Cash-strapped dioceses across Canada have been applying for assistance through federal programs but they don’t expect to see any money until at least June.

Mother Teresa was once famously quoted as saying, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”

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.

The first week of July was shaping up to be a big one in the life of Arnold Cordova — then along came the COVID-19 outbreak.

“In difficult situations, we are called to be holy,” said Cardinal Thomas Collins, the Archbishop of Toronto, during his homily on April 28.

We need not sit sipping Lysol lemonade and Clorox cocktails in the left field bleachers with Donald Trump to insist that recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is too important to be left exclusively to politicians and health care technocrats.

On a cold afternoon in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I took my shopping trolley to go for some groceries. 

It’s a pandemic within a pandemic — and a damning indictment of how we’ve been failing to care for our most vulnerable. People living in seniors’ homes across Canada are being hit disproportionately hard by COVID-19.

Perhaps one of the most enduring images of angels is the sight of these messengers of God singing celestial hymns of praise while twanging heavenly harps. 

Educators across Ontario have rejigged curriculum to meet the needs of quarantined students and many seem to have found their virtual teaching groove — but not without challenges.

This year’s theme for Catholic Education Week is “Igniting Hope,” apt at any time but especially now when hope is so much needed.

It was a trying Lent. The Church has lived something historically unprecedented, as Catholics worldwide were able to go to church nowhere and everywhere. Friends and family shared the joy of seeing Mass around the world and the grief of fasting from receiving communion, even on Good Friday, even on Easter Sunday.

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.

Who knows how long this will last? Certainly not I. Although there are times I think I know as much about this never-before-seen virus as those white-coated “experts” who hold forth incessantly before the camera’s ravening eye. 

When will things go back to the way they used to be? Catholics should hope never.