Copy Desk Daily, March 27, 2020

The environmental movement was seeing 2020 as a pivotal year for the global response to climate change, including the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The work goes on, but the tactics change as the coronavirus compels climate activists to shift from streets to screen.

Peter Feuerherd profiles "America's tough-love grandpa," a graduate of New York City's Regis High School who's worked under six presidents: Dr. Anthony Fauci, dedicated to public service, formed at Jesuit high school.

When the Vatican announced plenary indulgences for those around the world affected by the coronavirus, some Catholics may have been asking, "We still do that?" Yes, we do, and Joshua McElwee talked to some theologians who say that the coronavirus indulgences evoke Francis' 'ridiculously-pardoning' church. Says one, "I think the church very tenderly wants to say, 'Be sorry for your sins, and know that you're not alone, and it will be OK.' "

Horizons columnist Sr. Julia Walsh had been fearing some kind of crisis that would splinter an already deeply divided society. "What happened instead is that we were given a crisis that equalized us, that revealed our common humanity." She reflects on the coronavirus, the cross and our vocation.

As senior director of theology and ethics at the Catholic Health Association, Dominican Fr. Charles Bouchard has insight into how principles of Catholic social teaching can play a role in the hard ethical decisions we may face with an overloaded health system. What spirituality for a time of scarcity can we turn to?

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