“The situation continues to be very, very difficult in the hospitals of northern Italy because of the lack of intensive care units,” Dr. Renata Ghelardi said, reporting that the hospital system in Bergamo “is in a state of collapse.”

Father Baker, president of Xavier High School in Micronesia, knew how strongly the school featured in the lives of his students, but he was not prepared for the reaction after he called students together and shared the bad news that the school was ending early.

The roughly 2,500 Catholic hospital chaplains ministering in the United States are integrated into the medical teams at many hospitals, and they are responding to the chaos engendered by the coronavirus crisis in various ways.

“As long as they remain in their territories, they can be somewhat safe. But their reservations must be closed to non-indigenous persons.”

Online donations may not be enough to compensate for the lack of a weekly collection plate in U.S. dioceses, writes Michael J, O'Loughlin, and Catholic charitable organizations are also being affected.

The “social distancing” required by the coronavirus is making it more difficult to provide essential services to migrants and asylum seekers stranded at the U.S.-Mexico border, writes J.D. Long-García.