"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.

People in northeastern Syria say despite Erdogan's reassurances, the Turkish military and its allied Syrian armed groups are persecuting religious minorities.