Pope Francis stressed the fundamental importance of women in the Catholic Church yesterday, a message hailed as a significant shift from the position of his predecessor Benedict.

A US Catholic priest who supports ordination for women has been detained by police after marching to the Vatican to press the Holy See to lift its ban on women priests.

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.