In this clear-eyed book about the real Covid crisis, Philip Lawler dissects how Church leaders and the faithful responded to this health emergency. He explains the devastating effects on society when Church leaders tell their people not to attend Sunday Mass, and when they ban Confession, marriages, and baptisms. He tackles the dangerous consequences of treating schoolchildren like lepers and explores the ethics of vaccines and the plights of parish priests caught in the middle.

Best of all, Lawler reveals how faithful Catholics responded to major crises in previous centuries and calls on today’s Christians to display the same courageous faith that once offered hope to a fearful world—one that radiates inner peace, confidence, and hope in times such as these.