Gossip may be shared between two people, let’s say by a tweet and reply or a Facebook post on another person’s wall, but it is shared with the knowledge that both parties’ followers will see it. What is most pernicious is that it’s often shared not in spite of that knowledge but because of it.

Hope is the courageous work of waiting for the solution, for things to get better.

The dogged efforts to hold on to or retrofit legacy models failed to halt the large-scale exit of about half of Catholic schools since the ’60s. Nevertheless, in the past two decades, with urgency and many people stepping up, new approaches and mindsets have burst with boldness and vigor.

The church is in a unique position to offer forums for frank discussions of race and where we go from here.

A million comments and tweets appear every second seeking attention, a kindred spirit, a witness. Each communique from the keyboard of users worldwide is one more shout into the abyss waiting for an echo of acknowledgment.

We must reset our bearings as a nation so that our collective future is not just whatever happens next but a conscious pursuit of our national credo: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The greater people’s faults, the more difficult it becomes to see the good in them, which is why we must practice this skill in little ways with all those we encounter.

“Since I am doing your work as well as mine and know everything about the accounting system, why can’t I be his boss?”

There’s a phrase in Juvenal’s “Satires” that might be translated as “Who will guard the guardians?” That’s the right question to ask for both police racism and clergy abuse.

The older I get, the more in awe I am of the witness and self-sacrificial love parents have for their children.