October 12, 2012 Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Second Vatican Council’s call for “renewal” did not mark a break with tradition or a watering down of the faith, but reflected Christianity’s lasting vitality and God’s eternal presence, Pope Benedict XVI said.  

October 12, 2012 Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, published a short reminiscence of the council by Pope Benedict XVI.  

October 12, 2012 Catholic News Service JUBA, South Sudan (CNS) — Already facing a shortage of priests, the Catholic Church in the world’s newest nation has closed a portion of its seminary, leaving dozens of young men stranded on the road to the priesthood.  

October 12, 2012 Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, said any evangelization he’s done has always and only been a matter of building on the evangelization already begun within the family.  

October 12, 2012 Catholic News Service ATLANTA — The Archdiocese of Atlanta, the Diocese of Savannah and other Catholic entities in Georgia, including Catholic Charities and Christ the King School in Atlanta, filed a federal lawsuit Oct. 5 challenging the Health and Human Services’ contraceptive mandate.  

October 12, 2012 Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — The need to defend religious liberty, a key issue this year for the U.S. Catholic bishops and other religious leaders, will now have a new venue for discussion and action in a handful of state legislatures.  

October 12, 2012 Catholic News Service WATERTOWN, Mass. — “Doc, how long have I got?” That’s the question Dr. John Howland hates to be asked.  

October 10, 2012 Catholic News Service WASHINGTON – People who say they are unaffiliated with any religion constitute nearly 20 percent of the American public, making them almost as numerous as Catholics, who accounted for 22 percent of participants in a new Pew Research Center study released Oct. 9.  

October 10, 2012 Catholic News Service LOS ANGELES — The Catholic Church’s mission to evangelize “is ever ancient and ever new,” and every member of the church has a duty to carry out this mission, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a pastoral issued to coincide with the …

October 10, 2012 Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — In a survey of Catholics age 14 and older, about 12 percent of males and 10 percent of females said they considered a religious vocation at least “a little seriously,” a study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at …