"He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4,1-2)

The complete text of the message can be found on the Vatican website.

Vatican City (CNS)

The Vatican has signed and ratified a new treaty to end the production and use of cluster bombs, and appealed to the international community to ban “this inhumane type of weapon.” Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Vatican secretary for relations with states, was one of more than 100 diplomats who signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo, Norway, December 3.

The Vatican has made clear its opposition to the United Nations endorsing a universal declaration to decriminalize homosexuality. Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio to the United Nations, and Vatican spokesman Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said unjust forms of discrimination against homosexuals must be avoided. However, the Vatican does not approve of a formal declaration with political weight that might be used to put pressure on or discriminate against countries that do not recognize same-sex marriage, they said.