Tom Roberts was NCR executive editor from October 2018 through April 2020. Tom was NCR editor from 2000-2008. He is the author of The Emerging Catholic Church: A Community's Search for Itself (2011) and Joan Chittister: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith (2015), both published by Orbis Books.
Commentary
Wealthy conservative Catholics are the new US magisterium
Commentary: A wealthy network that puts forth a peculiarly American version of Catholicism has far more influence than U.S. bishops have in shaping the image and purpose of the church in the wider culture.
Commentary
A tragic end to the US bishops' long descent into partisan politics
Essay: With one more wager, the chance to win it all, the bishops placed all they had on Trump, on this unstable gadfly whose propensity to smash democratic norms just might yield the Supreme Court they desired.
Commentary
McCarrick report is one small step to dismantling clerical culture
Commentary: Pope John Paul II's actions in the McCarrick report warrant condemnation today. Yet the report establishes that what he did was not extraordinary at the time; it was expected within the culture.
Reporter recalls rocky friendship with Fr. Theodore Hesburgh
Fr. Theodore Hesburgh knew for some time that among the appreciations and reflections following his death would surface one quite different from all the rest.
