Eighty thousand adolescents thought they were traveling to Rome for the much-anticipated canonization of Carlo Acutis. Instead, many were in the Eternal City for the Holy Father’s funeral.

Pope Francis was a helper and he encouraged helpers everywhere.

Throughout his pontificate, with the fire and occasional cantankerousness of some of the early fathers of the church, Pope Francis admonished us to quit worrying about the sins, real and imagined, of others, and to see in them the face of our Savior — and to serve him through serving them.

If the state wants to show that reducing caps for those who sue the state for abuse is not “just about the money,” then Gov. Moore and other state officials need to go on a listening tour and meet face to face with victim-survivors, particularly those who were abused in state-run institutions.

Once upon a time I was a second grader at St. Pius X School in Towson. One day, our teacher, Sister Suzanne, announced to my class that it was time to prepare for the May Procession.

American public officials are more likely to be heard if they call on our parent civilization to reclaim the nobility that defeated fascism, Nazism, and communism: a defense of human dignity in which Americans and Europeans contested for the future shoulder to shoulder.

In broad terms, “the Easter duty” usually refers to a fully initiated Catholic’s obligation to make a good sacramental confession and receive holy Communion every year around the time of Easter.

A tidy church would be a dead church, so we may as well just keep to our ugly, vulgar and unseemly ways, remembering that (somehow) we, as church, have birthed so much wisdom and beauty century after tawdry human century!

In early April, it was announced that Pope Francis appointed Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., to be the next bishop of Providence, R.I. The Holy Father could not have chosen a better bishop to guide that important diocese in the years ahead.

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, radiated the deep joy of one who truly believed in the Resurrection. His smile, simplicity, and sense of humor made him not only a beloved spiritual father but also a reflection of the risen Christ’s tenderness and mercy.