Copy Desk Daily, Aug. 5, 2020

Our team of copy editors reads and posts most of what you see on the websites for National Catholic Reporter, Global Sisters Report and EarthBeat. The Copy Desk Daily highlights recommended news and opinion articles that have crossed our desks on their way to you.

Catholic schools plan in-person classes, in contrast to public schools: Alexander Thompson reports that "Catholic schools across the country have decided they want to get back into the classroom, even in places where the public schools are going online. In some dioceses, state orders have forced Catholic schools to abandon their more assertive approach, while in others Catholic schools are striking a deliberate contrast with their online competitors."

AOC could do more for women by opposing abortion: Executive editor Heidi Schlumpf recently wrote that AOC is the future of the Catholic Church. Schlumpf's piece did not address U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's stance on abortion, so NCR invited Gloria Purvis to do so. Purvis is EWTN's "Morning Glory" radio host. 

'The Risk of the Cross' reckons with our nuclear danger: Claire Schaeffer-Duffy articulates the ever-present danger and destructive scale of the world's more than 13,500 nuclear warheads. Yet she highlights "an urgent book for our urgent times." Its "analysis of the nuclear threat through the demanding and relentlessly loving theology of Mark's Gospel shakes complacency and invigorates."

"In an age of constant distraction, of meaningless argument online fueled by hate and anger, of persistent pressures demanding every moment of every day be accounted for by some measure of productivity, the exhortation to 'do nothing' is a welcome corrective." Daniel P. Horan writes about the importance and challenge of doing nothing.

Why not to worry: Years ago, young Patrick Jephson witnessed a sobbing performance by his mother at the immigration desk at Kennedy Airport. Before the life-and-death acting, she took Jephson aside and told him, "Darling, I am going to cry. And you are not to worry." Jephson continues to reflect on that scene.