Pope Francis seems to be doing everything he can to remind Catholics that they are buried holding rosary beads, not checkbooks. The spring cleanup has begun in Rome.

There is a new Secretariat for the Economy to oversee how the Vatican handles money. There is a new Council for the Economy to analyze internal controls and governance. Francis even recently called for a meeting of religious orders' money managers.

Will any of this make any difference? And whose money is it anyhow?

Today’s letter, written on March 4, comes from Lasallian Br. Bill Firman, executive director of Solidarity with South Sudan. Furman writes from Juba, South Sudan’s largest city, where BBC Africa reports violence has broken out among the military in the last week.

Benedictine Sr. Mary John Mananzan wasted no time: as soon as she had listened to pleas of women claiming to have been abused through the so-called “sex for flight” scheme, she got on the phone to call the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Program (DOJ-WPP) right then and there. As acting director, Martin Menez’s job is to see that people admitted to witness protection receive help.

New York Times reporter Laurie Goodstein got to interview Sr. Kathy Sherman before I did. Goodstein's article, published Dec. 1, 2012, highlighted St. Josephs Sr. Kathy Sherman's work, a combination of composing and performing, as an expression of prayer rooted in contemplation.

For many U.S. Catholics, participating in weekly parish faith sharing gatherings around Scriptural themes, foregoing those luscious squares of 72 percent dark chocolate, eating simple, meatless meals, donating the resulting grocery savings to Catholic Relief Services’ Rice Bowl program to feed hungry people in 100 countries . . . . For ecologically minded parish coordinators searching for materials relevant to their midweekly Lenten and Advent gatherings, Sr. Terri MacKenzie’s ongoing creativity has proven to be a real gift.

On a couple of gray Saturdays at the end of February, you can always find me in a movie theater. It may sound crazy to spend 12 straight hours in a movie theater two Saturdays in a row, but I love to see what Hollywood deems to be the year’s best films all at the same time.

On a chilly day with drizzling rain, Conception Sr. Maria Nguyen Thi Hien stood at the gate of the healthcare clinic warmly shaking the hands of each patient who came in.

“We are delighted to welcome all of you. We will try our best to provide medical treatment and loving care for you and to relieve your physical pains,” Hien told them.

Benedictine Sr. Edita Eslopor and fellow survivors of Typhoon Haiyan trooped to Malacañang Palace on Monday morning to give President Benigno Aquino their petition for government relief, rehabilitation and financial assistance to survivors -- but the president was a no-show.

The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature held a global summit in Eucador in January 2014, and sisters are among those who are working with the stark reality of how mining, for example, is threatening life in Africa, Europe and South America.

The first National Catholic Sisters Week will kick off March 8-14 at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minn., as part of Women's History Month. By bringing together college-age women and women religious from a variety of congregations, St. Catherine will honor Catholic sisters who have served faithfully as an integral part of American history.