Pope Francis has caused a stir at his weekly Vatican address by seemingly dropping the F-Bomb with the ease of a drunken docker in a public house.

Catholics are divided on issues such as divorce and birth control amid widespread resentment at Church teachings, two surveys have found.

Bare-breasted feminists hurled knickers at the archbishop of Madrid as he arrived at church in protest at his support for a tightening of Spain's abortion law.

Pope Francis challenged business leaders assembled in Davos today to do more for the poor and ensure 'humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it.'

The Pope’s new Spanish Cardinal has called homosexuality a physical “defect” that can be cured, it has been reported.

An Italian man charged with murdering his Irish landlord after an alleged row over a game of chess told police he had cut open his victim and tried to eat his heart.

An Irish man has been knifed to death in a frenzied attack over a late night chess game, detectives believe.

Pope Francis has broken protocol to invite an old friend up for a ride on his popemobile in St Peter's Square.

Time magazine has named Pope Francis its person of the year, saying that in nine months in office the head of the Catholic Church had become a new voice of conscience.

Shouting "murderer" and "executioner," hundreds of people jeered as the coffin of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke arrived Tuesday for a funeral Mass celebrated by a splinter Catholic group opposed to the Vatican's outreach to Jews.

In the end, there was nobody Edith Piaf couldn't win over - with the tragic singer set to be honoured with a Catholic memorial.

Pope Francis has declared himself a "sinner" and said the Catholic Church will "fall like a house of cards" unless it is able to focus more on the "essentials" of preaching the Gospel and less on politics and bureaucracy.

A photo of the Pope posing with young fans at the Vatican has gone viral on social media, with gleeful reports that it was the first ever "Papal selfie".

The Vatican has asked Brazil for an additional €30 million ($49.5 million) to help cover an expected shortfall in funding for the visit of the Pope to Rio de Janeiro this month.

A Vatican official already under investigation in a purported money-laundering plot involving the Vatican bank was arrested yesterday in a separate operation.

Pope Francis has admitted for the first time that there is a "gay lobby" within the Curia, the powerful governing body of the Roman Catholic Church.

Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, has admitted the fear of scandal led to cover-up in the church over child abuse.

Pope Francis has attacked the "dictatorship" of the global financial system and warned that the "cult of money" is making life a misery for millions.

At yesterday's Palm Sunday service Pa Petera Tipene was causing a few of his female parishioners to run for the back ranks.