Morning Catholic must-reads: 17/10/11

The Catholic Church will mark the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council by observing a Year of Faith, Benedict XVI announced yesterday (video).

Pope Benedict used a mobile platform during the entrance procession at Sunday’s Mass, the first time it had been used since the pontificate of John Paul II.

“New evangelists will multiply more and more to create the true transformation which the world of today needs,” the Pope told participants at conference on the new evangelisation on Saturday (video).

Pope Benedict called for a “new, harmonious synthesis between family and work” in an address to the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice foundation on Saturday.

The Vatican is hosting an exhibition of Islamic calligraphy for the first time in its history (video).

The principal of a Catholic school in Winnipeg, Canada, is facing possible dismissal after he encouraged pupils to take part in 40 Days for Life.

A CCTV camera has caught a thief crossing himself before he stole a 116-year-old sanctuary lamp at a church in Birmingham, England.

Yasmine El Rashidi offers a heart-rending account of the massacre of Copts in Cairo earlier this month.

Daniel Burke reports that there are more exorcists today in the United States than ever before.

Rocco Palmo explains why the Pope has chosen a 54-year-old tricyling theologian who takes questions on YouTube to be the next Archbishop of Manila.

And Marc Barnes explains why it’s great to be a young Catholic today.