chapters of Genesis is scientific uniformitarianism retrojected into a supernatural event.

Finally, I am not an "intelligent design" proponent. "Intelligent Design" is nothing but theistic evolution with a signature.

I have made each of these points many times over the years. How many more times do I have to make them???