Eleanor Margetts writes that now is the time to hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

Can you remember life before lockdown?

We could easily see the last year of pandemic-related restrictions as a wasted one, where we were forced to sit at home and wait it out until life returns to ‘normal’. Have you thought about what ‘normal’ was like before COVID-19? But what have we learnt during this time?

Pope Francis reminds us that the pandemic has ‘has made visible the throwaway culture’ (Let us Dream, p. 17) in which our people and planet have been suffering long before the virus. Greed and indifference had made global injustices ‘normal’, often supported by our everyday actions and choices.