UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Thomas C. Fox | Jan. 18, 2016
The call came 36 years ago this month. It was the always-scheming Arthur Jones. He said he would be in Washington, wanted to sit down at the National Press Club over lunch. Jones was NCR editor; I was then an editor at The Washington Star. I’d written for NCR over the years and always enjoyed Jones’ edgy journalism style.
We had corresponded over the years and had met once, in Rome, during the conclave following Pope Paul VI’s death in 1978. He was there for NCR; I, for the Detroit Free Press, where I was a reporter before coming to the Star.
Over lunch at the Press Club in January 1980, Jones asked if I might consider coming to Kansas City, Mo., as NCR editor. As I had just come to Washington 18 months before, I told him the timing was bad.
He was persistent. Two months later, he called again. “There’s no other journalism position in America with the freedom and satisfaction of NCR editor,” he again said. Would I consider coming to Kansas City, just to look around?
Well, you know where this story went. …
And, of course, in June 1985, we began coverage of the clergy sex abuse tragedy. Alone for years, we were persistent and faced much ecclesial and social pressures. Jones, and later editors Tom Roberts and Dennis Coday, have stayed the course, much to their credit.
Countless other reports, exposés and features have filled NCR’s pages over the years. The late 1990s and early 2000s were years of editorial transition, from print to electronic. It has meant our reporting has gotten much faster, our reach farther. We have gone from weekly to hourly, from national to global.
And in the past two years, we’ve added Global Sisters Report to our editorial repertoire. It has been a creative source of energy within the company, highlighting some of the best work going on in the church today.
Oh, the rich memories.
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