Introduction
On the coming weekend of January 13-14, you will be asked to renew your annual subscription to the St. Louis Review, our Archdiocesan newspaper, by remitting the subscription fee in one of the special collection envelopes. Because of the importance of the St. Louis Review to the life of the Church in the Archdiocese, I urge you to renew your subscription.
In appealing to you for the renewal of your subscription to the St. Louis Review, I want also to reflect on the importance of the Archdiocesan weekly newspaper. In the Church throughout the world, the weekly diocesan newspaper provides an essential contribution to the new evangelization, to the teaching and living of our Catholic faith with the enthusiasm and the energy of the first disciples of our Lord and of the first missionaries to our area.
Pope Benedict XVI
On this past November 25, Pope Benedict XVI met with the members of the Federation of Italian Catholic Weeklies. The 150 dioceses in Italy publish some 161 weekly newspapers. Some of the archdioceses publish not only a standard weekly newspaper but also a weekly newspaper directed to a special group in the Church or a weekly newspaper distributed as an insert in a local secular newspaper.
In speaking about the work of diocesan Catholic weeklies, Pope Benedict XVI used the words with which I have entitled my reflection. He declared:
The objective of the diocesan newspaper is to offer to all a message of truth and hope, emphasizing the events and situations, in which the Gospel is lived, in which good and truth triumph and in which, with hard work and creativity, people weave and repair the human fabric of small community realities (Pope Benedict XVI, "To Italian Catholic Journalists," L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English, 6 December 2006, p. 17).
The distinctive service of the diocesan weekly newspaper is the communication of the truth of the Gospel, as it is lived in the rich variety of local communities which make up the Church in a particular area. No other newspaper provides such an important service to the faithful who indeed, through the various articles in the diocesan newspaper, read the truth in the context of their daily lives and the daily lives of their fellow Catholics. At the same time, they are given hope that, notwithstanding the many challenges in leading a Christian life in our times, faithful Catholics are giving witness to Christ alive for us in the Church.
Referring to the service of the diocesan weekly newspapers in Italy, Pope Benedict went on to make an observation which surely applies in every nation: "In recounting daily events, you make known that quiet reality woven of faith and goodness that constitutes the genuine fabric of Italian society" (p. 17). The stories told in the diocesan newspaper are not considered newsworthy by the secular press. For people of faith, however, they are most noteworthy, for they give witness to the new evangelization as it is taking place in the many and different situations of life in which faithful Catholics find themselves. As Pope Benedict noted, the diocesan weekly makes important connections for the faithful and among the faithful, connections which lead us to reflect more deeply on the truth of the faith and to give ourselves more confidently to Christ in living the faith.
St. Louis Review, Source of Information and Inspiration
For me, as Archbishop, the St. Louis Review is my principal means of communicating regularly with the whole Archdiocese. It provides me with an apt instrument of teaching the faith and of drawing together in unity the many individuals and communities who make up the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. The weekly newspaper is a familiar way for me to visit the homes of the faithful each week.
The faithful of the Archdiocese rightly rely on the St. Louis Review as a source of information about the life of the Church in the Archdiocese and in the world. The faithful receive not only information but also inspiration for their own daily living. The stories and commentaries in each edition of the paper highlight the Christian virtues at work in the lives of many Catholics and underline the Catholic culture which enriches so much our lives.
Through the St. Louis Review, the parishes of the Archdiocese make important connections with each other, to use Pope Benedict XVI's words. The faithful of each parish are enabled to share stories which are mutually encouraging and also inspire new initiatives in carrying out the Church's mission in the circumstances of every day living. Making such connections is critical to the new evangelization, providing new ideas for the teaching and living of the faith, and inspiring courage to take up the work of the new evangelization in the particular situations of each of our lives.
Conclusion
As Archbishop, I strongly desire to communicate weekly with all of the faithful of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis by means of the St. Louis Review. It is my hope that, through the coming subscription drive, all of the active Catholics in the Archdiocese, will receive the Review into their homes, each week. It is also my hope that our Archdiocesan weekly by coming into and remaining in our homes will be read by others who may have grown tepid or cold in their practice of the faith. Often enough, those drifting from the faith will pick up the diocesan weekly in the home of a Catholic relative or friend, and will be inspired to return to the active practice of the faith.
Please renew your subscription to the St. Louis Review. Please encourage your fellow parishioners to do the same. Finally and most importantly, please pray that the St. Louis Review will be always an effective instrument of the new evangelization.
