Copy Desk Daily, July 17, 2020

Our team of copy editors reads and posts most of what you see on the websites for National Catholic Reporter, Global Sisters Report and EarthBeat. The Copy Desk Daily highlights recommended news and opinion articles that have crossed our desks on their way to you.

Latest Flannery O'Connor film a seamless, aesthetic portrait of writer's life: "A new documentary, 'Flannery,' co-directed by Elizabeth Coffman and Jesuit Fr. Mark Bosco, explores many aspects of the life of this writer from Georgia, whose gift lay in her ability to find the 'freaks' among us and make them revealers of the mystery of grace. These characters mark her work, just as the grotesque marks them."

Leadership Roundtable calls for new financial standards for church: "A new report by Leadership Roundtable recommends establishing national standards for financial management for dioceses across the United States, along with an annual, publicly shared audit of financial policies and practices," reports national correspondent Christopher White. "It also calls for the church to invest in more training and support for young adults interested in ministry."

Editorial: Our inside-out bishops need to look outward again. We say that the U.S. bishops' conference has been flatfooted when it comes to addressing the persistence of racial injustices in this country, epitomized by the murder of George Floyd.

Faith leaders rebuke Trump's rollback of major environmental law: NCR staff writer Brian Roewe reports, "Faith leaders criticized final rules issued this week from the Trump administration to limit federal environmental reviews, arguing that they ignore 'bedrock' purposes of environmental protection and will limit input from the communities most affected by major infrastructure and energy projects."

Cardinal Dolan, George Weigel and the fraudulence of the neocon project: "The Dolan-endorsed Weigel vision for the Catholic Church was always driven as much — or more — by political as theological concerns."

Your thoughts on Catholic voters for Trump: Readers respond to NCR's recent editorial "That Trump can still sway some Catholic voters is a real scandal."