The convent lost power and generators were put into place as backup. A fire department captain told local media that the sisters, some of whom were on oxygen, were scared but in good spirits. “We joked with them a little bit.... They are a great bunch of ladies.”

"Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden," Father Robert Morey wrote in a statement responding to queries from the Florence Morning News.

In a daylong meeting at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Oct. 28, the governors made short presentations about steps they are taking toward sustainable development and problems they face.

As demonstrations pitting pro-government groups against pro-democracy protesters continue, a bishop urged Catholics to pray for the realization that all are humans and not "cockroaches or dogs."

The treaty emerged from member states frustrated with the slow pace of nuclear disarmament.

Representatives from the Catholic and Orthodox churches and the Muslim and Jewish faiths signed a joint declaration at the Vatican reaffirming each religion's clear opposition to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.