A daily guide to what's happening in the Catholic Church

Benedict XVI has urged young people to “be the witnesses so needed by our world” ahead of the World Youth Day in Rio next July (full text).

The Catholic Church must still engage in dialogue with other Christians even when the “possibility for the re-establishment of full communion” is remote, the Pope said yesterday.

Kenya’s bishops have said they are alarmed by an influx of weapons into the country ahead of general elections in March.

The United Nations needs to do more to restrict the spread of conventional weapons that harm civilians, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi has said (full text).

Fr Aidan Nichols OP says there is a good case for “something like a synod with a house of laity in the Catholic Church in England“.

Canon lawyer Cathy Caridi suggests that theologian Hans Küng is living in “a sort of canonical gray area”.

And Carol Glatz says that this year the Vatican is helping Catholics to overcome the problem of what to get friends and relatives for Christmas.

Follow me on Twitter @lukecoppen for updates throughout the day.