Today’s news carries the weight of systems—technological, political, institutional—that seem designed to serve us but often leave the vulnerable exposed. A pontiff warns of machines that might erase our humanity; security systems fail those meant to be protected; aid programs withdraw from those in greatest need; authority is abused by those entrusted with it. There is wisdom in asking whether the paths we walk—the progress we pursue, the structures we build, the power we consolidate—truly lead where we believe they do. The invitation is not to despair but to look honestly at what our choices create, and to consider whose suffering might be hidden in the gap between intention and outcome.