The pope began his eighth year today after spending the waning days of his seventh driving home his view of the Catholic Church, with a divisive crackdown on dissenters and an equally divisive opening to a fringe group of traditionalists.

POPE JOHN PAUL, reacting unusually swiftly to a sex and child pornography scandal that has rocked the Austrian Catholic Church, named a special investigator yesterday to probe the affair.

The Vatican launched a global campaign against gay marriages today, warning Catholic politicians that support of same-sex unions was “gravely immoral” and urging non-Catholics to join the offensive.