Copy Desk Daily, May 11, 2020

It's been five years since Pope Francis gave us his environmental encyclical, "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home." Join EarthBeat in an exploration of the document with the new series Digging Into Laudato Si'. Today's reflection delves into the introduction and following in the footsteps of St. Francis.

In a place with limited resources even in good times, a pandemic hits especially hard. Read about the Navajo Nation under COVID-19: Catholic school offers support in Northeast Arizona. St. Michael Indian School finds ways to provide distance education and meals during lockdown. The staff holds onto hope, but at the same time, "it's sad. It's lonely," says the principal. "We are used to seeing our kids every day, seeing their smiles, their faces. … Now, it's very, very different. I don't hear their chatter, their laughter. It's just silent. I miss them.”

The Navajo Nation is not the only place facing food insecurity. World hunger is its own pandemic: Aid workers brace for second-wave crisis. GSR checks in with Catholic sisters around the globe about their worries and actions they are taking now to keep people fed. And correspondent Doreen Ajiambo takes a closer look at hunger in Africa during COVID-19: Sisters stepping in.

"Connection pervades and defines us, but most of the time we don't notice" — until it's missing. In Mercy Sr. Amanda Carrier's neighborhood in Jersey City, New Jersey, people bang pots and pans every evening in solidarity with each other. She writes about being socially distant, spiritually connected.

Sectarianism is at the heart of Dolan-Trump imbroglio. Michael Sean Winters continues his analysis of that "train wreck of a phone call."

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