A recent piece by Tony Annett in U.S. Catholic reflects on the aftermath of the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu epidemic, drawing parallels to Pope Francis’ response to the COVID-19 crisis: “COVID exposed our flaws. Can Catholic social teaching mend them?” He ends his essay with words of caution and a call to action: “A century ago, we also had an opportunity to build something different. The world had just come out of a devastating war and a calamitous pandemic. But our forebears failed to make the wise choice. Can we choose a better path this time? The answer to that question might lie in whether or not we take seriously the principles of Catholic social teaching.”

Several interesting articles and research studies discuss how the COVID-19 experience has affected or is currently affecting religious communities. One example focused on South Africa examines the shared suffering of spiritual leadership and congregants: “The pandemic has successfully disorganized societies and religious communities. Its spiritual impact has been felt by church leaders and congregants alike. This study investigated the spiritual impact COVID-19 has imposed on church leadership and congregants. It also explores how some church leaders performed their pastoral ministry under COVID-19 conditions.” Another headline, “Old congregations learn new digital tricks (because of COVID),” calls attention to the adaptability that religious communities have had to adopt: “‘It’s been a series of seemingly endless pivots around how we do pretty much everything.’” Additionally, the Episcopal Church has observed an accelerated decline in membership as a result of the pandemic: “The pandemic and other factors have led to dire forecasts about churches, not the least being the Episcopal Church. Writing in the blog Religion in Public (July 15), Ryan Burge notes that the Episcopal Church’s long decline in attendance seemed to have leveled off at about 550,000 shortly before the pandemic. Since then, however, the church has been hit hard by a more intense wave of church dropouts, with average attendance dipping by about 60,000 between 2019 and 2020, a decrease of almost 12 percent in a single year.”

Mental health repercussions of the crisis loom large, within and among faith communities. A recent discussion sponsored by the Global Religion Journalism Initiative gathered academics and religious leaders around the issue of faith-based mental health counseling, including its benefits and limitations. Focusing on U.S. communities, it highlighted complexities in assessing religious impact of such counseling efforts: “In psychology, there's something called positive religious coping and negative religious coping. Positive religious coping is believing that God is loving and ultimately wants to help, and that's associated with positive mental health outcomes. Fundamentally believing that God is harsh and trying to penalize me is associated with more negative religious outcomes, and more negative mental health outcomes.” The study also investigated this connection between religion and mental health in the context of COVID-19: “This study demonstrates that religion protected mental health but constrained support for crisis response during the crucial early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from a national probability-based sample of the U.S. population show that highly religious individuals and evangelicals suffered less distress in March 2020. They were also less likely to see the coronavirus outbreak as a crisis and less likely to support public health restrictions to limit the spread of the virus. The conservative politicization of religion in the United States can help explain why religious Americans (and evangelicals in particular) experienced less distress and were less likely to back public health efforts to contain the virus. We conclude that religion can be a source of comfort and strength in times of crisis, but—at least in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic—it can also undercut efforts to end the root causes of suffering.”

Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, increases in anti-Muslim rhetoric and incidents are linked to the pandemic: “The Covid-19 pandemic has influenced social and digital media consumption in Sri Lanka and given rise to a wave of hate speech and disinformation, with Muslims being the most targeted religious group.” The pandemic has also put a new focus on social ills, notably rape and domestic abuse, as well as on direct and indirect roles of religious leaders. 

Another emerging trend is micropilgrimages: “The growth in the numbers of people making pilgrimages, including both devout and unchurched seekers, shows no signs of letting up, but since Covid ‘micro pilgrimages’ are becoming more popular… A micro or ‘mini’ pilgrimage usually can be completed in one day or less and is particularly popular in the UK; in the spring of 2022, six micro pilgrimages took place in southern England. In the wake of Covid, even Pope Francis talked about undertaking micro pilgrimages. The idea was to avoid the outbreaks of mass gatherings while still maintaining some collective rituals and group activities. During the pandemic, many people also ceased long-distance travel and took walks in their own natural habitats and surrounding areas, while others undertook virtual pilgrimages. Engaging in ‘mindfulness’ while walking—a key concept in making pilgrimages—became both a therapeutic and spiritual practice for many during the pandemic.” 

As we look ahead, two challenges specific to our current moment have started to populate the news: first, there are reports of vaccine hesitancy linked to religious concerns focus on fetal cell issues for the new Novavax vaccine; and second, amidst concerns about the spread of monkeypox, questions arise as to lessons from the COVID-19 experience.