Beacon of Justice, Community, and Hope: How NCR has sustained independent journalism from Vatican II to Pope Francis

Discover the 60-year history of the National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company, sustaining NCR's commitment to covering the nation, the world, the Catholic Church, and the Catholic faith. From the Second Vatican Council through the era of Pope Francis, this nonprofit has served as the leading independent Catholic news source reporting on the church's involvement in war and peace, ecojustice, and cultural issues worldwide.

Lawrence Guillot's history also is the story of one in five Americans who identify as Catholic, more than 50 million people whose lives have been shaped by the world's largest Christian denomination. Starting with reporting on the dramatic changes ushered in by Vatican II that affected every Catholic parish in the world, this book tells the story of courageous journalists who banded together to report on those often-turbulent waves of modernization. The story focuses on the huge challenges, some nearly fatal to the publishing company, that they had to overcome to keep the presses rolling and, today, to keep the NCR's extensive online and multimedia offerings rolling onto the internet.

And, in telling that story, this book offers a history of the Catholic Church as it passed through one of the most vibrant and consequential periods in its history and continues to serve its nearly 1.4-billion baptized members today.

In praising the book, author, journalist, and filmmaker Paul Wilkes says: "As we travel through 60 years of the National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company in this book, we witness fearless reporting on church and society as no other publication could or would achieve. NCR proved to be the one place to go for not only unbiased coverage of the Catholic church, but for social justice reporting throughout the world. Its reporters and editors roamed the nation and the world to bring back stories that provided not just news but the informed analysis we needed to understand the tumultuous changes we all were going through. ... Reading this book, you will realize there is no other publication like it. ... The book is a testimony to how NCR not only stirs our minds but nurtures our faith as well."

NCR Editor and Publisher Emeritus Thomas C. Fox writes, "Over the decades, I've heard it repeatedly from readers and supporters: 'NCR gives me hope.' No other remark gives me such satisfaction. As a trusted source of information and a community of open-minded, idealistic believers, NCR offers hope, a virtue without which life becomes dull and depressing. ... As I look to the future I see young activists adding to the imagination of what it means to be Catholic. Shaped in a new era with enormous challenges, they are writing the next chapter of the church. It will be different and authentic. ... As I write this, I feel their energy. I have witnessed their spirit. It is with gratitude and hope I look to the future."