John Paul the Great considered himself the Pope of Vatican II --the one whose mission it was to defend and promote the authentic meaning of the Council. Benedict is continuing that mission, and John Allen has a particularly interesting Word From Rome on the topic of "continuity" (as in the Council's continuity with the Magisterium), among other things (scroll down to find it). See also Zadok's commentary on Allen's report.
Allen also reports on Vatican discussions of priestly life, which allows me to segue to a plug for the other NCR, and this op-ed from a person with same-sex attraction who's glad he can't be a priest.
And as long as we're going Pope, don't forget to check out the Advent page on the Vatican site. The English translations are all caught up now, including for today's Angelus.
