NCR Editorial Staff

The coronavirus threat has stopped us in our tracks and is forcing fundamental questions about who we are and what we will become, about what our communities of faith mean in a time of lockdown and quarantine.

The reality, easily observable, is that most of the service in the church, especially in the form of ministry and teaching, is done by women. The power to decide resides almost exclusively with ordained men.

We say: March 2020 may go down as the month that turned our world on its head, or at least made us think more about the precariousness of the ordinary and the power of the unseen.

We say: The church owes Archbishop John Wester and Bishop Steven Biegler a debt of gratitude for going on the record against anonymous accounts that claim Pope Francis called Jesuit Fr. James Martin to task over his ministry to LGBT Catholics.

We say: The undertaking was daunting from the start and disappointing in some respects at the end; compared to what went before, though, we prefer the new pathway that Pope Francis has opened.

In recent weeks, the courts rendered decisions in two cases involving First Amendment guarantees of the free exercise of religion. We agree with both decisions, but deplore one of the outcomes.

It's reasonable to feel that the U.S. Senate's failure to convict President Donald Trump is cause for despair. Yet there were heroes in the process, who stepped up for truth at a time when falsehood is the coin of the political realm.

"Remind our senators that they alone are accountable to you for their conduct." Every day, the Senate chaplain would plead to the heavens for courage and integrity. Alas, he got little of both.

We say: Some of the greatest beneficiaries of lay engagement in the post-Vatican II era are the entrepreneurs who understand the advantages of being an individual seller to a captive audience in a top-down organization where the hierarchy is, for all practical purposes, dysfunctional.

For the confidence of the people of God, the abuse charges against Bishop DiMarzio cry out for an investigation. Our problem is with making diocesan neighbor Cardinal Dolan responsible for leading an inquiry.

The U.S. assassination of Qassem Soleimani has occasioned a new round of all-too-familiar rhetoric about enemies deserving of death, even if questions are being raised about the strategy and its fallout.

We say: God in this most vulnerable state has nothing to do with an ecclesiology or a manufactured orthodoxy that trades on privilege, power and deception. 

Editorial: Standing up to Trump has placed House Speaker Pelosi in the brightest of spotlights. But NCR also recognizes her advocating for the poor and migrants, defense of the Constitution, and willingness to demonstrate that faith can be an inspiring force in society.

We say: Despite the displays of disdain for Francis, there should not be anything confusing about this papacy's embrace of those whose lives might fall outside some perceived ideal.

We say: In the short time since the church formalized a process for bishops to investigate other bishops' misconduct, we are finding out that process has had, to put it mildly, its hiccups.

We say: The U.S. bishops probably constitute one of the most resistant episcopal audiences Pope Francis faces in the global church. Nor are they listening to the needs of their flock at home.

We say: Be outraged at President Donald Trump's morally repugnant actions as he pardons war criminals while attacking lifelong patriots who have served this country in a variety of challenging circumstances. 

We say: The no-holds-barred conversation that Pope Francis has introduced in the synod process requires trust and, while stirring up opposition, also raises expectations.

We say: The recent release of nearly 500 inmates from Oklahoma state prisons is a sign of a basic American distrust of one-size-fits-all sentencing with no room for a judge's discretion or compassion.

We say: The Catholic Church in the U.S. is for sale. Money provides individuals and groups entrée to the highest levels of church leadership and affords others an inordinately large say in church affairs.