The head of Germany's Catholic Church has called for a debate on the celibacy requirement for priests, in response to the clergy sex abuse scandals. Cardinal Reinhard Marx said "weak excuses" were no longer acceptable.

“Giuseppe” was born to impoverished parents outside of Verona in northern Italy with a congenital birth defect that left him deaf and mute. When it became clear that his parents could not provide for him—much less communicate with him—they brought him to the local Catholic church, which enrolled him in their Antonio Provolo Institute for deaf and mute children. It was here he learned to communicate through standard sign language and other visual cues.

Irish singer Sinead O’Connor has been a longtime critic of the Catholic Church and as more and more scandals continue to come to light, some have wondered if O’Connor is owed some sort of an apology. In 1992, the Irish singer made headlines when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II and said: “Fight the real enemy” during a performance of her song War on Saturday Night Live.

Pope Francis has defrocked the Chilean priest at the center of the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy, invoking his "supreme" authority to stiffen a sentence originally handed down by the Vatican in 2011. In a statement Friday, the Vatican said Francis had laicized the 88-year-old Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was originally sanctioned to a lifetime of "penance and prayer" for having sexually abused minors.

Pope Francis on Tuesday acknowledged that young people are being driven away from the Roman Catholic Church because of the way it has handled the problem of clerical sexual abuse. Speaking to a room of young people during his trip to Estonia, Francis said the church needs to change its ways in order to regain the trust of future generations, The Associated Press reported.

Why do we know all the sordid details about the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandal and cover-up in six Pennsylvania dioceses? It’s because Attorney General Josh Shapiro used his office to pursue the investigation (which began before he took office). So why aren’t other attorneys general doing the same thing? Why aren’t they demanding records from the Catholic Church and investigating allegations of sexual abuse in their own states?

Pope Francis on Saturday called for concrete action to combat the "emergency" of plastics littering seas and oceans, lamenting the lack of effective regulation to protect the world's waters. Building on his papacy's concern for the environment, Francis issued a message aimed at galvanizing Christians and others to commit to saving what he hails as the "impressive and marvelous," God-given gift of the "great waters and all they contain."

The Catholic Church in Australia is worth tens of billions of dollars and massively wealthier than it has claimed in inquiries into child sexual abuse.

The Vatican’s retired ambassador to the United States accused senior Vatican officials of knowing as early as 2000 that the disgraced former archbishop of Washington, ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, regularly invited seminarians into his bed but was made a cardinal regardless.

Pope Francis has said the church must be “firm and decisive in the pursuit of truth and justice” as the issue of sexual and institutional abuse continued to dominate his fraught two-day trip to Ireland. Speaking at the Marian shrine in Knock in the west of Ireland, the pope begged for forgiveness for the “scandal and betrayal” felt by victims of sexual exploitation by Catholic clergy.

Imagine for a moment that a big, admired multinational corporation, one selling a beloved product, was employing large numbers of male pedophiles and rapists, operating in rings all over the world, and that their crimes had been uncovered in Australia, Ireland, Canada, the Philippines, Belgium, France, Austria, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Britain, Germany and the United States, and, further, that senior executives had systematically covered up and suppressed evidence, transferring and enabling hundreds of predators, betraying thousands of victims.

I remember the last papal visit to Ireland. It was 1979, and I was aged 13. I went to a Christian Brothers school. I sang at mass every Sunday, occasionally did readings, and the youth group I attended every week took place in a convent. I remember being envious because my older brother and sister got to see the pope, but I didn’t. I was in the minority in that regard: a staggering 75% of the population saw John Paul II during his three-day visit. One-third of the population attended the papal mass in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. That event remains the largest single mobilisation of people in Irish history.

Secure tickets to Pope Francis's Sunday mass in Dublin, then don't go. That's the plan for "Say Nope to the Pope" protesters, who will instead hold a demonstration against the Catholic Church's scandals of past and present. Plus: The Papal visit to Ireland is big business for shops selling Pope merchandise. See the strangest items on sale!

Pope Francis wrote a "Letter to the People of God" in which he requests readers to pray and fast as a kind of atonement for sexual crimes committed by members of the clergy. The letter follows the release of a report which describes in excruciating detail how hundreds of Catholic priests scattered over a total of six Pennsylvania dioceses engaged in horrific sexual abuses of children. The pope admitted that the Vatican abandoned the victims.

Pope Francis, facing simultaneous clergy sexual abuse crises in several countries, on Monday wrote an unprecedented letter to all the world's Catholics asking each of them to help uproot "this culture of death".

For decades, Michael Drweiga has opened his wallet whenever the donation basket comes around at church, but the latest revelations of priests sexually abusing children brought him to the conclusion that he can no longer justify giving. Brice Sokolowski helps small Catholic nonprofits and churches raise money, but he too supports the recent calls to withhold donations.

Sixteen years after an investigation in Boston highlighted the dimensions of the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic priesthood, the financial and reputational cost to the Catholic church continues to grow. Lawsuits by abuse victims have so far forced dioceses and religious orders in the United States to pay settlements totaling more than $3 billion, and at least 19 have filed for bankruptcy protection.

The 1,356-page report from Pennsylvania begins with a plea: “We, the members of this grand jury, need you to hear this.” The Roman Catholic Church’s darkest secrets start tumbling out not long afterward. In the Diocese of Allentown, one priest was confronted by his superiors and said: “Please help me. I sexually molested a boy.” The diocese indeed helped him by letting the priest serve for several more years after the diocese concluded that “the experience will not necessarily be a horrendous trauma” for the boy, the report says.

ROME—On Wednesday morning, Pope Francis stood in the window of the apostolic palace looking over St. Peter’s Square and blessed the crowds that had gathered for the Catholic celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven. He talked about saints and heaven and sent his prayers to the victims of the bridge collapse in the northern Italian city of Genoa the day before.

Pope Francis has changed the teachings of the Catholic faith to officially oppose the death penalty in all circumstances, the Vatican has said. The Catechism of the Church, a codified doctrine which sums up teachings, had previously stated that the death penalty could be used in some cases. It now says it is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person".