Australia ranks number one out of all countries with weapons-usable nuclear materials according to a report today by the international organisation the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
Pope Benedict XVI
Political snippets: The market says Gillard’s going
The Crikey Labor Leadership indicator has the Prime Minister’s chances of being in the job at the time of the next election as less than a third.
Sacked bishop speaks out: Pope made a mistake, controls with fear
Australian Bishop William Morris says Pope Benedict XVI has “made a mistake” in forcing him to resign as Bishop of the diocese of Toowoomba. And there are questions about his role in speaking up for s-x-abuse victims, writes Amanda Gearing.
Video of the Day: The topless Vatican dancers
This is a has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed video. Watch a recent performance at the Vatican, where male dancers in tight white pants take off their jackets and perform an acrobatic routine topless to Pope Benedict XVI. The nuns wave excitedly and take photos.
Catholic sex scandals: how much does the Pope really know?
Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Britain this week well aware that the Catholic church’s reputation has again been badly tarnished by priest sex scandals. Victims are calling for an official apology from the top, but how much does Benedict really know? BBC’s Panorama investigates.
How to become a saint
When he’s not coping with church abuse scandals, Pope Benedict XVI loves canonizing saints. But what does one have to do to join the sainthood? Apparently it’s about more than just miracles.
Dear Pope Benedict: we would like to keep shagging priests
Forty Italian women who have had relationships with Catholic priests have written an open letter to the Pope, calling for the Vatican to scrap its policy on celibacy for priests.
Can all the celebrity atheists please shut up?
Pope Benedict XVI is being crucified over the sexual abuse scandals, when he’s the Pope who’s made the biggest attempts to rid the Catholic Church of abuse, writes Mary Elias.
Here’s a crazy idea: What if the Pope is innocent?
How much actual evidence is there against Pope Benedict? None at all. Sure lots of people, including many Catholics, dislike the Pope. But being unpopular is not a crime, writes Paul Mees.
An interview with the Pope’s US lawyer
What’s it like being the advocate for the man who is supposed to be God’s representative on Earth? And what happens when he’s caught up in a worldwide sex abuse cover-up scandal? Meet Jeffrey Lena: the California litigator who may have one of the worst jobs on the planet.
Noonan: How to save the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church is not beyond salvation, argues Peggy Noonan, but it will take a new culture of openness and repentance, and a new generation of priests and nuns, to do it.
Pope speaks: We need to “do penance” for our “sins”
Pope Benedict XVI has ended his silence on the sex-abuse scandals engulfing the Catholic Church, saying that the Church had avoided using the word “penance” but it was now obvious that was needed.
PHOTO GALLERY: Creepy Pope pictures
Yes, serious scandals are unfolding down at St Peter’s Basilica, but perhaps it’s no surprise judging on this terrifying gallery of Pope Benedict XVI looking evil and battling his flying cape.
PHOTO GALLERY: Feel the Catholic guilt
The Catholic Church is playing the blame game, accusing anyone and everyone it can for the horrible paedophilia scandals engulfing the church. Salon wraps the list of culprits, from the gays to the NY Times.
exposed The signed letter that damns the Pope
The Associated Press has its hands on a smoking gun on the Pope: a signed letter from 1985 that shows he delayed the defrocking of a pedophile priest for “the good of the universal church”.
Dawkins and Hitchens: Arrest the Pope
Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are leading a campaign to have the Pope arrested for “crimes against humanity” during his visit to the UK this week.
Hitchens: The Pope is not mightier than the law
Christopher Hitchens rips into the Catholic Church, particularly Pope Benedict XVI’s personal knowledge of paedophile priests. These criminals — including the Pope — deserve punishment not protection.
Dowd: We need a female Pope
The Catholic church needs to dump Ratzinger, allow priests to marry, and put a nun in charge if it’s to have any chance of cleaning up the big mess it’s gotten itself into, says Maureen Dowd.
Church abuse victims have been trying to speak for 50 years
Church documents reveal that the deaf boys sexually abused by a Catholic priest in America have been trying to tell the church and local authorities about it since the ’50s — but no one listened.
Catholic Reporter: What did the Pope know, and when did he know it?
American Catholic paper the National Catholic Reporter says the Pope has some ‘splainin to do over charges of sexual abuse within the church, labelling it the “largest institutional crisis in centuries”. Can you excommunicate a newspaper?
Sullivan: The Pope must resign
Atlantic columnist and Catholic Andrew Sullivan says the Catholic Church will have to undergo a “wrenching transformation” if it’s going to survive its recent scandals: the Pope must quit, and priests must be allowed to shag.
Sinead O’Conner: How I was abused by the Catholic Church
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Irish songstress Sinead O’Conner recounts the horror of her childhood years spent in one of the infamous church-run “Magdalene laundries”.
Why the Pope should resign
To address the latest sex scandals involving paedophilia and sexual abuse by priests in Ireland, Pope Benedict XVI has penned a letter to the Irish faithful. But did the Pope know that priests were being protected from their crimes?
Why the Vatican’s newspaper has embraced pop culture
The semi-official newspaper of the Vatican, L’Osservatore Romano, seems to spend more time writing about The Simpsons and Harry Potter than Catholicism these days. Is it a shameless cash grab, or is the Pope hipper than everyone thinks?
