Applauding the election of Pope Francis, Orthodox leaders are stressing their hope for continued cooperation with the Catholic Church during his pontificate.

Pope Francis had been pope for less than six days when he was formally installed March 19, but he had already made a distinctive and overwhelmingly favorable impression on the world.

WASHINGTON—Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), congratulated the newly elected pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Here are excerpts of statements by U.S.-based leaders of non-Christian faiths about the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the new Pope Francis.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Jesuit brethren of the new Pope Francis were as surprised as anyone when Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was announced March 13 as the first Jesuit to be elected pope.

BISMARCK, N.D. (CNS) -- The North Dakota Catholic Conference applauded the state Senate’s passage March 15 of a bill that would ban abortions for the purpose of sex selection or genetic abnormality and another bill that would ban abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which could be as early as six weeks.

BISMARCK, N.D. (CNS) -- The North Dakota Catholic Conference applauded the state Senate’s passage March 15 of a bill that would ban abortions for the purpose of sex selection or genetic abnormality and another bill that would ban abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which could be as early as six weeks.

The sisters “were wakened by the wind about 4 o’clock Sunday morning and found rain leaking into the building.” As the storm approached Corpus Christi North Beach on September 1919, the bay water began to fill the front yard close to the buildings of Spohn Sanitarium and the anxious sisters went to the chapel to pray.

The seed of religious vocation implanted by God in my soul in the moment when my mother conceived me, was still dormant at the moment of my birth.