One of the world’s top experts on clerical sexual abuse, Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, said Pope Francis will be remembered as a pontiff who made listening to victims of abuse one of the trademarks of his pontificate — a habit that made him a model for other bishops and leaders in the church.

While Pope Francis often bucked formality and sidestepped some offices of the Roman Curia, one institution he believed in deeply was the Synod of Bishops and — even more — the notion of “synodality.”

Teaching high school literature before and after becoming a priest, Pope Francis possessed an extensive background in the themes and devices in literature and cinema.

In the last years of his papacy, the world saw the more serious, concerned and suffering face of Pope Francis. But with one group he was always beaming, always smiling and always cheerful: the poor.

Debates over a plan to reorganize the State Department should seek to improve American “efforts in the world at diplomacy and global citizenship,” and should prioritize human rights and humanitarian efforts, a leading foreign policy expert told OSV News.