One year ago, in our edition dated March 15, 2020, the headline for this space was “The Coronavirus Post?” We noted how many stories in that issue were devoted to this emerging global health crisis, and said we might have to do so again in the future “should the spread have a greater impact on central Illinois, similar to recent days in Seattle or New York.”

We obviously had no idea what was ahead. Life in central Illinois began changing immediately after we had gone to press with that edition, and the ensuing 26 issues of The Catholic Post have been dominated by the church’s response to the pandemic. We’ve done our best to cover it, yet realize there are countless untold personal stories in every household, every parish and school and hospital.

We thank Coadjutor Bishop Louis Tylka — whose name we did not know one year ago, but whose arrival and ministry became the other major news story of the past year — for summarizing the losses and lessons of this historic time so well on this edition’s front page. We echo his challenge to not “return to normal,” but unite with God ever deeper. Let’s use these days of Lent to make progress to that end. — Thomas J. Dermody