Pope Francis has criticised the Brazilian church’s failure to keep its flock from straying to evangelical churches, challenging the region’s bishops to be closer to their people to understand their problems and offer them credible solutions.

Pope Francis has urged Vatican disciplinarians to act “with determination” against sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic clergy, in his first public pronouncement on the issue.

Pope Francis sat in silent prayer during this year’s Good Friday procession, which was re-enacting Christ’s crucifixion, and recalled the wars and “violent fundamentalism” that are devastating the Middle East today.

A reigning pope and a former pope faced each other for the first time in at least 600 years on Saturday when Pope Francis travelled south of Rome for lunch with his predecessor, pope emeritus Benedict XVI.

...In addition to resolving the child abuse, corruption and banking scandals, will you shed infallibility and extend an olive branch to Christians in the east to unite the Church once more? asks AN Wilson

The new shepherd of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics picked up his luggage at a Vatican hotel, thanked each member of the staff and even paid his own bill.

Catholics around the world are still waiting for a new Pope, as cardinals signalled at 7.41pm that they had failed on their first attempt to find a leader for the Church.

There are no clear frontrunners for the papacy after last night’s inconclusive first vote.

Roman Catholic leaders have called on the faithful to pray for the cardinals gathered in Rome on the eve of the conclave to elect a new pope.

Britain’s most senior Catholic clergyman has said he would be “happy” for priests to be able to marry.

It is 50 years since Vatican II, a surprise attempt to radically overhaul the Catholic Church. But its potential has been squandered, writes TP O’Mahony

There was a lot of moralising going on in Rome, especially from politicians over the past few days.

I WAS astounded to read in your paper that Karol Jozef Wojtyla, alias John Paul II, is being beatified by Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, alias, Benedict XVI.

The Pope has decided not to accept the resignation of two auxilliary Bishops who stepped down in the wake of the Murphy report.

A priest in a town southeast of Paris has been accused of sexual assault and child pornography charges after a 22-year-old former choirboy accused him of abuse, and a police search found pictures of a young parishioner in his home, a prosecutor said.

The Pope has been officially invited to visit Ireland in two years' time.

The Turk who hijacked a Turkish Airlines plane to Italy feared for his safety because he converted to Christianity and wanted to deliver a message for Pope Benedict XVI but had no physical letter, Italy’s interior minister told politicians in Rome today.

Poland has prepared an enthusiastic welcome for the German-born Pope Benedict XVI, who begins a four-day visit on Thursday to the homeland of his predecessor that will include a symbolically powerful visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp.

A Polish opposition party today urged the government to buy the house where the late Pope John Paul II was born and which hosts a museum in his honour.

THIS evening Dáil Eireann rises for the Christmas recess, so it is time to announce the fourth annual Tallyman’s awards - my entirely subjective political prizes for ‘05.

COMMENTING on Pope Benedict’s election in the Irish Examiner last Thursday, I remarked that “the uncertainty now felt by some may yet give way to hope, respect and, in due course, love”.

IT was hard to know which shone the brightest, the searing sun on our backs, the scalding giant arc lamps of the TV cameras or the beatific smile on the face of Benedict XVI.

CATHOLIC women’s rights activists reacted with dismay to the election of conservative German Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.

GERMAN Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years, took the name Benedict XVI.