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.

Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle told journalists that when he went before newly elected Pope Francis to pledge obedience, the pope told him he had “high hopes” for the Philippines.

The election of Pope Francis reflects the vitality of the Latin American church, said Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles. Writing March 20 in La Opinion, the largest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the U.S., Archbishop Gomez said the election of an Argentine as pope also “is a sign of changing times.”

Pope Francis said he plans renewed cooperation to further Catholic-Jewish relations and hopes to contribute to a world where all people live in harmony with the “will of the creator.”

Pope Francis telephoned retired Pope Benedict XVI, the former Joseph Ratzinger, to wish him a happy “name day” on the feast of St. Joseph.

Pope Francis’ papal motto is based on the Gospel account of “The Call of St. Matthew,” the tax collector, in a homily given by St. Bede the Venerable. The pope decided to keep his episcopal motto and coat of arms for his pontificate with just a few minor adjustments in line with a papal emblem. For example, the blazon adds the bishop’s miter and the keys of St. Peter.