One cousin has already refused to accept the inheritance; four others have not yet responded. If they are smart, they will turn it down as well.

According to many in the Vatican, Archbishop Gänswein’s tell-all book published shortly after Benedict’s death revealed a lack of trustworthiness, loyalty and reserve on the part of a man who was meant to be serving two popes.

In Holy Saturday meditations, the late pope engaged postmodern thought in exploring the thorniest of church beliefs.

A recent Pew survey found that overall Catholics show a higher degree of worry about the impact of climate change than other Christian denominations, but the issue appears to divide U.S. Catholics along the same political and racial lines as within the wider public.

One of the more remarkable things in a pontificate full of surprises is the fact that Pope Benedict XVI's major writings involved a significant engagement with the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Pope Benedict never ceased to argue that democracy must be judged by truth, a criterion it cannot measure but can only be measured by.