Vatican announces reform plan after months of investigation and speculation that bank will be closed The Vatican bank is to stay in business despite speculation Pope Francis might close down the scandal-plagued institution. After months of investigation and consultation, the Vatican announced the pope had opted for a reform plan instead. The bank, officially called the Institute for the Works of Religion...
Pope sends Holy See's sex crimes prosecutor Charles Scicluna to look into claims of sexual misconduct by Scottish prelate A Vatican-appointed bishop will fly into Scotland next week to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct surrounding Cardinal Keith O'Brien, it has emerged. O'Brien's successor as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Leo Cushley, announced the unusual step in letters sent...
Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series...
Several minutes late after lunch with Italian president, the Queen presents pontiff with a hamper of British food The Queen has met Pope Francis for the first time at the Vatican, presenting the famously plain-living pontiff with a hamper of British food including honey, cox's apple juice and 12 eggs from the crown estate. Wearing lilac instead of the black that is usually considered de rigueur when...
British monarch in first meeting with Pope Francis offers gifts including honey 'from her garden' and Scotch whisky What do you give the pope who wants for nothing? Who rejects materialism, lives in a guesthouse and likes to be driven in second-hand cars? Twelve eggs and some honey, that's what and, if you're feeling daring, a bottle of whisky as well. Of course, these weren't just any eggs they were...
Queen will have lunch with Giorgio Napolitano before her private audience with pope in Vatican The Queen has arrived in Italy for her first overseas visit in more than two years, a day-long trip that will see her meet Pope Francis for the first time. Wearing lilac and looking relaxed, the Queen landed at Ciampino airport with the Duke of Edinburgh and was driven to the presidential palace of the Italian...
Clips available online include Pius XII's eve of war address and Benedict XVI's unprecedented 2013 resignation speech The voices of popes from as early as 1884 will be able to be heard after the digitisation of 8,000 tapes from the pontifical archives of Vatican Radio. The Vatican initiative is part of preparations for the sainting of John Paul II and John XXIII (1958-63) on 17 April the first double...
Website, smartphone app and Facebook page being set up for canonisation of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II The last time a Roman Catholic pontiff was made a saint, television news was in its infancy and the coverage from St Peter's Square was resolutely black, white and grainy. Sixty years on from the canonisation of Pope Pius X, two of his successors are to follow in his footsteps and the church...
Would-be swindlers were carrying a case of forged bearer bonds as they tried to enter the Vatican gates 'to meet cardinals' The papal gendarmerie and Italian police have foiled a massive potential fraud at the Vatican bank after two men stopped at the gates to the Vatican were found to be carrying a case containing large amounts of forged bearer bonds, Italian police say. Lt Col Davide Cardia of the...
In meeting at Vatican, US president proffers talks on poverty and inequality and a packet or two of carrot seeds On Thursday Pope Francis met a man who wields the kind of power and influence in his own country that many world leaders would envy. Before that, he found time to slot in the president of the United States. Or rather, that was the impression left by the Vatican's official bulletin, which...
The US president meets the pope at the Vatican, then makes his way to Rome's Quirinal Palace for a series of meetings with the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, and prime minister, Matteo Renzi. Obama is in Rome as part of a European trip including visits to the Netherlands and Belgium ...
US president praises pontiff before the two talk for nearly an hour on subjects thought to include poverty and inequality Barack Obama has met Pope Francis for the first time, telling him it is a "great honour" to be received by the 77-year-old pontiff at the Vatican. ...
Monsignor Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst was removed from his post after church inquiry into the cost of his new complex Pope Francis has permanently removed a German bishop who has been called the 'bishop of bling' from his diocese amid criticism of his 31m (£26m) residential complex . Francis had temporarily expelled Monsignor Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst from Limburg in October pending a church...
Cardinal tells royal commission that Catholic leaders in Rome were more likely to give defendant benefit of the doubt ...
Package sent to the Vatican from a South American country contained 14 condoms filled with £33,000 worth of liquid cocaine German customs officials have intercepted a package addressed to the Vatican containing 14 condoms filled with cocaine. A government spokesman said a box packed with 340 grammes of the drug, valued at €40,000 (£33,470), was seized in January at the international airport in the...
Francis's stance on organised crime in contrast with church's perceived former reluctance to criticise mafia bosses Pope Francis has made his strongest attack to date on the mafia, telling organised crime bosses they will end up in hell if they do not "convert" and give up their lives of "bloodstained money [and] blood-stained power". In an echo of John Paul II's appeal to mafia dons to renounce their...
Nun's performance on Italian version of The Voice has been viewed more than 3m times on YouTube The singing nun is not a new phenomenon. The Belgian Jeanine Deckers, aka Soeur Sourire, shot to fame in 1963 with the tune Dominique, while Julie Andrews and Whoopi Goldberg have done their bit for fictional sisters with heavenly voices. But in Italy this week there's only one nun worth tuning in for,...
17 - 21 March: Been offline? Catch up on the development-related news, images, infographics and reports that matter Eliza Anyangwe ...
Catholic church finally weighs in with its usual list of demands, but campaigners sense that the Holy See is losing influence Before the start of the commission on the status of women (CSW) – the annual two-week gathering of member states at the UN to discuss progress towards gender equality and women's empowerment – there was disquiet at the Vatican's apparent silence over the wording of the conference's...
Delegation from big-budget epic forced to attend public audience after private meeting refused • How Russell Crowe's Noah united two religions – against it The team behind the biblical epic Noah may have been denied their private meeting with the pope , but a delegation from the film – including director Darren Aronofsky and actor Russell Crowe – managed to engineer an encounter with Pope Francis...