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Double your contribution! Dana Greene pledged to match the next $5,000 that comes
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"Your voice -- free and responsible -- is fundamental for the growth of any society
that wishes to call itself a democracy, so that the continuous exchange of ideas
and a fruitful debate based on real and correctly reported information may be guaranteed."
- Pope Francis to a group of Catholic journalists in 2017
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Dear Reader,
This is an eerily uncertain and threatening time, which also makes it a very strange
moment to be coming to you with requests for support.
Strange, perhaps, but not unreasonable. Because NCR accompanies you into this uncertainty
as it has into other demanding moments in the past, moments that challenge faith,
that make us all stop momentarily and ask fundamental questions of ourselves, of
the Catholic community, of our civil and religious leaders.
The papal words above might be viewed as boilerplate, something you still say about
journalism but may not fully believe possible in an era when social media and cable
scream fests threaten to distort the craft to a point of being unrecognizable. But
there still is room for sobriety in journalism and NCR rests on solid tradition
and practice that extend back more than half a century. NCR was conceived in a way
no other Catholic publication had been imagined, with reporting -- not essays or
pious tracts or opinion -- at its core. And that remains its determining purpose.
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I have been involved in NCR in positions overseeing newsgathering and opinion writing
for more than 26 years. Taking my leave of the editor's spot this year, I found
myself wishing that I could, all at once, tear back the curtain on the operation
and bring you behind the scenes.
I wish you could be in on the hours of discussions, of in-house conversation about
story ideas, approaches to stories, discussions of ethics and fairness, hours of
vetting, legal and otherwise, required to bring that tough reporting to the page.
Often, what you eventually read in a matter of minutes, stories flush with detail
and multiple points of view, has taken weeks and even months to compile.
We love the accolades that follow and appreciate the occasional "You call yourselves
Catholic? Cancel my subscription!" because it all means we're doing our work.
But that work -- the stuff you tell us you had not known before or would never
had known had you not been reading NCR -- that work takes people, talented people,
reporters and editors and lots of time and care. In short, it takes money.
"Free and responsible." We work to be responsible to the reporting. We retain our
freedom because of your support, so many people from so many different spots around
the U.S. and the rest of the globe.
This is a strange time, one in which change is occurring and accelerating even
as we're all staying put. It's a time that especially requires diligent and responsible
reporting. Please, during this Spring Fund Drive, help us however you can: make
a one-time donation [[link removed]]
or become a member for $5 a month [[link removed]].
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Gratefully,
Tom Roberts
Executive Editor
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During the Spring Fund Drive, we ask everyone who receives NCR news emails for support.
If you've already contributed, thank you! If you prefer to not receive emails from
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