Retired pope Benedict XVI has published an analysis on the Catholic Church's clergy sex abuse scandal, blaming it on the sexual revolution of the 1960s and church laws that protected priests.

Pope Francis has declined to accept the resignation of French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin as archbishop of Lyon after he was convicted of failing to report a known predator priest to police, the Vatican said.

Here are all the latest headlines this lunchtime...

A new book paints a picture of rampant homosexuality in the Catholic Church but builds castles on the sands of rumours and innuendo, writes TP O’Mahony.

His stated intention to decentralise the Catholic Church’s power and reform its central bureaucracy, the Curia, has not endeared Francis to traditionalists, says TP O’Mahony

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 major security operation swings into action today as Pope Francis arrives in

Campaigner and abuse survivor Marie Collins has called on Pope Francis to face down the senior clerics in the Vatican who are resisting change in the Catholic Church’s response to perpetrators and their victims.

It’s an unlikely pairing, I know, but my mind has been drifting between former president Mary McAleese and former footballer Jamie Carragher.

The ‘empire of misogyny’ referred to by Mary McAleese will not be reformed by the Pope, who thinks the genders have different, divinely ordained roles, says TP O’Mahony

It is not necessary to be a sceptic to dismiss the Oscars as a low-cal smoothie, mixing a marketing love-in and a hiring fair. After all, every industry has self-aggrandising jamborees.

The most senior Vatican official ever charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis has appeared in an Australian court.

Abuse survivor and former papal advisor Marie Collins says she has no confidence in the newly-reconvened Vatican commission on clerical child sex abuse or in the Pope’s ability to deliver on the reforms it recommended.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, says he was not consulted about a decision to exclude former president of Ireland Mary McAleese from a Catholic women’s conference in the Vatican.

A leading Catholic cleric has said his office was not consulted over a decision to deny former president of Ireland Mary McAleese access to a conference in the Vatican.

An IRA group which was killed during an ambush by the SAS in the Co Armagh village of Loughgall in 1987 was responsible for up to 50 murders, secret government documents have revealed.

A Vatican court has convicted the former president of the Pope's children's hospital of diverting around £378,000 in donations to renovate a cardinal's flat.

The farce is that the increasing number of indelibly marked bodies are essentially the same, writes Gerard Howlin

The most senior Vatican official to be charged in connection with the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis has appeared in court in Australia for the first time.

The former president and ex-treasurer of the Vatican-run children's hospital have been indicted for allegedly diverting money from the hospital's foundation to pay for renovations on a top cardinal's apartment.

A controversial cardinal, who has been tipped by some as a possible successor to the Pope, has called on the Catholic Church to be more understanding of divorce and same-sex marriage.

The most senior Vatican cleric to be implicated in the Roman Catholic Church child abuse scandal has returned to Australia to stand trial on multiple charges of sexual assault from years ago.

The former head of the Vatican's doctrine office has denied any differences with Pope Francis as he said he is not upset about his earlier-than-expected dismissal.

Pope Francis' financial adviser is being charged in Australia with multiple counts of historical sexual assault, in a stunning move certain to rock the highest levels of the Holy See.

Tributes have been paid to Tom Savage, former chairman of the RTÉ Authority, who died yesterday following a short illness at the age of 76.

In spite of Ireland passing the marriage equality referendum, the Church has insisted the next World Meeting of Families, which the Pope is set to attend in Dublin in 2018, will be “married life between a man and a woman”.

Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins has challenged a claim by a senior Vatican figure that his office cooperated with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The Association of Catholic Priests has welcomed an interview in which Pope Francis said the Catholic Church needs to consider whether to ordain married men who could then minister in parts of the world where there are too few priests.

Even in a country that can’t agree on how water services might be funded, even in a country where a modest redrawing of county boundaries looks as if it might send black-and-amber refuseniks to the thatch to root out what must now be a very rusty pike, it should be possible to agree on one of today’s constant, undeniable forces.

CARDINAL Desmond Connell, who died earlier this week aged 90, was buried yesterday. 

Cardinal Desmond Connell, former Archbishop of Dublin, has died aged 90, it has been announced.

Four powerful cardinals have already gone public with their doubts about the current pope, while some have virtually accused him of heresy, writes TP O’Mahony

An Italian bomb squad officer has lost an eye and hand after a suspicious package he was examining exploded.

Robert Harris never meant to write novels. A political journalist, who, at 30, moved from the BBC to become political editor of the Observer, he enjoyed writing longer pieces; and between 1982 and 1990, he penned five works of non-fiction.

Enda Kenny’s meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican had the hallmarks of a formal state visit, but it felt like an intimate family gathering where strained relations were finally addressed, writes Juno McEnroe

Australian police flew to Rome to interview a senior Vatican cardinal about allegations of sexual assault dating back decades.

You’d be hard pushed to find a quieter, off-road setting and suntrap suburban back garden than Mindzenty, named after a persecuted Hungarian Cardinal.