On the evening of July 4, 1976, Rodolfo Capalozza, then a seminarian in Argentina for the Pallottine religious community in Buenos Aires, made a fateful decision to catch a movie and then visit his parents. In the morning, Capalozza would learn that two other seminarians and three priests from the community were repeatedly shot after midnight at the church rectory of San Patricio in the Argentine capital’s Belgrano district.

Toward the end of a Mass of thanksgiving at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception celebrating the inauguration of Pope Francis March 19, a brass and timpani ensemble erupted with a triumphant hymn.

The pope met with Vatican diplomatic corps on May 22. in the Apostolic Palace’s Sala Regia, the vast “royal hall” where popes traditionally received Catholic monarchs.

Pope Francis carries woven palm fronds as he walks in procession at the start of Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican March 24.

Pope Francis’ style of breaking away from his security detail and diving toward the crowds means his protectors have had to do a quick rewrite of strategy, sometimes on the spot.

General elections in Zimbabwe, expected in the second half of the year, will be as important in determining the country’s destiny as the 1980 vote that led to independence from Great Britain, said the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Zimbabwe “needs to close the door to political intolerance, violence, impunity, lack of transparency and accountability, intimidation, corruption and open another (door) to a true democratic dispensation,” Zimbabwe’s eight bishops said in a mid-March pastoral letter.

The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the pope holds great promise for interreligious relations to continue on a path started by Blessed John Paul II, said several U.S. religious leaders.

Churches and monasteries in Turkey are struggling to shelter a rising number of Syrian Christian refugees who are reluctant to seek help at government-run relief camps because of reported Muslim extremism, said a Catholic Relief Services staffer.

For the good of all people, the care of the poor and the future of the Earth, religions must cooperate in reminding modern men and women that God exists and has a plan for their lives and their behavior, Pope Francis said during a meeting with the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and Jain delegations that had come to the Vatican for his inauguration.

Pope Francis has decided to celebrate the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper in a Rome juvenile detention facility and wash the feet of some of the young detainees.