03/11/01
Disconnected!
On the night before Ash Wednesday, as The Catholic New World was
wrapping up that week’s edition, Mardi Gras revelers were wrapping
up something else: pre-Lenten rioting.
Mardi Gras, which long has had a slightly soiled reputation, has
gotten way out of hand. Nor is the usually bawdy and often violent
“celebration” followed by the introspection of the season of penance.
Nope: Partying rolls on. Something is amiss.
What does Mardi Gras rioting have to do with The Catholic New
World? Nothing? Wrong.
I hawk this paper every chance I get. On Feb. 24, I was at Parish
Leadership Day doing just that. I’d thrust papers under arms,
even stoop so low as to slip copies into open briefcases.
Why? I have no shame when it comes to promoting what I modestly
think is the country’s best Catholic newspaper: full of stories
of faith, news of the church—the Church of Chicago, the church
in America and beyond.
Most attendees said they received and liked The Catholic New World.
But it wasn’t fun to hear a few tell me the paper’s “too churchy.”
What do people expect? Cardinal George writing tips on woodworking?
Hardly.
Can’t help it, folks, we are what we are: The cardinal’s newspaper.
That makes us churchy whether we want to be or not. (I suspect
some people who make that charge haven’t read the paper recently).
But there’s a larger problem.
Like Mardi Gras, people are disconnected from their church, from
their faith. The church probably bears some of that blame ...
by failing to be adequately present to people in the hours and
days between Sundays.
That sense of disconnectedness is a problem because people sometimes
don’t feel that their church is meaningful between Sundays, if
then. It’s bigger than not wanting to read about the news of the
church and faithful stories of faithful people. It’s an element
of the lack of support—financial and emotional—the church suffers.
It’s why our culture too often fails to reflect our faith.
What do we do about it? How do we restore connection to faith
and culture? We seek to get the word out, to make certain Catholics
understand the role their church plays in the world. We do that
through The Catholic New World, through Web sites, through good
homilies, through the work people of faith accomplish, and more.
Too churchy? Impossible.
—Tom Sheridan,
Editor and General Manager
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