UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Caitlin Hendel | Jul. 6, 2015 NCR Today
Editor Dennis Coday is in Buffalo, N.Y., for the Catholic Press Association’s annual conference. In his absence, I agreed to write this column, always willing to take advantage of a good opportunity to promote what we do here at NCR.
Dennis and his team made it especially easy for me this week.
Let’s start with Pope Francis’ historic encyclical, released June 18, “Laudato Si’, Care for our common home.” What you’re seeing here in this edition of National Catholic Reporter represents a culmination of months’ worth of work, preparing for the much-anticipated letter, followed by dozens of news stories and analytical pieces that began with the unofficial leak of an Italian draft of the document on Monday, June 15. …
And, unlike what you’ll find with many other publications, NCR hopes to continue the conversation on the encyclical, on climate change and its effect on the poor, and on the role of the church and of Catholics around the world in heeding Francis’ call “for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it.”
Speaking of enduring (sadly so) conversations, it’s been 30 years since National Catholic Reporter ran Jason Berry’s monumental story of Gilbert Gauthe, a Louisiana priest whose years of sexual abuse of boys — and the lack of interest among supervisory clergy in dealing with him — led to a $4 million-plus settlement with the victims’ families.
“These are serious and damaging matters that have victimized the young and innocent,” NCR said in an essay that opened its multipage package in the June 7, 1985, issue. “But a related and broader scandal seemingly rests with local bishops and a national episcopal leadership that has, as yet, no set policy on how to respond to those cases.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.