NCR Connections

Executive editor Tom Roberts 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.

Pedestrians walking along Mississippi Avenue March 18 in Portland, Oregon, could see this handwritten message that acknowledged people are frightened amid the coronavirus pandemic but encouraged them to be kind to one another. (CNS/Reuters)

Still, we find ways to connect

by Tom Roberts

Mar 20, 2020

NCR Connections: The paradoxes pile up today. We're forced to understand our common humanity, an understanding made possible technologically as never before. Yet we are forced to stay away from one another.

Leadership Roundtable brings a dose of reality to the church

by Tom Roberts

Mar 11, 2020

It is noteworthy that a lay organization can fill a hotel ballroom in Washington with a mix of people, including members of the hierarchy, for frank dialogue about the church and the abuse crisis.

Points of hope against disturbances in the neighborhood

by Tom Roberts

Feb 28, 2020

NCR Connections: Given the headlines of recent weeks, our stories that you've spent so much time with, I think it is safe to say we've lived with a numbing number of disturbances outside our door.

Franciscan friars and their supporters hold signs aloft outside of the security barrier where U.S. President Donald Trump spoke at the March for Life in Washington Jan. 24. (CNS/Courtesy of Lonnie Ellis)

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

by Tom Roberts

Feb 11, 2020

NCR Connections: Recent talks by McElroy and Cupich model communication that starts with the belief that God is active in the lives of people and that well-formed Catholic consciences deserve respect.

Columns ›

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

Trump seals his Catholic deal

Use of wide-open location data, closed-door meetings hurt Catholics

Vulnerability as strength: Keenan's key to dismantling clericalism

NCR wishes you a light-filled Christmas

Thomas Doyle traces the disintegration of clerical/hierarchical culture

The Amazon synod shows the way forward for the US church

Presenting NCR's EarthBeat

On capitalism, women, the Amazon — a world of Catholic conversations

Francis takes John Paul II's 'Be not afraid!' to new levels

Cokie Roberts: trailblazing journalist, Catholic citizen, 'the real deal'

It's not about ethics, it's about how we imagine God

Cardinal-elect was a Francis bishop before Francis

Polls can't capture our understanding of the Eucharist

'Both sides' is a lie that enables white nationalism, threatens Latinos

Look for lay involvement that transcends the ideological divide

A sense of in between

NCR receives top honors from the Catholic Press Association

New ways of being church, in the public square and in the chanceries

Cycles of coverage, clerical culture, generational trends

Hierarchy and the need for a 'culture of vulnerability'

Pages