Why do banking crises keep happening? When depositors are protected, some banks cannot resist making risky loans. And paying fines for doing so has become a usual cost of doing business.

Pope Francis didn’t wear Balenciaga. I can’t imagine he ever will. But if we keep our eyes peeled, it won’t be long before we see him do something just as eye-popping to reveal once again to us the challenging, merciful love of God.

To receive already baptized Christians into the church at the vigil may be well-intentioned, but liturgically speaking, it is akin to suggesting that the candidates were not actually Christians before being received into the church.

“Christ, in his abandonment, stirs us to seek him and to love him and those who are themselves abandoned. For in them we see not only people in need, but Jesus himself, abandoned.”

Pope Francis, recovering from bronchitis, delivered a forceful Palm Sunday homily asking us to remember the “many abandoned Christs” in our own time, or those who experience suffering and solitude.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been coming out into the streets for the past three months in escalating pro-democracy protests against the most politically and religiously extreme right-wing government Israel has ever had.

I was pleasantly surprised to realize that amid all the polarization and turmoil found online among Catholics, we can still come together to pray for an old man who happens to be our pope.

The St. Monica Ministry is composed mostly of mothers but welcomes anyone who wishes to meet regularly to pray for people who have left the Catholic Church.

These trends should prompt an examen among Catholic educators. Do our schools lead people to drift from religion to money, from community engagement to private enrichment?

A Reflection for Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent, by Michael Simone, S.J.