By Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing - Human suffering is an old problem for apologetics. But one thing at least is certain about an epidemic like the Coronavirus: we should not look at it, or any other natural evil, in merely materialistic or even medical terms. We need good medicine, good policies, even – God knows – good sociology to respond to such epidemics. But we can’t take them as something divorced from God’s Creation… Only a fool would try to explain why the Almighty has allowed the COVID-19 virus to emerge and spread globally at this point in history.