Pope Benedict Xvi, Bishops | featured news

The pope criticized the “lamentable methods” of Belgian police who last week confiscated files, detained bishops and drilled into the tomb of at least one cardinal in the Brussels cathedral in a search for documents.

The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of a leading German bishop who is being probed for allegedly physically abusing minors and financial misconduct.

Pope Benedict XVI was "deeply affected" by a meeting with victims of abuse by Catholic clergy, he said Wednesday, in his first public comments on the scandal in more than a month.

Pope Benedict XVI today promised a group of sexual abuse victims in Malta that he will make sure their abusers are brought "to justice," the Vatican announced.

Pope Benedict said the sexual abuse scandal shaking Roman Catholicism showed the Church needed to do penance for its sins, in a rare public reference by the pope to pedophilia in the priesthood.