Copy Desk Daily, Sept. 10, 2020

Our team of copy editors reads and posts most of what you see on the websites for National Catholic Reporter, Global Sisters Report and EarthBeat. The Copy Desk Daily highlights recommended news and opinion articles that have crossed our desks on their way to you.

Uncertain future faces Catholics in conflict-torn Belarus: Outrage ensued when Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, the head of the Catholic Church in Belarus, was barred from reentering the country on Aug. 31, amid protests over a dubious election, as Jonathan Luxmoore reports. Kondrusiewicz was turned away without warning at Kuznica, on the western border with Poland, a day after he released a pastoral letter warning about a possible slide toward civil war.

Four Catholic-led groups working to reelect President Donald Trump: National correspondent Christopher White reports on the groups trying to mobilize U.S. Catholic voters for the 2020 presidential election. Part 1 of this two-part series focuses on the organizations that support President Donald Trump's reelection: Catholics for Trump, CatholicVote.org, Susan B. Anthony List and Valor America.

The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests called the decision to honor Attorney General William Barr at this month's National Catholic Prayer Breakfast "shocking, incomprehensible and scandalous." Congregation of St. Joseph Sr. Helen Prejean called it "scandalous" and urged the group to "immediately rescind their invitation." Fr. Peter Daly agrees: Honoring Barr this year, National Catholic Prayer Breakfast is so clearly a political event.

Witness & Grace: Sr. Nancy Sylvester demonstrates contemplation's value amid pandemic: In these tense, troubled times, Sylvester said that the spiritual and emotional balm offered through a regular practice of contemplation is more important than ever, during GSR's first Witness & Grace: Conversations with Sisters program.

Whenever I feel afraid of corona: At Global Sisters Report, School Sister of Notre Dame Judith Best writes, "As we struggle with the dangers of coronavirus perhaps it's time once again to 'Whistle a Happy Tune.' Facing our fears against a common foe may be an evolutionary step in learning how to live together in the future."