Tom Roberts

Tom Roberts was NCR executive editor from October 2018 through April 2020. Tom was NCR editor from 2000-2008. He is the author of The Emerging Catholic Church: A Community's Search for Itself (2011) and Joan Chittister: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith (2015), both published by Orbis Books.

By this Author

Wooden blocks displaying letters spell out the word "wisdom." (Unsplash/Alex Shute)

Dec 18, 2024

Risking the Questions podcast: Engaging the world and traditions beyond the monastery

Listen: In this episode Sr. Joan Chittister describes how she came to understand the significance of other traditions. Her understanding of the world's wisdom carries practical implications for each of us.

A woman sits outside with her hands folded on top of an open book, possibly a bible. (Unsplash/Olivia Snow)

Dec 11, 2024

Risking the Questions podcast: Women and the Catholic Church

Listen: Sr. Joan Chittister still feels the negative effects of being a woman in the Catholic Church, but she also thinks on many levels and in society, things have changed for the better.

Dec 04, 2024

Risking the Questions podcast: The earliest struggles

Childhood memories became a significant force behind Sr. Joan Chittister's relentless advocacy for women in all circumstances, in the church, in society, across cultures.

A person stands on top of a sand dune, with sunlight coming from the left of the photo.(Unsplash/NOEM)

Nov 20, 2024

Risking the Questions podcast: Struggle as the pathway to hope

Listen: Sister Joan recounts an incident of struggle in her early life and the lifelong insights that emerged from it.

Katie Gordon, left, and Benedictine Sisters Jacqueline Sanchez-Small and Val Luckey, are pictured during now-Sister Sanchez-Small's first profession ceremony with the Benedictine community of Erie, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 13, 2021. (CNS/Courtesy of Global Sisters Report/Katie Gordon)

Nov 06, 2024

Risking the Questions Podcast: The old and new meet

Listen: Sr. Joan Chittister talks with Sr. Valerie Luckey, a 36-year-old who entered the Erie Benedictines in 2016. The two provide a look at where tradition sparks and a new, engaging future emerges.

Benedictine nuns are pictured in 1900 before the completion of St. Anthony's Hospital in Bemidji, Minn. The image appeared in a 2011 documentary titled "Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America," which chronicled the 300-year contribution of U.S. women religious. (CNS/Courtesy Benedictines of Duluth)

Oct 30, 2024

Risking the Questions podcast: Religious life isn't dead. It is changing.

Listen: The much smaller and aging corps of women religious may suggest that this way of religious life is over. "Wrong," says Sr. Joan Chittister, in episode 3 of her podcast, "Risking the Questions."

Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister and former NCR editor Tom Roberts record the podcast "Risking the Questions." (Benetvision/Jacqueline Small)

Oct 23, 2024

Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister is 'Risking the Questions' in a new podcast

Listen: Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister has a reputation as one who dares to ask big, bold questions. Explore them with her in this podcast conversation with her friend and biographer, former NCR editor Tom Roberts.

Benedictine St. Mary Lou Kownacki in 2018 (Courtesy of Benedictine Sisters of Erie)

Jan 09, 2023

Sr. Mary Lou Kownacki, Benedictine, peace activist and Joan Chittister's 'muse,' dies

Benedictine Sr. Mary Lou Kownacki, a major force behind the ministries and outreach that shaped the Benedictines of Erie, Pennsylvania, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, died Jan. 6 at age 81.