VATICAN CITY -- World leaders must rely on hope rather than isolation and withdrawal to confront current and future challenges, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

VATICAN CITY -- While acknowledging Vatican-mandated reforms in the handling of clerical sexual abuse, four U.N. special rapporteurs urged the Vatican to make it mandatory that church officials everywhere report abuse allegations to civil authorities.

With the legislation already forwarded to the Senate for study and third reading in the House of Commons expected within days, Canada’s bishops and religious orders have come out strongly in support of Bill C-15, a law that would implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

If COVID has been a setback for Canadians, what has it done to villagers in Malawi, slum dwellers in Manila, small farmers in Honduras, Indigenous people in the Amazon?

Three-quarters of Canadians say their country should sign the UN nuclear weapons ban treaty even if the United States and NATO oppose it.

Canada’s bishops are continuing to study federal legislation that provides legal protections for Indigenous communities in the form of internationally recognized rights.

Disabled Canadians are fighting for their lives and against legislation that paves the way for clean, quiet, anonymous suicides at the hands of medical professionals.

The Canadian Council of Churches has again called on Canada to sign and ratify the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as the treaty became officially part of international law on Jan. 22.

In these days of viral lockdowns and political unease, moments of celebration are hard to come by.

UNITED NATIONS -- Terrorism violates human dignity and fundamental human rights and threatens international security and sustainable development because it targets civilians, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations said.

UNITED NATIONS - Protecting "our common home for present and future generations is one of the most urgent demands of our time," Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations, said Oct. 13.

Address by Pope Francis to the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 25:

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis asked members of the United Nations how they think they can respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and build a more peaceful, more just world when many of their countries spend billions on military weapons and when their treatment of the unborn, of refugees and of women shows so little respect for human life.

VATICAN CITY -- Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in marking the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, called on the organization to renew its commitment to the ideals upon which it was founded.

VATICAN CITY -- When he addresses, via video message, the UN General Assembly Sept. 21, Pope Francis is expected to speak about using the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to re-think economic, political and environmental policies in a way that will benefit humanity and the Earth.