Secular foundation grants $2.3 million to National Catholic Reporter to provide publicity for women religious

August 23, 2013

The Conrad Hilton Foundation has awarded a $2.3 million grant to the National Catholic Reporter to establish as “global sisters’ net,” providing “greater voice to countless Catholic sisters around the globe.”

The grant to the National Catholic Reporter-- a newspaper with a long history of dissent from Catholic teaching—comes at a time when women religious in the United States are under Vatican scrutiny. Annette Lomont, the chairman of the board for the Reporter, said: “We’ve been standing with sisters from the beginning, and I consider the grant encouragement to go on telling their stories.”

The Reporter explained that the grant would be used to set up a network of journalists who will write about the work of women religious, and to help the sister develop their own publicity plans.

In January Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri—the diocese in which the newspaper is located—said that the National Catholic Reporter should not identify itself as a “Catholic” publication. Bishop Finn pointed out that in 1968 his predecessor, Bishop Charles Helmsing, had ordered the editors of the Reporter to remove the word “Catholic” from the title of the publication. The editors refused.

 

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Further information:

• NCR receives Hilton Foundation grant for coverage of sisters (National Catholic Reporter)
• National Catholic Reporter's $2.3 million grant to cover religious sisters (CNA)
• Bishop confirms National Catholic Reporter is not a 'Catholic' publication (CWN, 1/25)