Morning Catholic must-reads: 01/06/12

The Virgin Mary’s faith encourages us to look beyond the difficulties of daily life, Benedict XVI said last night at the end of the Marian month of May in the Vatican Gardens.

Christian family life is seeing a revival, Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan said yesterday as the Seventh World Meeting of Families got underway.

Pope Benedict will travel to Milan later today to take part in the meeting.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, has launched a monthly insert aimed at women.

The Vatican has released the Pope’s prayer intentions for June, which focus on the Eucharist and Christians in Europe.

Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle, the delegate overseeing reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), sets out his plans. Christine Firer Hinze, professor of Christian ethics at Fordham University, responds.

Jimmy Akin takes issue with a “deceptively crafted hit piece” on Cardinal Timothy Dolan in yesterday’s New York Times.

Fr Seán Finnegan suggests that the Roman Curia should be run by lay people belonging to groups like Opus Dei.

And an American parish priest has published a notice in his parish bulletin denouncing the Vatican as “legalistic, paternalistic … hypocritical and duplicitous” (full text).

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