Kevin Schweers, a parishioner of St. Rita Church in Alexandria,
joined the Arlington diocese as the executive editor of content in February. In
this role, he oversees the editorial, business and advertising operations of
the Catholic Herald, the diocese’s biweekly print
and online publication. The new position was created following the departure of
Editor Mike Flach, who retired in 2020 after working at the Catholic Herald for
37 years.
Schweers said, “I’m looking forward to taking the incredible work
that the Catholic Herald and its staff already do
and identifying ways to even further grow awareness of it and better connect
(the paper) to all the parishes around the diocese.”
Previously, Schweers served in a number of senior communications
management roles in both the public and private sectors over the course of 25
years. He first moved to the Washington area to work for his hometown
congressman, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, after graduating from the
University of Georgia in Athens. He spent 10 years working on Capitol Hill in
both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.
Schweers later held senior positions with the National Community
Pharmacists Association, where his responsibilities included overseeing
publication of a monthly magazine and various e-newsletters. Most recently, he
was the senior vice president of communications for the Export-Import Bank of
the United States, an independent, federal agency that facilitates the export
of U.S. goods through the provision of financing options when private lending
is unavailable.
Schweers and his wife, Maureen, live in Alexandria with their
five children who attend St. Rita School and Bishop Ireton High School, both in
Alexandria.
Over the past several years, Schweers, a lifelong Catholic, began
looking for opportunities to work for the church. “I’ve felt more of a calling
and an interest to support the church if my skill set and experience lent
themselves to do so in an impactful and fulfilling way,” he said. “That’s been
in the back of my mind and I think that’s what led me here.”
During the same time period, he experienced a renewed
appreciation for the role of the Catholic press, particularly the Catholic Herald. “I feel as though there’s a growing
dichotomy in the secular media where you’ve got two political camps, and a lot
of the media either actively pursued or found themselves drawn to one of those
two camps,” he said. “As a result, it’s getting harder to find quality media
coverage and attention to both the Catholic Church specifically as well as
issues of import to practicing Catholics. With regards specifically to the Catholic Herald, I’ve found more and more of a refuge,
really, in terms of its coverage and presentation of issues that are important
to Catholics in this region.”
Schweers also sees the Catholic Herald’s
print product as an enjoyable escape from a digital world. “A lot of your
average parishioners, even if they’ve made a shift to mostly get their news
online, it just can be a bombarding and overwhelming experience for the
consumer, and I think it’s refreshing for people to get a regular, steady
presence in print,” he said. “I’m somebody who probably consumed more media
than most because of my past work, (and) it became increasingly comforting and
fulfilling to have a resource like the Catholic Herald,
where on a Saturday morning I could flip through and catch up on what’s
happening in my church and in my diocese. That was not something I was finding
anywhere else out there.”
Going forward, Schweers hopes to let readers know that the Catholic Herald has a dedicated team that is eager and
ready to tell the faith stories of the diocese. “It’s an amazing diocese, the Catholic Herald is an incredible publication and I’m
extremely grateful and humbled at the opportunity that Bishop (Michael F.)
Burbidge, Chief Communications Officer Billy Atwell and the team here have
afforded me.”
