The special edition sportscar sells for around $309,000.

Pope believes God is happy when he nods off "like a child in the arms of his father".

Carlo Capella allegedly uploaded the child porn to a social networking site at Christmas.

George Pell plans to plead not guilty to multiple charges of historical sex offences.

Pope Francis said to be fuming after priest arrested.

The pope and President Trump will meet at the Vatican later this month.

British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has been hospitalised in Rome for checks after not feeling well but his condition

A group of children from a South Taranaki primary school are appealing to the Pope to intervene in an international kidnapping case involving a very special bear.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta will be canonised a Catholic saint on Sunday in Rome, but commemorations in Auckland will involve people of many faiths.

Jozef Wesolowski, 66, was supposed to appear before a tribunal within the walls of the Vatican to face charges of paying underage boys for sexual acts.

Pope Francis has taken his embrace of homeless people a step further by allowing a tramp to be buried inside the Vatican for the first time in the history of the Holy See.

The cardinals who elected Pope Francis 18 months ago had no inkling that he would turn out to be such a "rock star" pontiff, two "princes of the church" have said.

A group of 26 Italian women who claim to be having affairs with Roman Catholic priests have written a joint letter to the Pope begging him to end the Catholic Church's ban on priests having sex and getting married.

It has been dubbed "the day of the four Popes", an unprecedented occasion in the 2000-year history of the Catholic Church.

He's dropped an F-bomb, sold his Harley and appeared on Rolling Stone magazine. We look at ten of Pope Francis' notable moments in his first 12 months.

A selection of images celebrating the one-year anniversary of Pope Francis' election as Bishop of Rome.

The Vatican is forming its own cricket team, which will be called St Peter's Cricket Club.

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

The day after his election, Francis eschewed the Vatican's armored limousine and traveled through the chaotic streets of Rome in an ordinary car to pick up his things at a downtown hotel.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was our new Pope. He took the name of Francis. In 2000 years there has never been a Pope Francis.

It is known throughout the Vatican as the Relatio (Narration). It is contained in two stiff, unmarked red folders and runs to around 300 pages.

Last week, the Herald featured a delightful cartoon by Guy Body, showing rows of small cloned cardinal lookalikes.

Yesterday was Pope Benedict's last day in office, but the words customarily used to announce that we have a new Pope, "Habemus Papam", are likely to be a long time in coming.

Tucked away in the leafy south-east corner of the Vatican City, lies the small monastery where the Pope will spend the rest of his days in quiet prayer and contemplation.