A note from Tom Fox, NCR editor

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.

Under a lot of stress the last few years due to health reasons, I took careless shortcuts in some of my writing, and was not careful with attributions. I am deeply sorry and apologize to NCR’s board, to my colleagues and my readers. It’s been a joy to report on and present many of the efforts Catholics are making here and around the world in healing the Earth’s life-support systems for future generations, in caring for the poor and in exploring and re-imagining the church’s spiritual treasures and making them available to all. May our lives continue to be Spirit-filled and God-haunted.

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.

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