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 in common with the non-Christian world itself becomes the new rule of faith.  It's what B16 calls a 'shallow-rooted moralism' -- do good, avoid harm, be nice, but don't worry about the theological-idea that our universe was created by a God who became flesh, was brutally murdered by his creatires and rose from the dead to re-create all things.

But that LCD's thin gruel, it's dishonest and it's not really genuine dialogue at all -- which requires both dialogue partners to be who they are.

So, Papa B says, let's remember who we are, be who we are, and then we will be effective dialogue partners with the world capable of speaking and doing the truth in love.

Let's do it!