Pope Benedict XVI

Convictions in State gifts scandal and classified documents leak add to ongoing legal battles

With bells tolling, thousands of faithful, political leaders and the pope himself mourned Benedict XVI, the German theologian who made history by resigning, at a rare requiem Mass Thursday for a dead pontiff presided over by a living one.

Pope Francis will preside Thursday over the funeral of his predecessor Benedict XVI at the Vatican, an unprecedented event in modern times expected to draw tens of thousands of people.

Archbishop Elpidophoros of America paid tribute to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Monday, extolling his efforts for dialogue with the Orthodox Church.

Ljubljana – Delo writes about the battle against sexual abuse by the clergy in Friday’s commentary headlined Even in Italy Things Moved. The newspaper finds “cover-up, the hiding of the perpetrators went on for so long all the wrongs can never be righted”.

Benedict continues to deny the allegations

For others, however, the potential benefits far outweigh the risks. The tens of thousands of expected pilgrims will help revive an ailing tourism sector in Budapest and the event itself could boost Hungary's image abroad as a Christian country.

547 pupils at one of Germany's most famous Roman Catholic choir schools were physically or sexually abused between 1945 and 2015, an independent report has found, with some boys likening the institution to "prison, hell or a concentration camp", according to The Guardian.

Turkish researchers have been invited by Vatican librarian Jean-Louis Brugues to the Vatican Library, which hosts one of the world's most significant manuscript collectionsFrench archbishop and Vatican librarian Jean-Louis Brugues was in Istanbul on Feb.

Pope Francis on Dec. 8 launched an extraordinary Catholic Jubilee year by opening a "Holy Door" in the walls of St Peter's, embracing a 700-year-old tradition while urging the Church to reach out and embrace the modern world with mercy.