Copy Desk Daily, May 7, 2020

With lives on hold, young adults cope with pandemic's uncertainties. Loneliness and economic fears are prevalent, but in recent discussions, young Catholics have talked about the opportunity to reshape society instead of returning to the status quo.

Bubbles and birds and sidewalk chalk: Young Voices columnist Mike Jordan Laskey has pulled together an incomplete index of pandemic parenting essentials. It's his list of things to be grateful for, even when the nerve-fraying days come as he and his wife isolate with three children under age 4.

Incarceration shouldn't be a death sentence, but the coronavirus is hitting overcrowded prisons, and the death toll is rising. NCR's editorial makes the plea: Have mercy, release nonviolent prisoners during pandemic.

On GSR, read about how mothers flourish with sister's support after incarceration. "She believed in me before I believed in myself," says Johanna Flores, one of thousands of women who have been mentored by St. Joseph Sr. Tesa Fitzgerald through Hour Children. The organization helps women who have experienced prison and are rebuilding their lives. Read also about two Hour Children alumnae who became staff members: Reconciliation comes to two mothers after imprisonment.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan's public praise for President Donald Trump has drawn the attention and reproof of sisters, GSR reports: Congregational leaders criticize Cardinal Dolan's remarks on Trump.

Jacqueline Sanchez-Small is a postulant of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania — at 27, the second youngest in the monastery. She reflects on love, loss, communal life in an intergenerational community that includes sisters who may have died before she was born.

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