“The thing that’s dying is a kind of old allegiance to particular institutions or institutional manifestations of the divine. There’s just not much interest in that. The thing that seems to be coming alive is this awareness of God, a pervasive presence of God in our day-to-day lives.”

Today (April 8) the Vatican released Pope Francis’s widely anticipated document on family life, Amoris Laetitia, Latin for The Joy of Love. Host Bob Abernethy and managing editor Kim Lawton talk with Rev. Thomas Reese, SJ, senior analyst at National Catholic Reporter, about what the pope says and the potential impact it may have.

In the second part of correspondent Judy Valente’s report on gun violence in Chicago, she hears from survivors, especially the mothers of victims, and also from some religious and community leaders who are trying to foster empathy and forgiveness by means of “restorative justice” in neighborhood communities.

We provide an inside look at the spirit and discipline of some highly trained ushers who are much more than church doorkeepers. The men and women who serve as ushers at Hemingway Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church in District Heights, Maryland help create the mood for worship.

Faith groups and religious leaders try to defeat the city’s gun violence crisis; a former US senator questions whether religion has any place in politics.

The poorest parts of Chicago have become deadly war zones, with armed gangs enabling hundreds of shootings so far this year. But in the first of two reports correspondent Judy Valente discovers church and community leaders, teachers, and judges doing all they can to stem the gun violence that has prompted Catholic Archbishop Blase Cupich to say to children, “The adult world has failed you.”

American politics today have become so partisan that many say the political system is badly broken. Former US Senator John Danforth of Missouri, an Episcopal priest, in a new booked on The Relevance of Religion: How Faithful People Can Change Politics, offers some hope. What America needs, Danforth tells correspondent Lucky Severson, are politicians willing to lose and to make compromises.

Democratic and Republican presidential candidates reached out to Jewish voters this week at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the nation’s largest pro-Israel lobby. Kim Lawton reports on the clashes over Jewish values that took place during the gathering.

This week, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments about the constitutionality of a provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires employers to cover contraception services for their employees. After protests from some in the religious community, the government agreed to allow faith-based nonprofits with religious objections to opt out if they filled out a form.

As Western Christians celebrate Easter (March 27), correspondent Kim Lawton looks at the role flowers play in Easter worship services as a symbol of new life. She talks with Linda Roeckelein, head of the Flower Guild at Washington National Cathedral, about decorating that massive building, and also with Rev. Fleming Rutledge, author of the new book The Crucifixion.

Next week President Obama travels to Cuba on March 21-22 to try to move the US-Cuba relationship past a half-century of Cold War antagonisms. With the recent approval of plans to build the first new Catholic church in over 50 years and Pope Francis's visit to the island last fall, there are signs of increasing openness to religious life in Cuba after decades of repressive Communist rule.

Watch more of our interview with actor Geza Rohrig, star of the Holocaust film “Son of Saul,” who talks with R&E about Max Weber, Martin Buber, Primo Levi, Franz Kafka, and his character, Saul Auslander. “The only person who is happy in this movie,” says Rohrig, “is Saul.”

On March 2, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the biggest abortion case in decades. At issue is whether Texas laws designed for the “protection “ of women actually harm them. Correspondent Tim O’Brien talks with the founder of plaintiff Whole Women’s Health and with the attorney general of the state of Texas.

Host Bob Abernethy and managing editor Kim Lawton talk about the moral dimensions of the migrant crisis with Michel Gabaudan, president of Refugees International, and Mark Smith, senior director for humanitarian emergencies at the Christian group World Vision.

Correspondent David Tereschuk talks at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City with Hungarian actor Geza Rohrig, an Orthodox Jew, about his lead role in the widely acclaimed and Oscar-nominated movie "Son of Saul."

This week the nation has been remembering Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died unexpectedly last Saturday (February 13). We take a closer look at Scalia’s legacy and the impact his death on some key upcoming cases with host Bob Abernethy, managing editor Kim Lawton, and legal correspondent Tim O’Brien, who observes that Scalia “was a deep thinker and a great writer."

Correspondent Dan Lothian goes to Yale and Harvard Divinity Schools where a number of students are studying theology with no intention of becoming academics or ever being ordained as clergy. He talks to students and also to Miroslav Volf, prominent theologian and head of Yale’s Center for Faith and Culture, who says, “We welcome atheists, we welcome theists, we welcome religious people."

Pope Francis’s visit to the US-Mexican border highlighted a priority he has repeated many times: the Catholic Church’s concern for immigrants and refugees. Correspondent and managing editor Kim Lawton looks at the pope’s statements and Catholic social teaching on the issue. She also speaks with Jeanne Atkinson, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.

The Pope Meets the Patriarch; Israel Boycott Controversy; Teaching Children About Religion; Wudu: Islamic Washing Before Prayer

One of the pillars of Islam is that Muslims pray five times a day. Before those prayers, they are expected to perform a purification ritual called Wudu, during which they wash their face, hands, arms and feet. We visited Masjid Muhammad Mosque in Washington, D.C. where Imam Talib Shareef described the ablution practice as preparing for an “appointment before God.