The Vatican has asked Brazil for an additional €30 million ($49.5 million) to help cover an expected shortfall in funding for the visit of the Pope to Rio de Janeiro this month.

A Vatican official already under investigation in a purported money-laundering plot involving the Vatican bank was arrested yesterday in a separate operation.

Pope Francis has attacked the "dictatorship" of the global financial system and warned that the "cult of money" is making life a misery for millions.

The day after his election, Francis eschewed the Vatican's armored limousine and traveled through the chaotic streets of Rome in an ordinary car to pick up his things at a downtown hotel.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was our new Pope. He took the name of Francis. In 2000 years there has never been a Pope Francis.

It is known throughout the Vatican as the Relatio (Narration). It is contained in two stiff, unmarked red folders and runs to around 300 pages.

Last week, the Herald featured a delightful cartoon by Guy Body, showing rows of small cloned cardinal lookalikes.

The canonisation of Mary MacKillop will have a special resonance in Otago's Arrowtown, writes Shane Gilchrist.

Mary MacKillop (1842-1909) is set to become Australia's first saint.

Italian authorities are investigating the Vatican Bank over possible money laundering.

The Independent's Dominic Lawson writes about how the Pope won a lot of friends on his recent visit to Britain.