The choice of a papal name is said to be the new pope’s first important decision.

Much of what you hear about who the next pope will be, spoken with enormous confidence by people in the know, is often completely contradictory.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, have told me that this time of transition makes them feel unsure, unsettled and uncomfortable, three difficult feelings. Some people have even told me that they are afraid. To which I say: Fear not!

All of Pope Francis' gestures, meetings and desires for encounter were themselves a form of “teaching.” And L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics and their families have told me repeatedly what a difference this change in approach has meant. 

“Pope Francis entered the papacy as a Jesuit, governed as one and died as one,” Father James Martin writes.

Take the money? Join a monastery? Grab the gun?

Some of your favorite books by Christian authors came to be because of the careful and loving assistance of Roger Freet, the editor and literary agent who died on March 18.

Loving God: As Francis, our beloved pope, suffers from grave illnesses, we come before you in prayer.

I was delighted recently to discover that three of my favorite authors, all from extremely different backgrounds and perspectives, have written three extremely different books on aging. Yet even with their differences, they agree on the big points.

Jesus calls us to care for those in need—regardless of national boundaries.