COVID IS WINDING DOWN... NOW WHAT?

In May 2020, in the midst of the initial pandemic lockdowns, Word on Fire released a free eBook from Stephen Bullivant titled Catholicism in the Time of Coronavirus. Dr. Bullivant offered an insightful and encouraging analysis of the coronavirus pandemic, not only shedding light on the Church’s present moment and similar crises in the past but also looking toward the future.

That future has now arrived. As restrictions continue to be lifted, many Catholics are wondering where we go from here. Word on Fire is now offering a follow-up eBook, Catholicism after Coronavirus: A Post-COVID Guide for Catholics and Parishes, which is intended to help answer that question.

Featuring a foreword by Dr. Bullivant, this new collection brings together authors from across the Catholic world, offering what the Church so desperately needs to hear right now: bold, courageous, and realistic yet hope-filled insights and ideas from a diverse range of voices among the people of God—laity, clergy, and religious alike. It offers practical advice from those on the frontlines of the Church’s response to the pandemic, with meditations on bereavement, spiritual formation, evangelization, pedagogy and pastoral care, presbyteral ministry, the centrality of the parish, the works of mercy, creative means of pastoral accompaniment, authentic community, and intellectual formation.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has been, for countless people around the world, a great and unexpected trial. But for Catholics, who were already struggling with the abuse crisis and a dramatic rise in disaffiliation, this trial is not only economic, social, or medical—it is spiritual. Plunged into a time of darkness and separated from the sacraments and their parish communities, the faithful are feeling isolated, disheartened, and uncertain about what the future holds.

This new eBook from Word on Fire Institute Fellow Dr. Stephen Bullivant is an insightful and encouraging analysis of the coronavirus, shedding light not only on the Church’s present moment or similar crises of the past but also on the immediate future.

A former Oxford researcher and expert in Catholic disaffiliation, Dr. Bullivant looks at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Church from both the spiritual and secular perspectives, weaving in his own personal reflections as a Catholic convert and a husband and father. This eBook is a unique roadmap for this challenging time, one that will help to bring clarity, focus, and energy to Catholics everywhere.