March 22, 2008
The Herald: Chronicling Catholic life for a century
By Christine Vovakes
Herald correspondent
The current staff of The Herald and El Heraldo Catolico gathers in their office in Sacramento earlier this month. Left to right: Luis Gris, reporter/photographer; Susie Aronson, advertising manager; Cathy Joyce, editorial/advertising assistant and photographer; Julie Sly, editor; Steve German, production coordinator; and Katie McAllister, bookkeeper/directory assistant. Scott Olling/Herald photo
One hundred years ago an Irish Catholic journalist decided what parishioners in the Diocese of Sacramento needed was their own newspaper. And he gave them one.
Thomas A. Connelly launched The Catholic Herald from a small printer’s shop at Third and J Streets in downtown Sacramento. The first issue rolled off the presses on March 14, 1908. In a letter that appeared on the front page, Bishop Thomas Grace of Sacramento gave his blessing to the privately-owned and financed publication.
“The announcement of the establishment here of a Catholic weekly newspaper of high grade devoted to the interests and activities of the Sacramento Diocese affords me the greatest gratification,” the bishop wrote.
“One of the paper’s main purposes is to keep people informed about their faith and also to bring a sense of togetherness to readers throughout the diocese.”
Julie Sly, Current Editor
For two decades Connelly covered matters of faith, plus local, national and world news significant to Catholics. He reported on Ireland’s struggle for independence in ongoing articles which the diocese’s large Irish Catholic population avidly read.
When Connelly died in 1929, Bishop Robert Armstrong affiliated the Diocese of Sacramento with The Register, a chain of national Catholic newspapers. Beginning in 1930, Msgr. Patrick McHugh headed the newly-christened Superior California Catholic Register.
That name held while Msgr. James Casey edited the paper from 1940 to 1947. The priest in a 1978 interview said he relied on a good core of volunteers to contribute news items. Coverage of areas outside of Sacramento was strong as many priests in rural areas took an active interest in the paper.
In 1947, Msgr. Casey moved on to serve parishes in Dunsmuir and then Red Bluff and Bishop Armstrong appointed Msgr. Richard Dwyer to serve as editor. Joined by Father John Terwilliger, associate editor from 1947 to 1952, Msgr. Dwyer broke ties with The Register chain and began printing the newspaper in the diocese with Herald Printing Company. The paper was again called The Catholic Herald, linking it to its original roots.
“We tried to get the paper established as something more than a house organ,” Msgr. Dwyer recalled in 1978. “We aimed to get the thing on a professional basis.”
‘An exciting era in the press’
After Msgr. Dwyer left The Herald in 1958 to establish St. John Vianney Parish in Rancho Cordova, Msgr. Eymard Gallagher was at the helm during the critical years of the Second Vatican Council, serving as editor from 1958 to 1974.
“It was an exciting era to be involved in the press,” he said in a 1978 interview in The Herald. “You were at the pulse of things.” Msgr. Gallagher was known for his forthright and sometimes controversial editorials on religious and social issues. “I hope we gave an open view of things.
We certainly strived to make readers aware of what was taking place,” he said.
Msgr. James Murphy’s long affiliation with The Herald began in 1969, when he joined the paper as associate editor under Msgr. Gallagher and then served as editor from 1974 to 1985.
Salvatorian Father George Schuster, who took over as editor in 1985, said he assumed the role “with a mixture of challenge, opportunity and excitement, with counterparts of apprehension, misgivings and awareness of limitations.” He called The Herald the “most effective, practical week-by-week package of Christian information available for Catholics.”
When Father Schuster died of a sudden heart attack seven years later, Patrick Joyce served as interim editor until Julie Sly was appointed by Bishop William K. Weigand in December 1994.
Sly is the first layperson and woman to head The Herald since it became a diocesan publication. A graduate of Santa Clara University in English who also holds a master’s degree in journalism from Marquette University, she approaches the paper as a journalist with a specialty in reporting on Catholicism and religious issues.
“One of the paper’s main purposes is to keep people informed about their faith and also to bring a sense of togetherness to readers throughout the diocese,” she said. “We run many feature stories that touch readers’ own faith lives and spirituality. We attempt in our reporting and analysis to answer the very human questions people have. I don’t think you see that in the secular press.”
She said she faces challenges in covering the diocese, especially in its ethnic and economic diversity, geographic differences and varying theological points of view. She strives to make certain that stories are accurate, fair and balanced, and that a diversity of views are represented, reflecting a key part of the mission statement that guides The Herald, which was developed by the paper’s advisory board and approved by Bishop Weigand.
“The Catholic community is made up of people with diverse views at times,” Sly said. “People comment to me that they see The Herald as a credible source for explanation, analysis and background information, and that the paper gives local perspective to events occurring on the national and world scene.”
Circulation greatly increased
Making The Herald available to a larger number of Catholics was one of Bishop Weigand’s earliest priorities as publisher. Sly and Msgr. Murphy, associate publisher, implemented a parish plan circulation method for The Herald in September 1995, increasing the paper’s circulation from 8,000 to its present 55,000. A few years after the paper also began publishing twice monthly, with monthly publication in July and December.
The Catholic Herald that first appeared a century ago had no pictures and only solid columns of black type. Today’s Herald uses photos and graphics to visually convey the gist of local stories, many of which end up on the paper’s Web site at www.diocese-sacramento.org/herald.
“We’ll soon be launching a redesigned Web site that will have the majority of our local stories and more information, as well as brief stories from Catholic News Service,” Sly noted.
While the newspaper industry as a whole is getting more involved in online publication, Sly foresees a continuing role for the print version of The Herald.
“There has to be a balance,” she said. “It wouldn’t be in the best interest of the local church or for our readers to move to a Web edition only,” she said.
Another major change during The Herald’s history was the start-up of El Heraldo Catolico in 1979 while Msgr. Murphy was editor.
At the time The Herald was publishing one page of news in Spanish. Poor response to a questionnaire in lieu of that page convinced the diocese that few Spanish-speaking parishioners were reading The Herald.
“El Heraldo became the first diocesan Spanish-language newspaper,” Msgr. Murphy said in an interview. The move elicited an outcry from protesters who thought the Spanish-language paper was an attempt to isolate Hispanics rather than reach them.
“I look back on it as growing pains,” Msgr. Murphy said, noting that the diocesan media was extremely involved with the farmworker movement and other social justice issues. “I think El Heraldo was in the forefront of all that happened.”
Future of Catholic press
As for the future of Catholic journalism, Msgr. Murphy would like to see the diocese get more involved with the Internet and blogging.
“A Catholic blog every day might reach younger readers with a Catholic point of view,” he said. “We have to use the media at hand. Pope John Paul II is our example. The church has to keep pace. We have to spread the word.”
Salvatorian Father Michael Newman, who had a question and answer column for youth in The Herald from 1977 to 1987 called “Youth Want to Know,” said The Herald during that time played an important role in identifying issues facing youth and young adults.
The column was “a good way for youth and their parents to find out how to handle faith issues among their children, which included many moral questions,” said Father Newman, who is now retired and living in Chico. “I tried not to give parents simple yes and no answers, but the reasons behind Catholic teaching and applying it to their realities.”
“The Herald keeps me in touch with a growing and very vibrant, vigorous diocese.”
Bishop Francis Quinn
Bishop Emeritus Francis A. Quinn, who served as publisher of The Herald from 1979 to 1993 and from 1962 to 1971 was editor of the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s newspaper, The Monitor, is convinced of the importance of Catholic journalism.
“The Catholic press is indispensable in knowing what’s going on in the church and among the church’s people. I get The Herald and read it front to back every issue,” he said.
Receiving The Herald kept him informed about the diocese while he was ministering for many years in his retirement with American Indians in Arizona.
“The Herald keeps me in touch with a growing and very vibrant, vigorous diocese,” he said. “It keeps me in touch with what Catholics are thinking, whether they’re laity or religious. It’s part of the evangelization process.”
He commends Sly and the staff of The Herald for doing an excellent job.
“The paper emphasizes rightfully the news of the area, the various departments and parishes and schools. It’s a source for information you can’t get anywhere else.”
Stretching beyond the city of Sacramento has been a key component of The Herald since its inception. “Throughout the Diocese,” a regular column Connelly started with the paper’s first issue, kept readers informed about parishes in even the smallest towns.
The Herald’s archives reveal that would be thespians at St. Patrick Parish in Weaverville, home to miners seeking gold in the Trinity Alps, staged a comedy called “Finnegan’s Fortunes.” Parishioners in Chico sent word that their new church, St. John the Baptist, would be “a massive structure.” Other parishes touted their pastors’ homiletic flourishes.
Parish news from across diocese
That column is distant kin to a regular feature in today’s Herald called “Around the Diocese.” Readers can find information about the spiritual, social and celebratory events of the 103 parishes, plus mission churches, in the 20 counties that comprise the diocese.
Staying connected parish to parish is essential, according to Fran Vitulli. The Sacramento native wrote for The Herald in the early 1980s and is now a member of the newspaper’s editorial advisory board.
“Personally, I think The Herald is very important for our work in the parishes,” she said. “It keeps us informed of the good works being done in this huge diocese.”
Her now-retired cousin, Father John Sullivan, was assigned years ago to Sacred Heart Parish in Fort Jones, a hamlet on Highway 3 in Siskiyou County. She reminisced about “going on the circuit” with him as he brought the sacraments to Catholics in that sparsely-populated far northern region.
“I remember going to Happy Camp and all these little towns you’ve never even heard of. Geographically, it’s an enormous distance,” she said.
A member of Holy Spirit Parish in Sacramento, Vitulli thinks that publishing articles about people in the diocese’s farflung parishes is a vital role the paper plays in creating community.
“When The Herald can bring together the folks who feel left out, that’s very important,” she said. “There’s so much written about world issues. You can get that in other ways. But these little stories, I think they’re fascinating.”
