"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

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.

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 or become a member for $5 a month.

Gratefully,