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Welcome to Tuesday. More than a quarter of U.S. dioceses do not publish any audited financial reports, according to an annual report from Voice of the Faithful. The pope plans to go to Iraq in March. And it's the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
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** Annual report: Some US dioceses improve financial transparency, others remain secretive ([link removed])
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More U.S. dioceses published audited financial documents in 2020 than before, but more than a quarter still did not publish any audited financial reports, according to an annual financial transparency report by the lay organization Voice of the Faithful.

Margaret Roylance, chair of the organization's finance working group, said she was heartened to see that many dioceses published these reports on time despite delays due to COVID-19.

"We felt that financial transparency was beating COVID and that made us feel good," she said.

The Voice of the Faithful report, released in November, surveys the financial practices of all 177 dioceses that belong to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It also scores dioceses' financial transparency practices on a scale from 0 to 100.

Read Madeleine Davison's article about the annual report here. ([link removed])
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** Here's how Catholics can help revitalize democracy during the next four years ([link removed])
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Polarization did not end with the election of Joe Biden. And this polarization is helping to fuel the enmity that has fractured any sense of unity among the people of the United States, says commentary writer Robert Christian.

Although it will not be easy to reduce the tension, distrust and aggression in American politics, Christian has four concrete steps for Catholics to help the country move forward together.

We journalists especially like the first: "Be careful consumers of media."

Read Christian's three other suggestions here ([link removed]) .

More background:
* Some U.S. bishops plan to try to collaborate with a Biden administration ([link removed]) , choosing to focus on areas of shared cause rather than on disagreements with the second Catholic president in U.S. history.
* In thinking about how our country can move forward after four years of the chaos and destruction of democratic norms wrought by President Donald Trump, NCR editors call for a "truth commission ([link removed]) " to at least attempt to name what went wrong.

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** More headlines
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* Honduras has experienced two hurricanes in less than three weeks, two tropical storms and now a series of rainy cold fronts expected to last until February. At Earthbeat ([link removed]) , Lizz Mejía Raudales reports on how the damage, combined with the economic and health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, could set the country back 20 years.

* Columnist Fr. Peter Daly personally locked horns with former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2002, when he publicly told McCarrick that there was no accountability in the Dallas Charter for cardinals and bishops. "He told me to sit down and shut up," writes Daly. After reading the McCarrick report, now Daly knows why. Read his entire column here ([link removed]) .

* ICYMI: After a year-long suspension of papal travel, the Vatican announced ([link removed]) yesterday that Pope Francis plans to visit Iraq in March 2021.

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Final thoughts

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Columnist Michael Sean Winters likes to share his favorite classical music videos and today appropriately has a piece of his favorite Marian music ([link removed]) .


Until Wednesday,

Heidi Schlumpf (filling in for Stephanie Yeagle)
NCR Executive Editor
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Twitter: @HeidiSchlumpf



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