I found the coolest thing in the Florida Catholic’s attic the other day.
OK, it’s not really an attic. It’s a storage room in the basement of the Diocese of Orlando’s downtown Chancery, where the newspaper’s state office is. But combing through boxes looking for fodder for the “Moment in Catholic History in Florida” feature I’ve been doing for the paper’s yearlong 70th anniversary celebration is a bit like exploring a grandmother’s attic, finding long-forgotten treasures left behind by my predecessors.
Stashed among the many photographs, some of which we’ve been posting throughout the year in the “70 Years Photo Blog,” I found a yellowed Western Union telegram from October 1962. As I read the message, I realized it was a dispatch from Rome — a description from the Florida Catholic’s priest-correspondent there for the opening of the Second Vatican Council — which was the “moment” I had selected for publication in the Oct. 23-Nov. 5 print editions.
It made me think of how much has changed in the way news is gathered and reported in the 47 years since Vatican II and the seven decades since the Florida Catholic’s first issue was published on Dec. 1, 1939. My former boss from the Florida Catholic — Christopher Gunty, now associate publisher/editor of The Catholic Review in Baltimore — happened to be in Rome around the same time I found the old telegram. He sent me an e-mail to offer me a story and/or photo from a diaconate ordination at St. Peter’s Basilica that included a seminarian from the Diocese of Venice in Florida. No telegraph operator, no per-word fee, just an instantaneous transatlantic transmission of information. But what will there be of it for an archive-diving editor of the future to find 50 years from now to commemorate the Florida Catholic’s 120th anniversary?
Speaking of the future, that was the subject for our print editions’ companion to this blog — the Living Our Faith page — in the Oct. 23-Nov. 5 issue. Jean Gonzalez of the Florida Catholic staff interviewed three young adult Catholics about their thoughts on the future of their Church for “Next generation of leaders foresees hope, strength,” and 18-year-old Nick Bryant was equally optimistic in his FAITHCorner reflection “How I envision the future of the Catholic Church.”
We encourage and welcome your participation in the Living Faith Blog. Before submitting your comment be sure to see Florida Catholic’s Comment Policy.