Inside
NCR
One of the consistently distinctive
elements of the National Catholic Reporter is its letters section. It is
your letters that make it clear this is no ordinary newspaper.
The community that gathers around NCR -- agreeing and
disagreeing, complimenting and calling us to account -- understands that to be
an adult, thinking Catholic in today’s world often means seeing that world
through a different lens. It means asking difficult questions. It means honing
a moral perspective. It often means not going along with the prevailing
thinking.
We think that’s a proper attitude for a publication that, at
its core, celebrates the mystery of hope, faith and love that entered the world
two millennia ago and proceeded to turn the world on its head.
Your letters have never been more appreciated than in recent
months as we have struggled to ask the difficult questions and to provide
alternative perspectives on world events. Your notes, phone calls and e-mails,
some for print and others private, more numerous than usual, have told us
repeatedly that you appreciate NCR’s “difference.” Your
critiques -- and they have been and will be printed -- have pressed us to
consider a broader range of arguments. Most often, though, you have said that
you are grateful that we take the time to look beneath the cries that urge us
to war, that we take the time to examine the roots of violence in ourselves,
our nation and the wider world. You have thanked us for pressing an examination
of what patriotism means in times like these.
Our intent all along has been to try
to ask the questions that get tossed aside in the military fervor of the
moment. We have tried to use the moment to go over some history and to seek out
experts for interpretation of that history that so often gets left out of sound
bites and the arguments of ubiquitous talk TV. Throughout the coverage of
recent weeks, we have heard that one of the grievances some Arabs hold against
the United States is the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. So we asked
the simple question: Why do we have troops there and what are the implications
for international relations? The answers aren’t simple, but they are
lucidly documented in a thoroughly reported story by Margot Patterson on Page
3.
First there was the end of the Cold
War, and the world shifted. Now there’s a new war on international
terrorism, and the world shifts again. We’re just beginning to try to
figure out what it all means. The essays on Pages 11 and 12 seemed a good fit,
a look at the long-range implications of those big shifts, as well as the
immediate response to the Sept. 11 acts of terrorism. The essays are also a
reminder that the contributions of Catholic institutions and Catholic thought
to the current important conversation is incalculable and extends well beyond
the big-name places that get lots of print. The conversation is going on in
countless small universities tucked away in communities across the country,
places like Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Mo., and DeSales University in
Center Valley, Pa.
These are daunting times, weighted
suddenly with issues that we’d rather not think about and consequences
that are dreadful. We all need an occasional break. If you haven’t been
able to get away yourself, join Arthur Jones on page 28, for a delightful
weekend and a look at things with new eyes.
-- Tom Roberts
My e-mail address is troberts@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, October 19,
2001
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