The Catholic Church awoke Friday with no leader following the resignation of Benedict XVI, who pledged obedience to his successor.

The Vatican’s best kept secrets have been divulged in a spate of leaks, the latest culminating in the trial of his butler Paolo Gabriele. Peter Popham examines the background to the personalities and controversies

The Vatican’s second in command accused the media of trying “to imitate Dan Brown” in their coverage of the VatiLeaks scandal and said the Roman Catholic Church’s latest travails were part of the Devil’s attempt to destabilise it.

The Vatican has been hit by further controversy with an Italian newspaper publishing documents claiming that Pope Benedict’s butler was not the only person in possession of confidential correspondence.

Amid all the rivalries and gossip exposed by a growing Vatican crisis, Pope Benedict’s deputy, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has emerged as the chief target of an unprecedented campaign of leaks.

The worst crisis in Pope Benedict’s pontificate deepened when Italian media said at least one cardinal was among those suspected of divulging sensitive documents as part of a power struggle at the top of the Church.

The Pope’s butler has been arrested in its embarrassing leaks scandal, adding a Hollywood twist to an already remarkable tale of power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance.

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.

GAY groups and politicians condemned Pope Benedict’s number two for calling homosexuality a “pathology” and linking it directly to sexual abuse of children.

The Vatican today tried to defuse growing anger over remarks by the pope's top aide that the paedophile priest scandal was caused by homosexuality and not the church's celibacy rule.

Gay rights campaigners in Britain today rejected reported claims by the Vatican’s second-in-command that child sex abuse by priests is linked to homosexuality.

A US Roman Catholic archbishop warned a top Vatican office led by the future Pope Benedict XVI about a priest who may have molested as many as 200 deaf boys, according to documents obtained by The New York Times, but the priest never was defrocked.

THE Pope will today conclude his historic two-day emergency meeting with Irish bishops in Rome, at which the fallout from the Murphy report into allegations of the rape and abuse of 320 children by 46 priests in the Dublin Archdiocese, is top of the agenda.

THE editor of a leading Italian Catholic newspaper which criticised Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi quit yesterday in a row that has seriously strained relations between the Vatican and the Italian government.

It was a scene that moved a nation: mourners clinging to one another and sobbing over neat rows of more than 200 coffins, some with tiny children’s caskets resting on top.

Pope Benedict XVI turned the spotlight on the plight of children who are abused, forced to live on the streets or serve as soldiers, at his Christmas Midnight Mass.

THE beatification of 498 Catholics killed during the Spanish Civil War was not politically motivated, the Vatican’s number two said yesterday.

Pope Benedict XVI plans to discuss the Iraq war and the plight of Christians in Iraq when he meets US President George Bush for the first time this week, the Vatican’s second in command said today.

THE VATICAN secretary of state was just kidding when he said the Holy See might one day have a football team to rival the top formations in Italy’s powerful Serie A, a report said yesterday.

Pope Benedict XVI is “extremely upset” that Muslims have been offended by some of his words in a recent speech in Germany, the Vatican said today.

Pope Benedict XVI officially launched his stewardship of the Roman Catholic Church today, presiding over a installation Mass that drew tens of thousands of pilgrims and dignitaries to St Peter’s Square.

IT had all the hallmarks of a political campaign: the candidate was shaking hands in the adoring crowd, a television crew and security detail covering his every move.

IF you’re not among the millions who have already read the blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code, a senior Italian cardinal has a plea for you: don’t read it and don’t buy it.

If you’re not among the millions who have already read the blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code, a senior Italian cardinal has a plea for you: don’t read it and don’t buy it.

A top Vatican official has condemned the first cloning of a human embryo.