This is a big weekend at the Vatican as Pope Francis elevates two of his predecessors to sainthood: John XXIII and John Paul II. Host Bob Abernethy, managing editor Kim Lawton, and Kevin Eckstrom, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service, discuss the legacies of these two new saints and what their canonizations mean to Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from New Delhi on the tens of millions of unprotected, underpaid, and largely invisible domestics, many of whom were trafficked into the work as children. He also talks with Sister Jeanne Devos, a Belgian nun who founded the National Domestic Workers Movement to represent them.

During the days just before Easter, Christians reflect on the fundamental events that shape their hopes as Christians. "The story of the passion, death, and resurrection, especially the resurrection,” says Father James Martin, SJ, “is at the center of a Christian’s faith."

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, continues to experience the violent persecution of its minority population of Rohingya Muslims. Muslims are being attacked by mobs of extremist Buddhist factions, despite Buddhist principles of nonviolence.

Jews observe Passover at a Seder, the special meal that commemorates their ancestors’ exodus from slavery in Egypt. The book that guides the ritual is the haggadah. The Sarajevo Haggadah, named for the Bosnian city where it is kept, is a rare, beautifully illustrated manuscript created more than 600 years ago in Spain.

Many Jews will be observing Passover at a Seder, the special meal that commemorates their ancestors’ exodus from slavery in Egypt. The book that guides the ritual is the haggadah. The Sarajevo Haggadah, named for the Bosnian city where it is kept, is a rare, beautifully illustrated manuscript created more than 600 years ago in Spain.

Modern medicine now allows critically ill premature infants to survive, but at what cost? At Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, doctors, families, and chaplains wrestle with issues of life and death.

“To treat [Noah’s Ark] as something that’s not poetic and mythical is a mistake….we have goodness and wickedness inside of us, and we have a second chance now to take care of creation and each other. That’s a beautiful, poetic, inspiring idea to learn from and to inspire us to do better.”

"Hollywood, I think, approaches the Bible as public domain, as something that is owned by the culture at large, and they have discovered that some segments of the Christian community look at it as private property," says professor Craig Detweiler.

In some Southern Baptist churches there has been a revival of interest in Calvinism, the theology of the 16th-century reformer John Calvin, who also had a great influence on colonial America.

With several Bible-based films to be released this year, 2014 is being called Hollywood's year of biblical epics. Some filmmakers are already reaping box office rewards, but what are the potential pitfalls of making these movies?

Some ministers are answering the call to care for their families and tend to their flocks by working two full-time jobs. It's a growing trend in Tennessee, with nearly half of the state’s Baptist churches being led by a pastor who also has another job. It is a tradition with biblical origins, says Ray Gilder, the bivocational specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

Every Good Friday, in every Catholic parish in the country, a special collection is taken up for the Franciscans of the Holy Land. Ever since the 14th century, the Franciscans have been assigned the task of caring for the holiest sites of Christianity in and around Israel—54 shrines and sanctuaries in total. The Franciscans have also created a monastery in Washington, DC.

President Obama visited Pope Francis for the first time this week (March 27)."The principal focus of the meeting was talking about issues of peace, international issues, and also talking about how to help poor people, how to help the marginalized all over the world," says Father Tom Reese, an authority on the Vatican and senior analyst for National Catholic Reporter.

In a 5-part series beginning on PBS stations next week, noted historian Simon Schama explores 3,000 years of Jewish history.  What sustained Jews through anti-Semitism and persecution?   In the TV series and in a companion book also entitled “The Story of the Jews” Schama says, “The problem of the Jews was that they were a nation without a home.”

The Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in the deeply divisive “Hobby Lobby case.” The religious owners of the craft chain, and other plaintiffs, say the Affordable Care Act, violates their religious freedom by requiring them to buy certain kinds of contraception insurance for their employees.

The Jewish celebration of Purim –- reading aloud the complex and heroic account in the Book of Esther of Esther’s willingness to risk her life to save ancient Jews from annihilation by the King of Persia.  Traditionally, among Orthodox Jews, the story was read aloud by men, but now Orthodox women are leading Purim services, too

Rabbi Benjamin Elton discusses the progression of tradition in Orthodox Judaism in permitting Jewish women to lead the reading of the story of Queen Esther's heroism on her people's behalf for other women on Purim.