Pope Benedict's decision to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council by calling for a Year of Faith sends a powerful message to the whole Church: it's about the Faith, stupid.  

In other words, the whole purpose of the Council was to offer a fresh and dynamic expression of an ancient faith to the modern world in order to illumine that world with the blazing light of the Gospel.  The Pope's concern has always been that our Catholic post-conciliar engagement with that modern world has too-often devolved into a shallow dialogue that strips away much of what is distinctive about our faith and seeks to redefine 'Catholic' in terms of the LCD.  The danger?  What we have ...