DeSales media sponsored a Mass to celebrate Catholic journalism on Saturday, Sept, 23.
In the pews at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph was the Catholic journalists whose job it is to spread the good news, whether in the pages of The Tablet Newspaper or on television with Currents News or online.
In his homily, Bishop Robert Brennan of the Diocese of Brooklyn spoke about this vocation as the work of evangelization.
“To go deeper into the news and the stories to see beyond the partisan political and to get into the heart of human dignity and of truth,” Bishop Brennan said.
Employees of Currents News and The Tablet gathered on Saturday to pray together and to thank the readers who support our mission.
The benefactors and founders of The Tablet membership program, whose generous support is allowing one of the only Catholic newspapers in the country to thrive, were also in attendance.
At a brunch after Mass, Vito Formica, Executive Director of News Content and Development for DeSales Media Group, the ministry that produces Currents News and The Tablet, called The Tablet “the legacy newspaper for the diocese,” one that’s been in print since 1908.
“It’s our duty to protect and preserve this newspaper, so that the service it has provided for the last 115 years can continue well into the future,” Formica said. “The Tablet online and in print is a very important tool for formation in creating missionary disciples.”
The Tablet’s Senior National Correspondent, Carol Zimmermann, knows all about the fight to keep Catholic journalism alive.
She spent 30 years at Catholic News Service in its U.S. operation, which was shut down in 2022.
“Catholic journalism is unique because it reports on the news, events happening at the parish, diocesan and national level, through the lens of the rich Catholic faith and the diversity of its members,” Zimmerman said. “It lets the events, or the people interviewed, stand for themselves without bias, something that is particularly important today when there are so many competing voices and partisan divides. Catholic newspapers like The Tablet evangelize not by hitting people over the head telling them how to live their lives but by showing how the Catholic faith impacts what so many people do and also has something to say to the important issues of our day.”