Simulcast with ABC TV and News Radio, Radio National's Religion and Ethics presents the funeral mass of His Holiness Pope Francis.

Anchored from the Ultimo studios by ABC News presenter Jeremy Fernandez, the special features a panel of religion experts, including The Religion and Ethics Report host Andrew West, The Minefield's Scott Stevens, and Claire Johnson, Director of the ACU Centre for Liturgy and Professor of Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology at Australian Catholic University. 

With live crosses from Rome from St Peter's Square with Kathryn Diss, ABC's Europe Correspondent, Compass presenter Geraldine Doogue and Religion specialist Noel Debien.

Claire Giangrave from the Religion News Service is in Rome where the city is preparing for the funeral of Pope Francis. There’s a guest list including princes, presidents, and prime ministers. Why is this funeral as much a geopolitical event as a centuries-old religious rite?

Within days, perhaps even hours of Pope Francis’s funeral, the discreet meetings will begin among the 135 cardinals who will elect the next Pope. When the doors close on the conclave, we won’t – strictly speaking, shouldn’t – know anything until a new pope appears on the balcony of St Peter’s Square. But what happens in the crucial days leading up to the conclave as candidates start to emerge. FRANCIS CAMPBELL is vice chancellor of Notre Dame University in Australia. He also served as the UK ambassador to the Holy See.

MARK SHRIVER has spent much of his life around power. He was a successful Democratic Party politician and he’s a Kennedy. JFK and Bobby were his uncles and his father, Sargent Shriver ran for vice-president. But he’s also had a life of service, working with disadvantaged kids. A decade ago, grappling with his own Catholicism, he became fascinated with the relatively new Pope Francis. He wanted to recharge his faith. The result was an extraordinary book, Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis. We spoke with Mark when the book came out in 2017 but this week, we caught up again.

During the church-led civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, many strove for a society that was colour blind. Purging prejudice meant looking beyond race to a common humanity.

But for African-American writer TYLER AUSTIN HARPER, today's anti-racism movement erects barriers, demands discomfort, denies the possibility of friendship, even love across racial lines.

In a major essay for The Atlantic, he calls for a "good colour-blindness".

Plus

Throwing yourself at the mercy of a higher power, seeking forgiveness, committing to strict behaviour, even thought. Once upon a time, you'd think of religion.

But today, it's the social justice movement that demands very public repentance.

IAN BURUMA is a leading intellectual in America and Europe. A former editor of The New York Review of Books, he's now a professor at Bard College in New York. His essay for Harper’s magazine is called "Doing the Work".

Rebuilding relationships between Israelis and Palestinians in a land they're fated to share.

An impossible task, you might think, as the war in Gaza grinds on.

But one Israeli-Australian author, educator and peace-builder won't let go of his vision for harmony in Israel and Palestine.

And he has a plan to achieve it.

ITTAY FLESCHER runs joint education programs for Jewish and Arab students in Jerusalem.

His new book is The Holy and the Broken: A cry for Israeli-Palestinian peace from a land that must be shared.

EASTER WEEK

The Easter season is not just a time of spiritual trial – not just a reflection on the Easter story of sacrifice and redemption. Many Christians, and other people of faith, persevere in the face of real danger in regions convulsed by conflict. One of those places is Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A mixture of calm and fear now prevails in the city since rebels from the so-called M23 group took over in January. MARTIN GORDON is the Anglican Bishop of Goma, where he leads a church of about 12,000 people.

In Myanmar/Burma, the UN High Commission for Refugees estimates 17 million people are dealing with the effects of a massive earthquake at the end of March. Even before the catastrophe, aid agencies said 20 million Burmese were relying on aid to survive in a country torn by civil war since a military coup in 2021. Caritas is a Catholic relief agency with operations across the country. SALLY THOMAS is the humanitarian manager.

This year, Easter is enfolded in a federal election, so it’s the perfect time to ask how Christians should take part in politics. How should they submit to the power of the state, even when it challenges their core beliefs? Dr MARK FOWLER is a lawyer and academic. His new book tries to answer some of these tough questions. It’s called Beauty and the Law.

MARLEY KROK grew up in the Mormon faith but is now secular and MAGGIE PAUL is an Indian-born Catholic-turned-Buddhist, who’s in an interfaith marriage to a Muslim husband. They discuss how their faith lives have shaped their academic interests, the relevance of their PhD research to the upcoming election, and the challenges and rewards of being mature students in 2025.

Sociologist Dr Anna Halafoff of Deakin University looks at some US research suggesting pious students have higher grades and delves into the growth of non-Christian faith-based schools in Australia.

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It’s a crime many thought was a relic of decades past. But South Australian police have charged a man … with sacrilege.

In an election campaign dominated by cost-of-living pressures, energy supplies, and an assertive China, is there any room for religion as a political issue?

Paying extra on a loan is also known as usury. It’s an ancient concept with Biblical roots.

GUESTS:

Professor JOSHUA ROOSE of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation.

Dr RENAE BARKER is a senior lecturer specialising in law and religion at the University of Western Australia.

PETER KURTI of the Centre for Independent Studies. His paper, co-authored with Ian Harper is Interest, Usury and the Common Good.

What’s the verdict on the 2025 budget, announced this week by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, from those who work with Australia’s most vulnerable people? SUE KING is manager of advocacy and research at the faith-based welfare agency Anglicare Sydney.

Mass demonstrations have roiled Turkiye’s biggest city of Istanbul. Protesters are angry at the jailing of the popular mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, on corruption charges that they say are concocted. The mayor was shaping up as the strongest rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who’s been in power for 22 years. While public support for Erdogan has slipped markedly, for much of his rule, he’s been popular. In large measure, that’s because Erdogan’s leaned heavily into Turkiye’s religious culture. David Tonge is author of the new book, The Enduring Hold of Islam in Turkey: The Revival of Religious Orders and the Rise of Erdogan.

Why are clergy regarded as office holders rather than staff? We speak to  Reverend Chris Bedding,  an Anglican priest and executive officer of the Faith Workers Alliance.   

2025 is a jubilee year for the Catholic Church, traditionally a time for renewal and the forgiveness of debt and sin.  But with Pope Francis still in recovery from double pneumonia, pilgrims are finding new ways to mark the jubilee.

And why are Donald Trump, and the United States itself,  poor role models for true conservatives. Andrew West speaks with Peter Hitchens, a popular conservative columnist for The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.

What are the implications of recent clashes with loyalists to the Assad regime?

The Sisters of Charity ran Ward 17 at St Vincent's Hospital, where they nursed hundreds of HIV AIDS patients. Sister Nolan remembers David Polson and the prejudice he and other patients encountered.

And why  does the pope's message about poverty and climate change resound loudly in the global south?