His Eminence Cardinal Esteban Marín issued a pastoral statement on Friday on the hantavirus outbreak and the Church's response, coupled with an essay — printed in full elsewhere in this edition — on charity in the face of uncertainty. The Primate's voice, in both documents, is the one the Kingdom has grown used to in difficult weeks: unhurried, precise, and addressed as much to those who do not share his faith as to those who do.

The Cardenal's instruction to the parishes is practical. Sant Joan's Sunday intercessions will name, by category rather than by person, the Poniente contacts at Sant Miquel, the four hospitalised from the Llevant at the Clínica that bears his predecessor's title, the eleven injured at the Passeig de la Llum, and the three correspondents whose whereabouts remain unaccounted for. Parish almoners have been directed to coordinate with the Clínica's pastoral office on the needs of families kept from their relatives by the cordon.

His Eminence's closing sentence, carried in both documents, is that the measure of a people in trial is not the absence of fear but the presence of one another. The line will be read from the pulpit on Sunday and, one suspects, from one or two other places besides.