My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Sunday evenings generally find me collecting my thoughts on a topic I will eventually write about for this weekly reflection in the pages of The Tablet. It is an exercise in which I both review the events of the past week and anticipate what is coming up in the life of the Church in our Diocese and beyond.

Looking back at the month of January, “Put Out Into the Deep” focused on four current concerns---efforts to reform immigration policy and our duty to welcome migrant families, our common need to encourage young people to listen for a call to pursue a vocation to the priesthood and religious life, the desirable yet difficult road to Christian unity, and the worthiness of Catholic elementary schools and the challenge to make them a viable presence in all parts of Brooklyn and Queens. In each instance, my hope was that the words written here would entice you, the reader, to discuss these matters at the appropriate time in your conversations with family, friends and acquaintances.

When someone offers a comment or opinion about something that has appeared in this space, I am reminded each time that even in the new realm of electronic journalism and its ever-changing technology that sometimes pulsates around us, the simple written word has not lost its effectiveness. And by extension, nor have print publications.

As we enter February, known familiarly as Catholic Press Month, I would point to a talk Pope Benedict XVI gave to a group of Italian Catholic journalists last fall, in which he said that Catholic newspapers serve as “a significant place of encounter,” where writers and readers meet to “see, understand and live reality with the eyes of God.” The Tablet, which stands at the threshold of its 100th anniversary next year, is in fact a “significant place of encounter,” and, I would add, a welcome presence in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

It would seem that readers agree. A readership survey commissioned by The Tablet management, and carried out by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, drew more than 1,300 responses. It concluded that “more than nine of ten readers agree that The Tablet is interesting and informative and that it keeps them informed about important issues in the Catholic Church.”

A team of consultants from the Catholic Press Association that was recently asked to review the operations of The Tablet said that our diocesan paper “is doing a good job: It is newsy and broad in the coverage it provides; it offers a wide range of feature columns, and it takes a balanced approach ideologically.”

In addition to these endorsements, it is my view that The Tablet’s small but energetic editorial staff also takes seriously the responsibility of covering as many as possible of the principal spiritual, pastoral and cultural events that are observed by the many ethnic groups that make up our Diocese. This has been an emphasis on the part of the editor and his reporters for a number of years, and they have pursued that goal faithfully.

In January alone, for example, words and pictures drew our attention to Haitian Independence Day, observed at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Flatlands, Three Kings Day in Williamsburg and the first-ever commemoration by the Nigerian community in St. Fortunata’s parish in New Lots of the Flight of the Holy Family into Egypt.

In light of this consistent editorial coverage of events important to the large number of ethnic communities in Brooklyn and Queens, it is instructive to know that when our Holy Father addressed the Italian Catholic journalists, he said that the diversity of people within a diocese must find a reflection in the diocesan paper. The examples noted above show that The Tablet recognized the wisdom of that advice quite some time ago and continues to follow it.

Pope Benedict’s talk also urged the editors to produce “newspapers of the people and among the people.” The Readers’ Forum, a mainstay of The Tablet for decades, invites you to be part of the paper. “Up Front and Personal” is a place reserved for persons who have a compelling story to tell. By means of both features that appear every week, readers have an opportunity to express themselves in their diocesan newspaper.

With the Church often in the news---and sometimes, regrettably, for painful reasons---the value of Catholic publications comes into play. When necessary, diocesan newspapers like The Tablet can clarify an inaccurate statement or a wrong emphasis that can crop up in an article or headline that appears in the secular media.

Besides its journalistic endeavors, The Tablet has a strong tradition of charitable outreach, as demonstrated in the successful annual Bright Christmas Appeal, which began in l965. This year, you, generous readers, contributed more than $113,000 that was distributed to more than 50 parishes and agencies in Brooklyn and Queens. In the past decade or so, nearly $1 million has been collected and directed to programs that have thrilled those in need during our commemoration of the Birth of the Christ Child.

Because The Tablet is a valuable vehicle for helping me to speak with you as the Diocesan Bishop, and because it is the principal place to find news and comment about our Diocese, I would like to see its readership expand. To this end the Annual Catholic Appeal and The Tablet are working on a program to extend subscriptions to ACA contributors.  It is my hope that it can get into the hands of more people in their homes, and at all age levels.

An additional reason for desiring a wider readership is that Catholics who read Catholic newspapers or magazines are more actively involved in Church life than those who do not, a fact borne out in the research CARA did for The Tablet and for other Church entities as well.

(I have a footnote. In late May, the Catholic Press Association will hold its national convention in Brooklyn. Tablet staff members are helping to plan the event. I look forward to welcoming the journalists, who will come from across the country, at a Mass I will concelebrate for them in St. James Cathedral Basilica.)

Celebrate Catholic Press Month. And take a moment to “put out into the deep” by urging others to be readers, to become familiar with all it has to offer in instruction and information. Pass your copy of The Tablet onto someone else.  Like my Sunday evenings, it will be time well spent.

                                                
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