Members of the Catholic Press Association recently convened in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for the annual Catholic Media Conference — the best part of which was a group visit to the Marian apparition Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help (more about that next week).
But there was also the annual awards ceremony, and I’m pleased to announce that Our Sunday Visitor received 11 awards, including second place for National Newspaper of the Year.
We also received, for the third time, first place in the category of “Best Explanation of the Church’s Position on Marriage.” Our Sunday Visitor has been consistently strong in this area, and it is one that is desperately needed in today’s culture.
We also were awarded first place for best layout of an article in a national newspaper for last year’s “Summer Catholic Trivia Challenge.” Kudos to our designer, Chelsea Alt, for that recognition.
A special vocations section, “How We Prepare Our People,” edited and designed by Our Sunday Visitor’s staff, received second-place honors.
Finally, we received a host of honorable mentions: Michelle Martin’s national news reporting on “The Church and the #metoo movement”; for the editorial “A revolution of love” about the need for a revolutionary change in culture following the events in Charlottesville last summer; for Tim O’Malley’s Scripture column; for this column (Openers) that I am privileged to write each week; for reporting on young adults by Nicholas Wolfram Smith, “Spiritually thirsty millennials turn to the occult”; for best coverage of religious liberty issues, including an Our Sunday Visitor editorial (“Taking exception”), Helen Alvare’s excellent analysis on “Undoing the HHS mandate” and an interview I conducted with Rick Garnett on the Masterpiece Cakes case; and finally, for best coverage on immigration, including a piece by Managing Editor Don Clemmer, “Who has the power to help immigrants?”, our editorial “Seeking a path” and Brian Fraga’s “Uncertainty reigns for DACA’s ‘Dreamers.'”
In comments, the judges commended Our Sunday Visitor for story variety, and the awards bear that out with recognition for our coverage on marriage, religious liberty and immigration, placing us right where we want to be in terms of what’s happening in the world and the Church — that is, a truly Catholic publication that is concerned with all three of these areas.
I am proud, too, of the four editorials by OSV’s editorial board that received recognition. It is our goal to be a thoughtful, measured and faithfully Catholic voice on issues pertaining to faith and culture.
With all of our content, we have one goal: to advance the mission of Christ through catechesis and evangelization, and the mission of our founder, Father John F. Noll — to serve the Church — which includes you. Thank you for reading!
