Seeing God in the eyes of children

Editor’s note: I wrote this column in December 2001, my final editorial before resigning as editor of the Superior Catholic Herald. I'm posting it here because it makes references to photography! 

A wall in my office at the Chancery in Superior is decorated with pictures. Some are color photos taken in Central America; a few are black and white shots of my wife and kids. The remaining pictures are ones taken while covering events in the diocese.

I love taking pictures. They can communicate a message or record a moment in time in a way words cannot. Most of the pictures on my wall, as well as others pinned to a room divider, are of children: a trio of girls dressed in angel costumes at a Christmas play at Cathedral School in 1987; a youngster smiling as Bishop Raphael Fliss holds his episcopal miter over the boy’s head; Guatemalan children peering from behind a barbed wire fence; and a girl holding a palm branch during the entrance of a Palm Sunday liturgy. I believe that in the eyes of children we see God.

Superior Catholic Herald staff, correspondents, columnists their spouses and diocesan leaders gathered at the home of Bishop Raphael Fliss in 2000. The reception was to celebrate the Year of Jubilee 2000 with communicators.

This week I will begin taking down the pictures from my wall and room divider and packing them in boxes. In a few weeks I will begin a new job at the Milwaukee Catholic Herald, where the opportunity to take pictures, write stories and editorials, and work with a large staff of committed Catholic journalists awaits me.

Serving as editor of the Superior Catholic Herald for the past 14 years has been a joy and blessing. How many people can gain spiritual satisfaction while earning a living? Working in an environment that is conducive to family values and promotes participation in religious activity is a situation very few people experience.

One of the rewards of this job is traveling around the diocese and interviewing some interesting and inspiring people. Women and men who live their faith quietly or who serve other people without fanfare. They are the salt of the earth. The amazing thing is that there are so many like this here in our diocese. I’m thankful to have met some of them.

Speaking of thanks, there is plenty to be offered. Especially to those who showed enough confidence in a 27-year-old Hispanic who never attended Catholic school and, to top it off, grew up in Utah.

People around the diocese know Bishop Fliss as a man of self-effacing humor. He’s also a man of patience and trust. As publisher of the Superior Catholic Herald, Bishop Fliss trusted me to produce the diocesan newspaper each week. I had the free rein, and on those occasions when the limits were tested, he was patient and understanding, never condemning.

After having worked at two other Catholic newspapers and being acquainted with dozens of other diocesan editors, I know the relationship between editor and publisher is the single most important factor in an editor’s tenure. Just as the bishop has thanked me for 14 years of service to the diocese, I publicly thank him for allowing me to practice and improve my journalistic skills here.

Skilled journalists have served this newspaper in the form of correspondents. Working  with the likes of Mary Grieco, Paula Graham, Joe Winter, Mary Caton-Rosser, Sallie Bachar and Jeff Peters has made the job of covering news in this 16-county diocese a workable task. The good news is that these incredibly gifted writers will continue to serve the diocesan newspaper.

There are many people in the diocese to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for support and encouragement over the years. Unfortunately, space does not allow for that. To them and to all our faithful readers, I wish you abundant blessings from our loving God, who has shown his/her face to me in the photographs of all the beautiful people captured on film around the diocese.