It’s been a while since I wrote one of these other than to sneak in a book review. But these are unusual times for us all and I thought I would let you know what is going on in our office. It’s closed. We are still working, but the office is closed. We are allowed to operate because communications and media were deemed essential by the Ford government. But even before the order came down, to protect staff and their families, our office manager arranged for most employees at The Interim and Campaign Life Coalition to work from home. This is easier for some of us than others. For our family it meant rearranging some of the rooms in our house in order to provide a quiet space for me to work a few hours each day without interruption. Now we are finding which routines work best for us all – both in person at home and online with my co-workers. I hope you keep CLC and The Interim in your prayers. We are praying for you and your loved ones at this time. (Just before noon each day, we come together in the office to pray; we now do so by conference call.)
The fact is many publications write, edit, and do layout remotely. Modern technologies, for all their problems, have upsides, too, and it is unimaginable that we as a society would be able to handle these trying and uncertain times as smoothly as we are without the internet and the efficient ways to communicate and work that these technologies facilitate. While other publications have long operated without central offices, it was a bit of learning curve for many of us to work completely online. The back-and-forth by email and reading copy on screens is a new and sometimes challenging way of doing things for us. There is something lost without face-to-face interactions. We persevered and I think it worked out rather well. I hope you appreciate the effort that goes into every issue to bring you life and family news, but especially this month.
We debated how to put out this paper, with conversations about combining it with next month’s issue or providing it only online or cancelling it completely. The Culture of Death does not take a break during a pandemic, so we decided that we could not, either. Read the stories in our centre spread to see how culture wars continue while many families are scrambling to feel safe, worry about home finances, and arrange for children to be cared for or busy while schools are closed or providing online instruction. I hope you do not find this paper to be an intrusion. Maybe it is a distraction from other worries. Maybe it provides you with inspiration to get involved in battles for life and family while you have some time at home. As long as there are doctors killing babies and other vulnerable people, and as long as politicians refuse to pass laws that bring justice for the unborn and infirm, we will get the word out about it.
Next month we plan to do a story on medical ethics in the pandemic. We also have a story about a charming new pro-life children’s book from a Canadian couple in Alberta.
There are still bills and salaries to pay, and many of our advertisers (especially churches) and other supporters are facing their own challenges. If you can, please consider a donation to The Interimto help us get through this rough patch. Our address is The Interim, Suite 300, 104 Bond St., Toronto, Ont., M5B 1X9.
I would like to end by passing along a prayer I saw on Bishop Joseph Strickland’s (Diocese of Tyler, Texas) Twitter feed the morning I wrote this column: “Lord, turn hearts back to your Truth of Life that every person is sacred from conception to natural death. May the peril of this coronavirus finally awaken humanity to the sanctity of life. In Jesus name we pray.” Amen.
