For the past few years, the editor of “First Things” has been R.R. Reno. Dr. Reno is a very intelligent man and a fine theologian. He is also a practicing Roman Catholic, converting to the Catholic faith from the Episcopal Church in 2004.

At the risk of sounding like a cliché, as the poet T.S. Eliot opined, “April is the cruelest month,” and indeed, in the Year of Our Lord 2020, it has proven to be. There is no need for us to recount the misfortunes that each of us has encountered this past month. And, sadly, it seems that the month of May appears to only be slightly better.

Parishes this time of year begin to hear of the transfers of their priests from one parish or assignment to another parish or assignments. It is a sad time for many priests and their parishioners, but also an exciting time for priests and parishes, a new beginning.

In an article entitled “The Erosion of Deep Literacy” by Adam Garfinkle, published in National Affairs (number 43, Spring 2020, the author says: “Thoughtful Americans are realizing that the pervasive IT-revolution devices upon which we are increasingly dependent are affecting our society and culture in significant but as yet uncertain ways.

In his first letters to the Corinthians, the Apostle St. Paul says: “Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face.”

On Tuesday, April 7, Cardinal George Pell was declared innocent of all charges and released from prison. As you may know, the Australian prelate was accused of a heinous crime of sex abuse from over 20 years ago. The Church stands with the victims of sexual abuse.

March 2020 changed life as we know it.

Over the past several weeks, this editorial piece for The Tablet has covered COVID-19, the novel Coronavirus. Almost every news article in this edition is somehow related to the present pandemic.