Even though today's modern tools and technologies are hardly human, the Pontifical Academy for Life is zeroing in on the world of robots and machines powered by artificial intelligence.

While the Vatican is known for its slow pace, even the speediest bureaucracy would have found it difficult to review and approve sensitive legal documents over a long weekend.

Alessandro Gisotti, an Italian journalist who is the social media coordinator for the Dicastery for Communications, has been appointed by the pope as interim director.

The Vatican City State court sentenced an Italian contractor, who had done work for several Vatican offices, to 2 1/2 years in jail for using a Vatican bank account for money laundering.

It has been a very difficult year for Pope Francis.

Francis prayed for peace, and said that "without the fraternity that Jesus Christ has bestowed on us, our efforts for a more just world fall short."