Times of financial stress or uncertainty seem like a natural time to turn to one’s faith, but it can also be one of the most difficult times to do so.

While there has been much discussion of clericalism and sexual abuse, writes Catherine R. Osborne, the ability of clergy to maintain a “harmonious relation to sexuality” is relatively unexamined territory.

“Plague: Untold Stories of AIDS and the Catholic Church,” an ambitious podcast created and hosted by America’s national correspondent, Michael J. O’Loughlin, premiers Dec. 1.

We should be fearless in making clear that tolerating clergy sexual abuse stands in total contradiction to the core of the Gospel message.

Asked in 1986 to describe himself, Fred Rogers listed off a long catalog of descriptors, including performer and television producer, but he concluded with “a husband and a father. And I am a minister.”

Pope Francis has criticized clerics who are “far from the people.” One solution, writes Stacey Noem of the University of Notre Dame, is to better integrate candidates for the priesthood with lay students.