Catholic news front and center
Posted: 01.02.09
ORLANDO | Vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life.
The pain of abortion.
The need to reach out to young people.
The words and prayers of our Holy Father and our local shepherds.
The death of a beloved pope and the election of another pontiff.
Celebrations of the local church, from groundbreakings to carnivals.
Those are just some of the events, issues and unforgettable moments that have graced the front pages of the Florida Catholic throughout its 70–year history.
In the seven decades of the Florida Catholic, the front pages changed in terms of size, color and focus. The premier edition of the Florida Catholic, issued by the Diocese of St. Augustine Dec. 1, 1939, included eight pages of news and features on paper that was 22 ½ inches high and 16 ½ inches long. In column inches, that translated to approximately 176 inches of space (as opposed to the present format of 60 column inches per page).
The first front page included a letter from the paper’s bishop publisher, Bishop Patrick Barry of St. Augustine, and the headlines, “Archbishop Curley Greeted by 10,000 at Silver Jubilee,” and “Diocesan Sodality Union Opens Convention in West Palm Beach.” (“Sodality” is a society or an association, especially a devotional or charitable society for the laity in the Roman Catholic Church.)
A look at the latest print edition of a Florida Catholic is different not just for its size, but also for its focus. While originally a single edition newspaper for the entire state, the Florida Catholic now includes five editions for five of Florida’s seven dioceses. That offers each diocese the opportunity to have a local front–page story, along with a statewide story.
A look at the front pages 70 years after the paper’s Dec. 1, 1939, premiere revealed a single state story (“Holidays time to take prayer on the road”) and five different local headlines, including “Reward offered for stolen tabernacle,” “Mission celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe in a big way,” “Sisters gave; now they receive,” “Church built after Charley’s destruction dedicated,” and “God in HD.”
Some issues that made the front page in years past continued to be front–page issues years later. Hurricane Camille, a Category–5 storm in 1969, made front–page headlines in the Florida Catholic. Florida’s bishops pleaded for aid for the devastated Louisiana coast area.
Dedication to covering natural disasters is something the paper continues to do — 1969’s Camille, 1992’s Hurricane Andrew, 1995’s Hurricane Opal, the quadruple effect of 2004’s Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, and 2005’s Katrina and Dennis.
After the commitment of initial coverage, the Florida Catholic covered the aftermath for months to highlight what was needed and how relief efforts were going. An example comes from the Dec. 5, 2008, Venice edition of the paper. That front–page headline of “Church built after Charley’s destruction dedicated” dealt with Sacred Heart Parish in Punta Gorda, which was destroyed while in the path of 2004’s Hurricane Charley.