In 2016, the Zaheda flew to Italy from Lesbos on the pope’s plane. “He’s a gift from paradise,” Hasan Zaheda said on Sunday. “Pope Francis, a gift from our God, that God sent us to save us.”

A Jesuit considers the series that has become an international phenomenon.

An informed Vatican source said today, “Pope Francis’ overall situation is stable, within the complexity of his clinical situation.” He underlined, however, that “the prognosis remains guarded, which means the pope is not yet out of danger.”

Caring for my senior dog was a masterclass in that Lenten refrain: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It was my soul that she was training.

Economist and Jesuit priest Stephen Pitts, S.J., weighs in on President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico.

Pope Francis experienced another setback today with “two episodes of acute respiratory insufficiency” caused by “a significant accumulation of mucus in the lungs.”

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, shared that, “The pope is reminding every one of us, all people, starting with us elderly, that we are all frail and therefore we must take care of each other.”

Martin Marty, a towering figure in the study of American Christianity, died last week. Joe McShane, S.J., one of his former graduate students, remembers him with gratitude.

“Endorsing utilitarian deregulation and global neoliberalism means imposing the law of the strongest as the only rule; and it is a law that dehumanizes,” the pope wrote in a letter to members of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Today’s update from the pope’s doctors dispels the widespread alarm by Friday’s bronchial spasm. An informed Vatican source confirmed that “there have been no negative consequences from that crisis.”

Pope Francis’ clinical condition “remains stable” and is better than yesterday, according to the latest medical report from his doctors in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, which the Vatican released just before 7 p.m. on the evening of March 1.

A Reflection for Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, by J.D. Long García

A Reflection for Ash Wednesday, by Molly Cahill

A Reflection for Monday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, by Kevin Clarke

The Trump administration “immediately terminated” its contract with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for refugee resettlement, effective Feb. 27, according to letters issued by the U.S. State Department a day earlier.

At the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, Vance said he wasn’t there to litigate “about who’s right and who’s wrong,” and credited Francis as one who “cares about the flock of Christians under his under his leadership.”

Pope Francis had a setback after suffering an isolated coughing fit on Friday that resulted in him inhaling vomit, requiring non-invasive mechanical ventilation.

A Reflection for Saturday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, by Valerie Schultz

"St. Thomas Aquinas says that all of the works of God recorded in the Old Testament and everything that pertains to Christ in the New Testament are contained in the Psalter in the form of praise," wrote the theologian Lawrence S. Cunningham in this 1997 article on praying with the Psalms.

Give up the “futile distractions” of online life. Abstinence would benefit your mental health and your pocketbook, as well as the larger community if enough of us did it.