Joshua J. McElwee
Joshua J. McElwee was NCR's news editor from 2021-24. He was previously the publication's Vatican correspondent from 2014-21, where his dispatches from Rome and during papal trips abroad were frequently cited by his peers, and broadly seen as a touchstone for nuanced Vatican and papal coverage.
Among McElwee's most noted work was his years-long, tenacious coverage of Pope Francis' clergy abuse commission, which through a series of exclusive interviews with ex-members of the group revealed serious shortcomings to its work.
McElwee was also the first journalist to break the news of Pope Francis' promise during a meeting with an international group of sisters and nuns in 2016 to create a commission to study the history of the ordination of women as deacons in the Catholic Church.
McElwee reported for NCR from 39 countries and traveled for the publication in the press pool abroad with Pope Francis 24 times.
By this Author
Francis cries out for welcoming church: ‘House of God refuge, not prison’
Cardinal: Pope telling clergy to ‘lower themselves,’ forget money
Philly’s Chaput, Africa’s Sarah among 15 bishops to plan next Synod
Francis suggests Lutherans might discern taking Catholic communion individually
Pope: Religious justification for Paris attacks 'blasphemy,' love of neighbor needed
Francis condemns Paris attacks as 'inhuman,' Vatican says world needs mercy
Francis: Lay people not ‘second class’ members of Catholic church
Francis laments 'cancer' of worker exploitation in Italian immigrant town
Catholicism can and must change, Francis forcefully tells Italian church gathering
Global women religious leader asks sisters to do synod’s unfinished work
Francis closes synod warning against spirituality that ignores people’s struggles
Synod offers striking softening to remarried, proposing individual discernment
Drafting committee cardinal: Synod will not provide Communion path for remarried
Cardinal: Synod's final document doesn't give answers, but lays out questions
Rwandan bishop carries special concerns to synod in Rome
German synod group outlines Communion path for remarried Catholics
Indian cardinal at synod: Church needs 'new way of being' amidst suffering
