After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

According to Mark, the very first thing Jesus says in his public ministry is "Repent. Turn back. Do a complete about-face. Change your way of life. Believe in the good news." Immediately he chooses his first disciples, and offers them a mission. "Come after me," he says, "and I will make you fishers of people, rather than fish." Again, you see, repentance and mission.

As is always the case, Jesus's invitation in the gospel this morning is not just to that handful of disciples. Rather, Jesus invites each one of us to have a radical change of heart; to do an about-face; to pledge our entire lives to believing in the good news, which is nothing less than Jesus himself. Each of us is also invited to become a fisher, and to fish for human souls.

Vatican City, Jan 19, 2012 / 12:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI warned today of a “grave threat” to religious liberty in the United States that requires American Catholics to respond with intelligence and courage.

“It is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres,” he said Jan. 19 in an address to a group of American bishops visiting the Vatican.

The Pope said he was particularly concerned with “certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion.”

Pope Benedict’s address was delivered to the bishops from the Mid-Atlantic states region, which includes the Archdioceses of Washington and Baltimore. They are in Rome this week on their regular “ad limina” visit to discuss the health of the U.S. Church with the Pope and Vatican officials. The two bishops from the Archdiocese for the U.S. Military Services are also participating in the meetings.

Pope Benedict said that over the past few days many of the bishops have expressed concern over attempts in the U.S. to “deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices.”

Meanwhile, other bishops raised the “worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship” without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.

2012-01-17 L’Osservatore Romano

“To work tirelessly to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers”. This is the “impelling duty” of the successor of Peter. Already in this first Message after his election to the Papal Throne Pope Benedict XVI spoke these programmatic words. Looking back at the more than six yeas of his Petrine ministry, we can note with gratitude that the cause of ecumenism is the central thread of his pontificate. Not only does he refer in his numerous homilies and many messages to the necessary “purification of the memory” and see “inner conversion” as the indispensable premise for progress on the ecumenical journey, but from this moment exercises ecumenical primacy in his many meetings with representatives of other Churches and Christian communities.

This clear emphasis in the Holy Father's work cannot come as a suprise if we bear in mind that already as a theologian and a cardinal Pope Benedict XVI worked very hard to ensure that the ecumenical dialogue made headway and enriched
it with useful theological reflections. Iti s not of course possible in the context of a brief article to pay homage in detail to the wide range of contributions that Pope Benedict XVI has made to ecumenism. I shall therefore focus on the essential nucleus of his ecumenical action which, in my opinon, is expressed more clearly and deeply in his interpretation of the priestly prayer of Jesus, that all may be one, of which the Pope speaks in part two of his book on Jesus of Nazareth.

As our nation prepares to ring in the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau today projected the Jan. 1, 2012, total United States population will be 312,780,968. This would represent an increase of 2,250,129, or 0.7 percent, from New Year’s Day 2011, and an increase of 4,035,430, or 1.3 percent, since Census Day (April 1, 2010).

In January 2012, one birth is expected to occur every eight seconds in the United States and one death every 12 seconds.

Meanwhile, net international migration is expected to add one person to the U.S. population every 46 seconds in January 2012. The combination of births, deaths and net international migration results in an increase in the total U.S. population of one person every 17 seconds.

Source: US Census Bureau