In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as a test of our commitment to answer our call as Catholics to express our faith beyond the bricks and mortar church building and organized gatherings. 

VATICAN CITY -- Unable to invite Rome's priests to mark Holy Thursday in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis thanked all priests for their service and called those who died ministering to the sick and health care workers part of the community of "saints next door."

MANCHESTER, England -- Because of the lack of personal protective equipment, priests are being told to counsel dying COVID-19 patients by telephone rather than give them last rites.

In the early 1980s, Canadian music icon Anne Murray released her classic country song, “A Little Good News,” in response to suffering she witnessed in society. 

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 journey to Easter in 2020 has been a journey like no other.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Catholic Churches in Tanzania are remaining open alongside other churches, even as the rest of world shuts places of worship to stem the spread of COVID-19.

The quarantine measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 have ground the National Campus Life Network’s (NCLN) face-to-face activism to a halt, but not its voice.

Our lives have changed drastically in the past month. In late February, we received ashes to mark the beginning of another Lenten season; now, we are deprived of visiting Church for Holy Week.

Amid the disruption and anxiety of the COVID-19 crisis, Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto has issued a pastoral letter for Holy Week in which he urges the faithful to reach out in “prayer and responsible action” rather than collapse into “selfishness and despair.”

There’s a global public health risk that could tear families apart and harm women and children — not COVID-19 itself, but a related fallout from shutting families indoors and depriving them of jobs and school.

With the federal prison system shutting down all visits, a Catholic priest has volunteered to be incarcerated rather than leave inmates without spiritual care.

VATICAN CITY -- The COVID-19 quarantines, lockdowns and stay-at-home orders are the perfect opportunity for conversion: for individuals, for the church and for governments, Pope Francis said in an interview.

VATICAN CITY -- With people forced to stay home, even during Holy Week, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the archbishop of Turin has announced a special online exposition of the Shroud of Turin, which many believe is the burial cloth of Jesus.

Viewership has skyrocketed, appreciative comments are flowing in from around the world and the phone is ringing constantly in the Markham, Ont., offices of the National Catholic Broadcasting Council. It certainly isn’t business as usual.