This year we lost a great Catholic journalist in John Allen Jr, founder of Crux, the independent Catholic news outlet covering the church worldwide. By all accounts he strove to be faithful to Christ and the church and to the vocation of journalism.
He came to mind last week when I was drafting this, so I offer it in the spirit of a tribute from someone like the femur of an ant wandering within the same tradition Allen led as a giant.
Diocesan news editors are fewer than in the past, especially those working with print. But we still labour around Australia and the world at a pointy intersection of the church and wider society, faith and doctrine, personalities, technological change, limited resources and hard deadlines.
The Catholic Weekly newsroom has an emotional temperature ranging through enthusiasm to disappointment any given week. Sometimes we allow ourselves a giggle over an unsolicited submission that is not fit for print.
So during Lent there are ample opportunities for privileged editors like myself to apply the disciplines of prayer, penance and almsgiving to our work.
Prayer
Pray for the people behind the stories
Most days we cut, change, and move words around. But we can remember to pray more often for the people they are about, whether celebrating anniversaries, funerals, promotions, ordinations, or undertaking pilgrimages or retreats. From popes to kindergartners, we’re dealing with content but this is also God-given fuel for prayer.
Be grateful for unsolicited feedback
Any call or email beginning, “I’m a life-long Catholic and reader and need to say…” makes my heart sink a little, but I do appreciate them and they make us better or appreciate another view, so may God reward them!
Keep our eyes on Christ
We see things happening in the world and the church that can discourage us. But Easter is still the horizon and our core reality, and where we need to live. Thankfully there is a chapel and priests offering regular Masses at the office.
Penance
Editing can be dangerous work spiritually. We’re responsible for guiding and correcting people’s work and can fall into a habit of judging them as well.
Exercise restraint
Our journalists’ and regular columnists’ voices are unique and should be honoured. We fast from fiddling with their copy more than strictly necessary.
Resist temptation to be irritated by repetitive work
When it comes to better-quality unsolicited submissions there’s usually a generous but busy person behind them and they need work. Priests send in articles they carved out of full weeks, and parish or diocesan staff write after 5pm or on weekends. Other would-be contributors pour out their hearts in email attachments embedded with grainy photos.
Fast from the desire to be liked
We can’t say yes everyone who sends a submission (especially the poets lingering in the inbox), or everyone who wants to be written about. We correct people’s errors, or improve their expression so it’s clearer, and it’s not easy for people to appreciate or agree with what we’ve done.
Embrace the work as a cure for the ego
Scoops are hard to come by, and writers’ grammar, expression, ideas, or knowledge may be far better than ours. We write, edit, plan, curate, guide, explain, and approve but it’s rare to see our byline anywhere.
And no print edition is ever fully done. Important material arrives late, or a story or photography that danced at the pitch falls flat on the page and there’s no time to find a replacement. Last-minute corrections introduce a new error which goes unnoticed at 5.21pm on a Tuesday. The paper, like the editor, always goes to press imperfect.
Almsgiving
We work at a tricky friction point, so we can be generous toward the church’s human workings, and honest about our own limits under diocesan and journalistic expectations.
Let the church speak in her own voice
Even if we’re not tempted to grossly “letting lead what bleeds”, we can still be a bit more generous in giving space to stories that are ordinary but faithful, or official pronouncements that are important but not exciting.
These may not go viral on socials, but they can scrub up well with a bit of creative effort.
Be generous
We offer advice or work after hours to rescue an article by a well-meaning contributor or to encourage a promising young writer.
What about the designers, the unheralded saints of diocesan communications? They take with equanimity our late changes, obsession with headlines, and – occasionally – the disconcerting sound of us lightly banging our head against the desk on the other side of the partition.
We can always exercise more kindness towards them because they actually make it all work.
Remember you are dust, says the church. May Lent save this editor from marking her own forehead with newsprint and help her glorify the good news more clearly! Lord, have mercy.
