Church attendance in Ireland has been dropping precipitously, and the number of priests being ordained at the country's only Catholic seminary is at an all-time low. "The young people, the under 40s, have largely deserted the church in Ireland now," says Rev. Tony Flannery of the Association of Catholic Priests.

One of the biggest challenges of Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the United Kingdom is how to make the case for the Christian faith in a nation known for its growing religious indifference.

"The whole Vatican needs to come to grips with this," says Catholic journalist and editor Margaret Steinfels, and "they should stop blaming the messengers."

We talk about the spreading sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church with Father Thomas Reese, SJ, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center.

Watch more of our conversation on the Catholic Church, sexual abuse, divisions over health care reform, and questions about the church's moral authority.

"As these revelations are coming out in Europe much as they did in the United States," says Vatican expert David Gibson, "you’re going to have great calls for accountability of bishops who covered up for abusers or moved them around."

Watch a panel of reporters discuss the most significant religion and ethics news of 2009.

It was a week of prayers and pleas for peace and gestures of reconciliation to all sides in the Holy Land.

Visit our interactive map for a closer look at some of the places Pope Benedict XVI is visiting in Jerusalem during his pilgrimage to the Middle East.

"I don't think any of us are under any illusions that we're going to solve the peace problem, but we also realize that you can't have peace without religious leaders," says former US ambassador Tony Hall.