From the Editor's Desk

What we're all about

My hope for the next few months is to share with you more about NCR: who we are, what we think and why we do what we do. As editor-in-chief, I work with the day-to-day concerns of the editorial staff. But as publisher, I take more time to study the broad questions of mission and NCR’s understanding of itself. It’s true, we are a newspaper and our operations are rather conventional and not unlike most publishing organizations. But upon deeper reflection, we carry out our work based on what we think serves you best. It isn’t just about news and information; it’s also about the methodology we use to present this information.

For instance, NCR offers its readers a spectrum of editorials and opinions by columnists who reflect on and often challenge current ideas in the church and public life. We don’t necessarily agree with everything we print. Yet, we have confidence in the value of this approach. NCR calls upon its readers to suspend, if only for the space of reading time, preconceived judgments. We do not ask our readers to put aside their beliefs; rather, we ask that they be willing to hold them up for conscious exploration. An unexamined worldview cannot sustain the surprises of a divine creation.

We believe that dialogue is a social phenomenon of shared exploration of ideas. We seek out perspectives from our readers -- encouraging an exchange that has shaped the NCR Letters section since its early years. Perhaps you noticed the change on our back page, which holds our editorials. We’ve begun to put some of our reader’s letters there as well. Your opinion is as much a part of this process as ours.

Listening is also an essential characteristic of this dialogue. The challenge NCR sets for itself is choosing to be in dialogue with just about everybody -- a daunting task, but indispensable in a world and church so full of suffering, abuse of power and failure to care for the most vulnerable. NCR’s job is to listen for the larger meaning emerging from open and honest sharing within the community we serve.

Our goal is to tell the stories of Catholic men and women living in relationship to everything around them. Through its feature narratives, NCR focuses more deeply on individual lives to better comprehend the meaning that moves us at the soul’s level. It is by entering the world of the other that we equip ourselves to find solutions to today’s human crises.

NCR’s commitment to dialogue is a commitment to collective inquiry. None of us has the whole truth. We appreciate the rich diversity of perceptions that make up the landscape of knowledge. We believe that dialogue is an effective means to counter negativity, prejudice and fanaticism.

NCR is a group of journalists who are members of a community they feel passionately about. NCR reports, but it also invites others into the stories it tells. NCR believes deeply that dialogue creates a culture of cooperation to address the problems we face. It moves us from a church and world of hierarchical structures, competition and exclusion, to a sphere of increased collaboration, partnership and inclusion.

You may write me at either of my e-mail addresses: rita@ncronline.org or ritalarivee@ncronline.org.

-- Sr. Rita Larivee, SSA

National Catholic Reporter, July 6, 2007