Mothering is a presence that pulses in flesh and blood. A love that can never go absent, even when it looks like it has left.

It seems unlikely that these men would have been willing to suffer so intensely and give up so much if they themselves did not sincerely believe in the truth of what they were professing. Reasoning it out, what would have been the Apostles’ motivation for making up a new religion if it meant that they had everything to lose but nothing in this world to gain?

He commands no armies, but we pray desperately that Pope Leo’s moral weight, and ours as he guides us, can make the world and our country a more peaceful place, a community of love and welcome, a place where all are respected and the common good is the common standard.

As we have observed the death of Pope Francis, the conclave and the early days of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate, the centenary of St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s canonization — May 17, 1925 — has mostly fallen off the radar. But the details of that momentous event are worth remembering.

The way Pope Leo has put Christ at the center in these early days of his pontificate illustrates that Christ is no mere idea or role model.

I never thought we would have an American pope, so I had no expectations for how that might different for me, as an American. I had never considered what it would be like to hear a pope talk in English with an American accent.

A person does not need to be Catholic or even Christian to have a valid marriage, provided that in their matrimonial consent they committed themselves to a union that would broadly match our Catholic understanding of marriage: namely, as a permanent, faithful, and exclusive union ordered fundamentally towards children and family life.

Being unable to be honest with a doctor for fear of safety is one thing. Creating a situation in which victim-survivors may feel unsafe being honest with God is a violation of religious freedom and causes direct harm.

In its exposition of the lifelong depths of concern, nurturing, love, puzzlement, understanding, clemency and prayerful accompaniment, this is a description of motherhood that anyone who has experienced it, physically or spiritually, will recognize. It is also a beautifully stated, convincing argument that the Catholic Church is, indeed, mother to all the baptized.

It is a reminder, as always, that when it comes to scoring papabile, usually those who know don’t say, and those who say don’t know.