ROME - Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said the election of Archbishop Jose Gómez as vice president of the U.S. bishop’s conference will serve as a great resource on immigration, especially in wake of the presidential election of Donald Trump – known for his “fiery” comments on the issue.

VIENNA - Pope Francis called on world leaders, activists and people of faith to pull together to rid the world of the threat of nuclear weapons.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican representative to the UN Human Rights Council urged the Israeli military and fighters in the Gaza Strip to stop targeting civilian areas.

VATICAN CITY - The defrocking of a former Vatican ambassador is a “sign of the seriousness” with which Pope Francis and the Vatican are approaching the clergy sexual abuse scandal, according to the Holy See’s representative to United Nations agencies in Geneva.

VATICAN CITY - On rickety boats crossing the Mediterranean Sea or on trains through Mexico or desert paths crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, a huge increase in the number of children traveling alone to flee war or violence calls for urgent action by the international community, a Vatican official said.

VATICAN CITY - The UN Committee Against Torture urged the Vatican to impose "meaningful sanctions" on any Church authority who fails to follow Church law in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse and asked that Church officials worldwide be required to report abuse allegations to local police.

VATICAN CITY - No matter how sophisticated and how many algorithms are programmed to help a drone or other machine make calculations before firing on a target, autonomous weapons systems could never comply with international human rights law, a Vatican official said.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has effectively addressed the “worldwide scourge” of clerical sexual abuse over the past decade and promoted the reporting of allegations to both Church and legal authorities, a United Nations panel heard.

VATICAN CITY - Appearing before a U.N. committee monitoring adherence to an international treaty designed to fight torture, a Vatican official insisted that, over the past 10 years, the Catholic Church has "in a systematic, constructive and effective way," worked to prevent clerical sexual abuse of minors and assist victims.

VATICAN CITY - Appearing before a UN committee monitoring adherence to an international treaty designed to fight torture, Vatican officials repeatedly were asked about efforts to investigate allegations of clerical sexual abuse, punish offenders and co-operate with civil authorities in prosecuting the perpetrators.