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

“Before we can speak of God and with God, we need to listen,” Benedict XVI said in his Angelus address yesterday (full text, video).

The “dove of peace” released by Pope Benedict during the Angelus address narrowly escaped an attack by a seagull (video).

The issue of the validity of the marriage needs further reflection, “especially in the current context”, the Pope told members of the Roman Rota on Saturday (video).

The Vatican’s chief ecumenist Cardinal Kurt Koch has said that a joint statement with Lutherans marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 “should be published soon“.

Edward Peters argues that Bishop Robert Finn was “too kind” in his assessment of the National Catholic Reporter.

Fr Stephen Wang is disturbed by the treatment of torture in Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s film about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

And Ron Csillag reports on a Jesuit college in Canada that is teaching students how to respond to “militant, aggressive and proselytising” 21st-century atheism.

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