BALTIMORE (CNS) -- As his first year as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops came to a close, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, said in an interview that two unexpected angles of the job are the massive volume of email he gets and the way that "the pope has taken the world by storm."

Archbishop Kurtz served as vice president of the USCCB for three years before being elected president last November.

The year has brought continued worldwide attention to almost everything Pope Francis says and does. That, in turn, "in so many ways has made our work easier," Archbishop Kurtz told Catholic News Service in a Nov. 11 interview.

The main actions by the pope making the bishops' job easier, said the archbishop, include his 2013 apostolic exhortation, "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel") and his calling two synods of bishops -- one completed in October, the second next October, both on the topic of the family. They're a religious "double-header," suited to the month of October, when baseball's World Series is held, he joked.

Some topics continue to be challenging, said Archbishop Kurtz, requiring careful attention to faith-based principles on issues such as health care and public responsibility to the poor.

Archbishop Kurtz said he hopes to meet with President Barack Obama and the House and Senate leaders sometime in December to discuss immigration reform as well as the church's concerns for the poor and over issues such as religious freedom concerns over elements of the Affordable Care Act.

The bishops' approach to advocacy has always taken a wide view, he said, combining pastoral concern for people to be able to afford health care with ensuring that the church is not forced into actions that conflict with religious rights, for example.

Archbishop Kurtz also gave the traditional presidential address at the beginning of the bishops' meeting and participated in one of the three brief news conferences during the two days of public sessions Nov. 10 and 11. In the CNS interview and in the other public remarks, he referenced the "art of accompaniment" that Pope Francis emphasizes.

It's not a new thing, for the church to expect its leaders to share the joys and sorrows of the people of God, he said, but "it would be a big mistake if we thought that's only for the pope and bishops."

Parishes and individuals also have always had a role in accompanying people, he said.

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Editor's Note: A related video has been posted at http://youtu.be/fmyztJYwkP0.