It is the psalmist’s hope never to be put to shame. Pope Francis Monday asked Protestants and other Christian Churches for forgiveness for past persecution by Catholics as the Vatican announced he would visit Sweden . . .

God prepares the prophet Jeremiah for the tough work ahead in this Sunday’s first reading, while in the gospel Jesus gets a taste of Israel’s tendency to reject her prophets. Concepcion Picciotto, 80, who died Monday, faced her share of taunts and heckles as she maintained a peace vigil . . .

Saint Paul urges us in the second reading to rejoice in truth and love rather than focus on wrongdoing. President Obama Monday took steps to limit the punitive use of solitary confinement in the federal prison system, banning it outright for juvenile offenders . . .

In the first reading this Sunday the Lord says to the prophet Jeremiah by way of reminder, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” Concern for the impact a mosquito-borne virus is having on the development of children in the womb . . .

I have never been thrown out of any place. I’m a law-abiding citizen who appreciates order, rules, and regulations. Imagine my surprise, when I was approached by the papal security detail at World Youth Day and summarily kicked out of my seat . . .

“The real poor are revealed as those who refuse to see themselves as such. . . . .This is because they are slaves to sin, which leads them to use wealth and power not for the service of God and others, but to stifle within their hearts the profound sense that they too are only poor beggars.”

Of all the water on the earth, humans can drink or cook with only about three tenths of one percent (0.3%) of it. Such usable water is found in groundwater aquifers, rivers, and freshwater lakes.