Like organisations around the world, Mercy ministries in New Zealand have had to adjust to a new normal in the past three months. Some plans have been postponed or cancelled; fund-raising appeals have gone online; schools and community hubs have closed.

Living through a pandemic is not new for Mercy. Hardly had the Congregation been founded when Dublin was overrun by a cholera epidemic in 1832; thousands succumbed to the illness and Catherine McAuley was quick to offer the services of her sisters who nursed for many months in a temporary hospital.