Catholic Register Editorial

Before reading this editorial, take a few seconds to return to the cover of this week’s issue. That tender scene of a senior in long-term care reaching out but not touching a loved one is happening daily across Canada.

It’s not every day the Pope is thankful to be “scolded” by one of his bishops but, of course, these are not ordinary days.

Among the lessons driven home by the COVID-19 crisis is that people and societies are morally bound to care for one another. This care is accomplished in many ways but one gaining wide attention, including encouragement from Pope Francis, is the potential merit of paying everyone a state-guaranteed income.

Among the many stories of illness and death wrought by COVID-19 comes the tragic case of Jean Truchon.

It was wet and dreary in an empty St. Peter’s Square March 27 as Pope Francis bestowed on Rome and the world an extraordinary blessing in these extraordinary times. But he defied the gloom of COVID-19 with a much-needed testament of hope amid this crisis, a hope conferred on us by the risen Lord that comforts us in hard times and which we celebrate with particular joy at Easter.

The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing society to take a hard look at what is essential and what is optional or even superfluous in our daily lives. In some respects, this material downsizing is a secular version of the spiritual exercise Catholics embrace every year at Lent.

School closures, business disruptions, stock market panic, grocery hoarding and widespread cancellations of Sunday Masses. Few if any of us have seen anything like this.

A natural reaction to the new coronavirus is to ask how can I protect myself, but a Christian response is to ask how can I protect my neighbour.

In the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that imposed assisted suicide on Canada, the chief justices conceded the need for a “carefully designed system imposing stringent limits” on who would be eligible for a state-sanctioned death.

The headlines ask if reconciliation is dead. The answer is no, but the latest crisis shows that the national aspiration of a new relationship with Canada’s Indigenous peoples remains in failing health and in need of acute care.