Joe Ruff, news editor of The Catholic Spirit since November 2018, has been promoted to editor-in-chief effective Oct. 10 as Maria Wiering, who has led the newspaper since 2015, joins Our Sunday Visitor newspaper and publishing company.

“We will greatly miss Maria,” Ruff said. “She will bring a love of the Catholic Church, journalistic precision and professionalism to her role at OSV.”

Ruff worked 18 years as a reporter and editor with The Associated Press, most of that time in Omaha, Nebraska. He joined The Omaha World-Herald as a business reporter in 2005, and was named news editor of the Catholic Voice, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Omaha, in 2010.

“I am honored to work with a fantastic group of communicators and Church leaders in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis,” Ruff said. “It will be a blessing and a challenge to build on the fine tradition of The Catholic Spirit.”

Wiering will be senior writer, with a focus on in-depth news and feature writing, for OSV News, a Catholic news service launching Jan. 1 to fill the void created by the Dec. 31 closure of Catholic News Service’s domestic news operations.

Wiering began her journalism career as an intern with The Catholic Spirit in 2004, and she was a reporter and news coordinator on its staff from 2006-2010, before returning in 2015 as editor and publications manager. She oversaw the newspaper through major challenges in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, including its Chapter 11 bankruptcy organization, its leadership transition from Archbishop John Nienstedt to Archbishop Bernard Hebda, its resolution of civil and criminal charges related to a clergy sexual abuse case, and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as positive Church renewal efforts, especially the three-year Archdiocesan Synod process. The newspaper and its staff have won numerous Catholic Media Association awards during Wiering’s tenure.

“It has been a privilege to lead The Catholic Spirit during these pivotal years, and it has been an honor to work closely with Archbishop Hebda, our publisher,” Wiering said. “I have no doubt the newspaper will continue to strive to serve our Catholic community with energy and excellence under Joe’s capable leadership.”