Tim Swift

Amid the current coronavirus pandemic that is keeping most people at home and 6 feet apart to prevent the spread of the virus, St. John Church in Westminster has launched a creative solution to deliver the sacrament of reconciliation. Call it curbside confession.

Mercy Health Services received approval March 18 from the state of Maryland to add an additional 32-bed inpatient acute care unit to its Baltimore hospital to cope with the growing threat of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Deacon Justin Gough, a Baltimore seminarian studying in Rome, has just returned home after spending the last few weeks amid the serious outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Italy — an experience that has taught him not to panic but also not to underestimate the threat of Covid-19.