For 50 years, the Catholic Herald has been more than newsprint and ink, web headlines or social media posts. It’s been a community built on a shared mission of faith. While chronicling historic papal visits, bishop installations and the growth of the Arlington diocese, the true engine of the newspaper has always been its people.
It was late summer when I went to the offices of the Catholic Herald for a job interview. I walked through the front office where two secretaries sat in a cloud of grey cigarette smoke.
As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Arlington Catholic Herald, I am filled with profound joy and thanksgiving for this invaluable instrument of evangelization that has faithfully served our Diocese of Arlington.
Special Edition: 50th anniversary. The Kid’s Connection will capture the attention of your little ones. Click here to download the latest issue and please let us know
In the fall of 1993, Father William P. Saunders penned the first of many articles, “What is Apologetics?” for “Straight Answers,” a catechetical column that ran in the Catholic Herald for 15 years.
The first issue of the new diocese’s newly minted newspaper arrived in mailboxes Jan. 8, 1976.
The Arlington Catholic Herald’s front page told the story of the hundreds of Vietnamese refugees who were resettling in the diocese with the help of the church.
In my local Jiffy Lube waiting room the other day, I felt my irritability index rising as the infomercials and reality-TV shows blared in the background … a futile attempt at drowning out the sound of hydraulic lifts and impact wrenches pulsing from the garage.
I am the type of reader who — before ubiquitous cell phones — read everything in front of me, from cereal boxes to every word of the newspaper.
Father Paul M. Grankauskas, pastor of St. Bridget of Ireland Church in Berryville, shared memories of his career as a Herald staff writer in the ’90s, before he entered seminary to pursue the priesthood.
