His Eminence Cardinal Esteban Marín has sent to the Herald an essay on charity in a season of contagion, and we print it in full in the Religion pages of this edition. The piece is the longest prose the Primate has published since his installation homily, and it repays the reading.

It is not a defence of the Church's public actions this week, which have been quiet; it is an argument about what vigilance becomes when it is mistaken for virtue. The distinction is the Cardenal's, and it is put more gently than we would put it here.

Sunday's intercessions at Sant Joan will proceed with ordinary precautions. The doors will, as the Primate's secretariat has confirmed, be open for the 'Patience of the Sea.'