'Holy Father, what shall we do?'

BBC News

As the Roman Catholic Church suffers one of its worst crises in modern times, more than 10,000 priests from around the world have travelled to Rome to celebrate the end of the International Year of the Priest.

Priests from more than 90 countries attended a rally in Rome on 10 June

It has been a bad year for the priesthood.

Hardly a week has gone by in recent months without some new scandal involving a paedophile Catholic priest - or even the odd bishop - emerging somewhere in the world.

The Vatican has done what it can to limit the damage to the image and the credibility of an organisation that demands unlimited trust on the part of believers.

Some of them are now asking themselves whether they should in future entrust their children of tender age to Catholic institutions run by priests.

Catholic priests are the Pope's foot soldiers.