An Argentine rabbi who is a close friend of Pope Francis said he thinks the pope is “wonderful” as leader of the universal church and is also “a spiritual success.”

The Zambian bishops’ conference added its voice to a growing civil movement in calling for a new constitution to promote development as a step toward improved social services and bettering the lives of the country’s impoverished residents.

Many of the hundreds of millions of child laborers around the world work under conditions of “real slavery,” Pope Francis said.

Christians have “far to go” if they seek to be known primarily for their love of God and neighbor, Pope Francis said.

Look for strong turnout, robust media interest and unscripted moments when Jorge Mario Bergoglio makes his first trip abroad as Pope Francis when he arrives in Brazil in late July, according to a Brazilian writer and academic.

Don’t look now, but Dolores Hart is about to become a star again, 50 years after her last movie. Hart — that’s Mother Dolores, the prioress of a Benedictine women’s monastery in Bethlehem, Conn. — has just had her memoir published a year after a documentary featuring her life in as a cloistered nun picked up an Oscar nomination for best documentary short subject.

Women can play an important role in bringing peace and stability to violence-wracked northern Nigeria if some of the country’s discriminatory social rituals ended, an Irish missionary sister working in the West African nation said.

Religious freedom is talked about more than it is protected, Pope Francis said. “The serious violations inflicted on this basic right are causes of serious concern,” and the world’s nations must act together to uphold “the intangible dignity of the human person against every attack,” he said.

Members of Regnum Christi, the lay movement associated with the Legionaries of Christ, said they don’t feel they are on a salvage mission, but rather are part of a transformation.

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington and Mike Aquilina have discovered a simple but effective way to teach Catholics about Catholicism. Replicating the formula used in their 2011 book, “The Mass: The Glory, the Mystery, the Tradition,” the co-authors explain what is inside the church building and why it is there.