Laura Alari, who writes for Quotidiano Nazionale, invented stories about herself that she told priests during the sacrament of Confession.

She pretended to be a lesbian mother asking to baptise her daughter, a woman who lives with her female partner and a divorced woman who has a new partner, but receives Communion.

The newspaper series was intended as a portrait of Catholicism in the everyday lives of Italians.

The president of the Italian bishops' conference, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, said the articles "objectively constitute a grave offense against the truth of Confession".

He said they also showed a "grave lack of respect for believers".

Cardinal Caffarra recalled that the publication of the contents of a Confession is among the most grave crimes in the Church, which are under the direct competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Bishops' conference secretary Bishop Nunzio Galantino said "this rubbish has already been done in the past".

"I find this abhorrent from an ethical point of view and unspeakable from a human point of view," he said.

The editor of one of the papers in which the articles appeared, Andrea Cangini, said protests were understandable.

But he said his paper wanted to show how the average priest reacts in such situations.

Ms Alari told the Italian bishops' newspaper Avvenire that she was aware that she was violating a sacrament.

"When the editor asked me to do this job I was very perplexed, because I am Catholic and I knew that I was violating a sacrament.

" I decided that pretending to go to Confession was the only way to understand what is happening today in the Church without filters."

She added that the problems she spoke of in Confession were real-life dilemmas faced by people she knew.

She added that she felt bad because she met "amazing priests who dedicated hours to me".

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• The Local Italy
• Avvenire
• Image: Catholic Exchange

These crimes include sexual abuse of minors, wrongful use of the sacrament of penance, heresy, apostasy and the attempted ordination of women.

An edict approved by Francis establishes a new seven-member "college" inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

This will hear clerical appeals of cases involving delicta graviora, the Vatican term for serious sins against the sacraments.

The edict states that Francis decided to create the new commission "due to the number of appeals and the need to ensure a more rapid examination of the same".

The college will consist of seven cardinals or bishops who can come from within or outside the CDF and will be chosen by the Pope.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said the group would tackle a "backlog" of appeals from clergy against whom allegations of abuse had been made.

He said that ordinary members of the congregation only meet once a month.

With four to five new appeals a month, each with a lot of paperwork, there is "a huge number" of cases was waiting to be heard.

Fr Lombardi said the backlog of cases is at risk of absorbing all the time of the CDF.

This month, a Vatican tribunal cleared US priest Msgr Richard Loomis of abuse charges, restoring him to ministry after a 10 year suspension.

The edict approved by Francis also outlines a special procedure for any bishop accused of grave crimes.

He "shall have his case examined by the whole body of members of the Congregation - the Ordinary Session - which may also examine other specific cases upon papal request, and/or examine cases referred to it by the newly created college".

The edict updates a 2001 motu proprio by Pope John Paul II specifying which church crimes the CDF reserves for judgment.

Last December, Pope Francis established a separate pontifical commission for the protection of minors.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Catholic World News
• Image: Catholic News Agency