An American lawyer who was abused by Fr Brendan Smyth has said that the Vatican has “blood on its hands” for its failure to inform Irish Church authorities that it had censured Smyth for abuse in the United States years before the 1975 secret inquiry.

The Association of Catholic Priests has said it does not expect members of the Irish hierarchy to comment on the silencing by the Vatican of one of the group’s founders, Fr Tony Flannery.

The Vatican has launched an internal, criminal investigation into the leaks of confidential documents which alleged corruption and financial mismanagement and exposed power struggles among Holy See officials, a Vatican prelate said today.

THE Vatican is “very, very concerned about any sort of non-compliance of the Church with civil law,” according to one of its archbishops, who travelled to Ireland to ordain a priest yesterday.

THE VATICAN has issued a new document making it easier to discipline priests who abuse children, and also made the possession or distribution of child pornography a canonical crime for the first time.

A SLOVENIAN student who was captured, tortured and killed by communists during World War II was beatified yesterday by Pope Benedict XVI’s state secretary at a Mass attended by thousands.

Roman Catholic Church officials said the recently created first synthetic cell could be a positive development if correctly used, but warned scientists that "only God can create life".

The Vatican marks the fifth anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s death this week amid doubts over the miracle needed for him to be made a saint and questions about his record combating paedophile priests.

CANDIDATES for the Catholic priesthood should undergo psychological tests to screen out heterosexuals unable to control their sexual urges and men with strong homosexual tendencies, the Vatican said.

REGARDING your report headlined ‘Pope orders disciplinary measures on priest over sex scandal’ (September 9), I would like to make a number of points.

THE church official spearheading the cause to make the last pope a saint has finished a 2,000-page report to support the process.

POPE Benedict joined other religious leaders, rock stars and financial institutions yesterday to buy into a $1 billion bond issue that will fund life-saving vaccines for children in poor countries.

The Vatican is expected to issue a statement tomorrow concerning its investigation into allegations the Mexican founder of the conservative order Legionaries of Christ sexually abused seminarians decades ago, officials said today.

An upcoming Vatican document on gays and the priesthood says men who demonstrate homosexual tendencies cannot become priests unless they can show they have lived chastely for at least three years, an Italian newspaper reported today.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his first public Mass as the 265th leader of the Roman Catholic Church today after one of the shortest conclaves in a century, which sent an unmistakable signal that the church – buffeted by 21st-century problems – is intent on sticking to tradition.

THE Vatican said yesterday it is drafting new guidelines for accepting candidates for the priesthood that will address the question of whether gays should be barred.

Mother Teresa moved a step closer to beatification today, when a Vatican committee approved a reported miracle attributed to the late nun, her religious order said.