In the wake of several high-profile and salacious scandals alleging corruption and sexual politics inside the Vatican, Rome was rocked again Thursday ...

A precise, wise and great director orchestrated the video of Benedict XVI's flight toward oblivion. The inexorable trajectory of the helicopter in front of the background of a majestic and exhausted city, the hypnotic hum of the blades as the only noise, accompanied by the bells of Rome, which tolled the newly Vacant Seat -- for the first time, joyfully.

A prominent Catholic and gay blogger has renewed speculation that the outgoing Pope Benedict may be secretly gay. Following the announcement that B...

(RNS) You won't find many Catholic churches named after Pope Benedict IX. He was a puppet pope, installed by his powerful family at a time when riv...

Was the pope under the influence of a secretive "gay lobby" within the Vatican itself? That's the claim put forth by Italian daily newspaper La Re...

I have known Joseph Ratzinger since we were both young men at the Second Vatican Council in 1963-64. After the death of John Paul the Great, I very much wanted his great friend Ratzinger to succeed him, old and frail of health as he was.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Addressing church leaders for one of the last times of his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday (Feb. 14) that he intends to liv...

I'd like to imagine he took a sweeping look at his career as a priest and prelate, and while not discounting the value of this contributions as an intellectual, took note of the degree to which he permitted the "power" to snuff out so much of the "glory."

(RNS) Not all Catholics appreciated Pope Benedict XVI's staunch defense of Christian orthodoxy, traditional marriage and life from conception to natur...

A black or Latin American pope could send the strong message to practicing Catholics and prospective converts in Latin America or Africa that the Catholic Church is committed to making them not only church members, but policy decision makers.

As Benedict XVI relinquishes the papacy, much of the non-Catholic world has to admit they have seldom heard him speak directly to them in a language they could understand. Consider then, in the final days of this pope, a short compilation if his more trenchant statements.

Leaders take note: Pope Benedict XVI provides a rare but profound example of humility in action. True leaders put their cause before their power and self-interest.

If I were pope / I'd proclaim the end of my infallibility / and banish the word sin from the doctrines of faith.

Benedict's discernment in appreciating the frailties of advancing years and his wisdom in acting accordingly are extraordinary. But the question of his legacy arises. How do we put his career into perspective?

It is time to for the church to really take responsibility for the pain it has caused, the innocence it has stolen and the lives it has ruined.

With his resignation Pope Benedict -- arguably one of the most powerful people in the world -- has chosen to give up that temporal power to align himself with the sick, the weak, the frail. In doing so he's affirming the central Christian truth that "when I am weak, then I am strong."

By stepping down from the papacy, a candidate from Latin America, Asia or Africa could be elected as pope. The familiar (read: European) face of the papacy may one day become all but a distant memory.

If the Church and the world are fortunate, perhaps the winter of papal resignation will be followed by a spring of reform.