It recently came to my attention that staff writer Rich Heffern, in the course of writing some of his columns, cut and pasted paragraphs from other Web sites, without proper attributions. Plain and simple, this is unacceptable journalism; it’s called plagiarism. We spoke together and went through some painful discernment before I accepted Heffern’s resignation. I offered him the opportunity to share some parting thoughts with NCR readers.
Rich has been a valued part of the NCR staff on and off since 1984. He has been the chief contributor to the Eco Catholic Blog since it was launched a year ago. His spiritual reflections, rich and visionary, will weigh mightily despite lapses in judgment he has made.