Pope Francis came and he went. In terms of the past sins visited on the Irish population by the Catholic Church, not a lot of difference was made.

A Vatican scandal will get an unusually public airing next week when the butler who served the Pope’s meals and helped him dress goes on trial for leaking Benedict’s private papers in the hope of cleaning up what he saw as “evil and corruption everywhere in the Church”.

The Vatican has defended its transfer of a top official to Washington after he exposed alleged corruption in the awarding of Holy See contracts.