Perez got the commission, did some quick and intense research on the nonprofit and Pope Francis, brainstormed with McGrory, and came up with a concept meant to convey the pope’s loving concern for the poor throughout the world: He would paint the pope in the company of Jesus, St. Francis of Assisi and people of different ages and ethnic groups.

Though its tone is sometimes overheated, this is a handsomely done dramatization of the most essential period in human history.

The quincentenary that marks the introduction of Roman Catholicism in the Philippines cannot go unnoticed, given the impact and influence that Catholicism has and continues to have in the everyday lives of Filipinos.

Father Doyle fields questions about whether the apostles baptized and what homilies should be about.

The life and works of the famed Italian poet Dante Alighieri remain a lasting treasure that embodies the virtue of hope so desperately needed in today’s world, Pope Francis said.