NCR Connections

Executive editor Heidi Schlumpf aims to help readers understand how recent news stories fit together. NCR Connections will provide guideposts and markers to help lead readers through key issues and stories.

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, records his address Nov. 12 to be delivered to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' fall meeting Nov. 16, the first day of the two-day virtual meeting. The address was recorded in th

The media is not the church's enemy

by Heidi Schlumpf

Dec 3, 2020

NCR Connections: The bishops, collectively at least, also have a history of blaming the media, most notably when journalists uncovered sexual abuse of children and the related coverup by bishops.

Setting the record straight on NCR and McCarrick coverage

by Heidi Schlumpf

Nov 20, 2020

NCR Connections: As NCR editor, I can assure you that my job is to pursue the truth, not "sell the news." And in the journalistic ethical tradition, we protect sources from the powerful, not the powerful themselves.

Tom Fox at his desk in 2018 (NCR photo/Toni-Ann Ortiz)

A lifelong example of the kind of journalist we need

by Heidi Schlumpf

Nov 5, 2020

NCR Connections: Throughout his career, Tom Fox has never been afraid to write, publish or defend the tough story. We at NCR aspire to live up to his lifelong example as he retires — for the third time.

People are seen at an early voting site in Fairfax, Virginia, Sept. 18. (CNS/Reuters/Al Drago)

Asking for a friend: Can a Catholic vote for Biden?

by Heidi Schlumpf, Bill Mitchell

Oct 22, 2020

NCR Connections: As a friendly reminder — and for suggested sharing — we offer this roundup of recent helpful articles and columns that counter the narrative that to be Catholic means you must vote Republican and for Donald Trump.

Columns ›

The media is not the church's enemy

Setting the record straight on NCR and McCarrick coverage

A lifelong example of the kind of journalist we need

Asking for a friend: Can a Catholic vote for Biden?

Catholic Church must reject its anti-Black misogyny

The church needs 'notorious' women willing to dissent, too

Be not afraid: Is safety a Christian virtue?

First, lasts and heeding the coronavirus realities

A fix for your late-arriving NCR — and a welcome to a new staffer

Disagreeing without being disagreeable

AOC is the future of the Catholic Church

The problems with papal politicking

Paying the price for anti-racism work

The debate about debate

White people, let's do our homework

Editorial independence in Catholic media is critical

When church leaders sound like presidential apologists

A good place, a strange moment

Coping with the pandemic's effect at NCR

Join us for a virtual Triduum observance

Still, we find ways to connect

Leadership Roundtable brings a dose of reality to the church

Points of hope against disturbances in the neighborhood

A way out of the US bishops' tight ideological and partisan corner

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