The Vatican praised US President Barack Obama's new tough stance on gun control, calling it a "step in a right direction."

After the brutal massacre in a Connecticut school which left 20 schoolchildren and 6 adults dead, Obama is pushing a hard line on gun control, trying to reinstate a ban on assault weapons and require background checks on all gun sales. 

In an editorial carried on Vatican Radio on Saturday, the Vatican's chief spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi, said that religious leaders have appealed to members of Congress who are against the initiative, urging them to "limit firearms that are making society pay an unacceptable price in terms of massacres and senseless deaths."

"The initiatives announced by the American administration for limiting and controlling the spread and use of weapons are certainly a step in the right direction," Lombardi said.