The Register: Catholic Media in Service of the Church and Our Readers

A NOTE FROM OUR PUBLISHER

(photo: Register/EWTN)
Each member of the Register team places a premium on the responsibility to form and inform our readers by reporting the news of the world through the lens of the Catholic faith. And God has blessed us in the last eight years since Mother Angelica’s dream of having a newspaper as part of the EWTN family was realized.
 
For me, the positive fruits become more apparent every time I attend the annual conference organized by the Catholic Press Association. At this year’s conference, which was held in St. Petersburg, Florida, this month, the Register took home its largest number of awards — 17 in all. Together, these awards reflect our commitment to cover all the issues, such as the recovery from sexual abuse, the nature of marriage and the priesthood, and topics associated with religious liberty, the sanctity of life and social justice.
 
More than 45 years ago, the Second Vatican Council issued its decree on social communications, Inter Mirifica, a blueprint for Catholic media. The prologue states: “The Church recognizes that these media, if properly utilized, can be of great service to mankind, since they greatly contribute … to the spread and support of the Kingdom of God.”
 
“The Church recognizes, too,” the document states, “that men can employ these media contrary to the plan of the Creator and to their own loss. Indeed, the Church experiences maternal grief at the harm all too often done to society by their evil use.”
 
Given the polemic media climate in which we live, the words of Inter Mirifica are a powerful reminder of our roots and of God’s true call for Catholic media organizations.
 
The document is wise to also include readers of media: “All who, of their own free choice, make use of these media of communications as readers, viewers or listeners have special obligations. For a proper choice demands that they fully favor those presentations that are outstanding for their moral goodness, their knowledge and their artistic or technical merit. They ought, however, to [a]void those that may be a cause or occasion of spiritual harm to themselves, or that can lead others into danger through base example, or that hinder desirable presentations and promote those that are evil.”
 
In serving God and serving you, we at the Register realize our focus, our purpose and our greatest commitment. As always, I am grateful for your prayers and your faithful readership.
 
God bless you!