I’ve been at The Catholic Spirit for almost six years now. That amounts to only about 6 percent of its history — a drop in the bucket when it comes to the newspaper’s century of service to Catholics of the archdiocese.
But I’ve come to learn a lot about and appreciate that history during my tenure as editor, particularly over the last several months as we made preparations to commemorate this centennial year.
The celebration began Jan. 6 with a gathering in Minneapolis for friends and supporters of The Catholic Spirit who wanted to help us remember our past but also look ahead to the future of Catholic journalism in our archdiocese.
It continues with this special centennial issue — dated Jan. 7, our exact 100-year anniversary — that features the story of our beginning, a timeline of historic events the newspaper covered over the years, reminiscences from former staffers, an interview with Archbishop John Nienstedt and a story about how digital and social media are changing how and what we do.
We have another anniversary event planned for this fall to help parishes with their communications efforts. (Look for more information in future issues of the Spirit.)
In the meantime, please enjoy this special issue as we kick off our centennial year and recommit to our mission of informing, inspiring and nurturing a spirit of community within our local church.
