Today’s Catholic must-reads: 14/03/12

Benedict XVI began a new cycle of catechesis at his general audience this morning with a reflection on Mary’s life of prayer (full text, video).

Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino of Havana has predicted that this month’s papal visit to Cuba will “revive a sleeping faith” in the country, in a rare address on state-controlled television.

The Pope has asked the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to address the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelisation in October.

A human rights group has called for Dante’s Divine Comedy to be banned on the grounds that it is “racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic”.

Reuters suggests that the American bishops may reconsider their “aggressive tactics” in opposition to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.

Fr Thomas Reese SJ says that lay Catholics must “face the fact that today we live in a do-it-yourself Church”.

Hollywood director Christian Peschke explains how EWTN prompted him to become a Catholic.

And L’Osservatore Romano welcomes the Free Hugs Campaign, created by a “vaguely hippie” man “with an unkempt beard”.