Universal Call to Holiness

Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict XVI,
Year of Faith

Pope's Letter Explains
Urgent Need for 'Year of Faith'
VATICAN CITY, October 17, 2011-- Pope XVI Benedict says the Church's "Year of Faith," starting October 2012, comes in response to a "profound crisis of faith that has affected many people" and left them searching for answers.

Pope Believes Secularized Nations
Can Become Christian Again
VATICAN CITY, October 15, 2011-- Today Pope Benedict XVI told over 8,000 Catholics involved in the "new evangelization" that he has every confidence they can return their respective nations to Jesus Christ.

CCG Adviser Archbishop Niederauer
Expresses Thanks for Prayers
"Grace is always present"
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, October 12, 2011-- San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer, recovering from trible bipass surgery, expressed appreciation for prayers in an inspiring reflection published in Catholic San Francisco, the newspaper of the Archdiocese.

Vatican Cardinal Warns Priests
Not to Let Humanity Overshadow God
LOS ANGELES, CA, October 6, 2011 -- Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, recently addressed priests and seminarians in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Calif. He told them that the world urgently needs holy priests who avoid allowing their humanity to cast a shadow over the beauty of the Lord.

In Wealthy Germany,
the Church Should Become Poor!
A Message for Us
about the New Evangelization
ROME, September 27, 2011-- Never before his third voyage to his native land had Benedict XVI given such powerful emphasis to the ideal of a Church poor in structures, in possessions, in power. At the same time, however, he insisted on the need for a vigorous "public presence" of this same Church. Is it possible to have both at once?

Church in West Suffering Crisis of Faith, Says Pope
FREIBURG, GERMANY, September 24, 2011-- “The real crisis facing the Church in the western world is a crisis of faith,” Pope Benedict XVI told gathering of lay Catholics on Sept. 24, in Freiburg.