 |
Dear Reader,
Growing up Catholic on Detroit's Eastside, my family's life was ordered by the calendars of our parish and Roman Catholic Church. I attended Catholic schools, became an altar boy, was active in CYO sports (Catholic Youth Organization), read the Michigan Catholic newspaper and then spent a year at Sacred Heart Seminary. Later in life, I drifted away from the church but always with an open eye to returning.
Years later, a close friend gifted me a subscription to the National Catholic Reporter. It was filled with thoughtful and generous opinions about the church's good works as well as constructive ideas about long overdue change. I liked what I was reading. NCR had the courage to challenge the church on its lack of transparency and its bows to clericalism, a challenge I found refreshing and needed.
 NCR has continued that independent tradition today. Its reporters, columnists and editors have the autonomy and latitude to follow newsworthy stories that are controversial without the need to answer to a hierarchical church bureaucracy. NCR was early in pursuing and reporting stories of sexual abuses by clerics and their cover-up by bishops. Their journalists were not afraid to speak truth to power.
As the sexual abuse scandals expanded over three-plus decades, NCR was there to expose the leadership vacuums within the church and its disgusting underbelly that perpetuated these abominations that so grievously wounded its victims. At the same time, NCR balanced its coverage of the church reminding its readers of the everyday heroics of lay and religious Catholics who were being tarred with the sins of the abusers and those who protected them.
NCR reminds us who the church is today. It's the brave nuns, lay nurses and doctors who are putting their lives on the line fighting the coronavirus in our hospitals while caring for the sick and dying. The church is Catholic sisters, brothers, priests and lay workers who are caring for refugees all over the globe including the U.S.-Mexican border. The church is parishes like St. John Vianney in southern Maryland that developed a large food pantry, a prison ministry and has taken parishioners to Mississippi and Central America to build housing for the poor and homeless. The former pastor who led these efforts is an NCR columnist, Fr. Peter Daly.
I am drawn back to the church by NCR and Pope Francis. His papacy of mercy and justice stand in marked contrast to world leaders in these dark and difficult days. I believe Francis has put the church on a path of recovery. But that recovery needs to embrace all Catholics as the church moves forward -- especially women. Men of quality do not fear equality. I am proud that NCR values women like executive editor Heidi Schlumpf, columnist Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister and the sisters highlighted in the informative Global Sisters Report.
My colleague on the board, Teresa Marie Cariño, said it best. "NCR has built a community through its reporting and personal interactions. It is a community of Catholics who love the church and who call her to be better. It is a community of Catholics that exemplifies the best of what it means to be a universal and apostolic church. I invite you to become part of this community that holds up diverse voices within the church that reports from the margins, and demonstrates all the different ways to be Catholic. I invite you to become part of this community and support the honest and important reporting NCR provides. I invite you to be a part of the change."
|
Gratefully,
David Bonior
NCR Board Director
Former US House Majority and Minority Whip
|
We have a matching grant challenge! An anonymous donor pledged to match the next $5,000 that comes in. Donate now and your contribution will be doubled!
|
|
|
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 NCR, please unsubscribe using the link below.
|
|
|
|
