VATICAN CITY -- Retired Pope Benedict XVI returned to the Vatican June 22, five days after flying to Germany to spend time with his ailing, 96-year-old brother.

VATICAN CITY -- The continuity between St. John Paul II and Pope Francis is rooted in the message of God's divine mercy for all men and women, retired Pope Benedict XVI said in a letter commemorating his predecessor's birth.

MUNICH -- In a newly published biography, Retired Pope Benedict XVI said the Catholic Church is threatened by a "worldwide dictatorship of seemingly humanist ideologies." He cited same-sex marriage, abortion and the "creation of humans in the laboratory" as examples.

VATICAN CITY -- More than four months after Pope Francis named a new president for the Vatican's financial watchdog agency, the leadership roster of the agency was completed with the naming of a new director and vice director.

We Catholics are at times indifferent about those things that should deeply concern us but obsessed by those things that should be water off our backs. 

When Pope Celestine V resigned as pope in 1294, he removed his papal garb and intended to return to life as a hermit. However, his successor, Pope Boniface VIII, placed him under house arrest where he remained until his death 10 months later. 

The Hollywood production The Two Popes has been earning Oscar nominations and praise as a must-see movie. But the film, which imagines conversations in 2012 between an aging Pope Benedict XVI and the soon-to-be Pope Francis, is a two-hour escape into fiction, totally unlike the drama now unfolding which stars the past and current pope.

VATICAN CITY -- Retired Pope Benedict XVI wants his name removed as co-author of a book defending priestly celibacy but the publisher insists Benedict wrote the book with Cardinal Robert Sarah.

WASHINGTON -- Two popes and multiple priests, cardinals and archbishops received part of $600,000 in financial gifts from former Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, who controlled a discretionary fund, according to a report published Dec. 27 by The Washington Post.

From a Catholic perspective, few if any dates were more significant during the soon-to-close decade than  Feb.11, 2013.

Anthony McCarten wants the truth and nothing but the truth. To get at the truth, he has made up a fictional dialogue between the Church’s two living popes.

VATICAN CITY -- A change to the Code of Canon Law made by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 provides a canonical path to allow the ordination of women deacons, a Brazilian bishop said.

WARSAW, Poland -- A German bishop has vowed to intensify "preventive measures" after two church-sponsored reports confirmed systemic violence and abuse at his diocese's cathedral schools between 1945 and 1995, including 30 years when their famous choir was run by Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, brother of retired Pope Benedict XVI.

VATICAN CITY -- "The unity of the church is always at risk" and has been throughout its history, but "its unity always has been stronger than its internal struggles and wars," said retired Pope Benedict XVI.

Pioneers

As 50 years have passed since the legalization of abortion in Canada, we should acknowledge some of the early pioneers in the fight to stop the passage of this inhumane law.