With Gratitude to the HERALD during Catholic Press Month

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 2/24/05)

Each week a team of just over a dozen works tirelessly to bring the Good News to the doorsteps of the Catholic flock in Arlington, numbered at just under 400,000. It is a truism that the most familiar and common aspects of life are the ones we take most for granted, and this can be said of the weekly compendium of well-written, timely, informative, provocative and inspiring news which the HERALD staff delivers to our doorsteps. We would do well during "Catholic Press Month" to pause and express a heartfelt sense of gratitude to the staff of the Arlington Catholic HERALD. They have done and continue to do yeoman’s work.

This year, the HERALD looks back at 29 years of faithful — indeed, weekly — service to our diocesan Church. As Bishop Thomas J. Welsh said of the HERALD’s founding in 1975, "This (the HERALD) was one unifying aspect to help us here as the Diocese of Arlington. … Where are they [the members of the diocese] going to find out what the moral principals are if we don’t give that to them? We need some place where, in a concise fashion, the truth can be expressed."

In our media-saturated culture, the members of our diocese can be grateful for the distinct type of news which our HERALD provides: a type of news which, as former Bishop Welsh said, serves as a unifying aspect and as a conveyer of the truth and of our moral principals. Without it our life as a diocesan Church would lack a critical, unifying medium in our participation in the new evangelization.

Our Holy Father has encouraged journalists in what he calls their "sacred task": " … it [journalism] must be regarded in a certain sense as a ‘sacred task,’… to be carried out with the awareness that the powerful means of communication are entrusted to you for the common good and, in particular, for the good of society’s weakest groups: from children to the poor, from the sick to those who are marginalized or discriminated against." Our Holy Father continues, "The Church and the media must walk together in their service to the human family" (Speech 6/4/00).

I join the many readers of the HERALD in commending the HERALD staff to our Lord in prayer for what truly is a sacred task, a vocation in service of the truth of the Gospel to the human family. Your work has and will continue to bear much fruit. In the past year alone, the HERALD received 10 awards for excellence in numerous areas from the Catholic Press Association, including layout, editorial and advertising.

We are truly blessed to have one of the top diocesan papers in the country at our service, and I thank HERALD Editor Michael Flach, Managing Editor Ann Augherton and all the staff members for their dedication, perseverance and creativity. May God continue the good work He has begun in each one of you and through you for the building up of our entire diocesan Church by the service you provide through the HERALD.

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