By Sam Lucero
Special to the Catholic Herald

Second Vatican Council changed the Catholic press

I was probably still in diapers when the Second Vatican Council Fathers issued the Decree on the Instruments of Social Communication. Released Dec. 4, 1963, the decree was the second of 16 documents approved by the ecumenical council and played an important role in the development of the Catholic press.

To be sure, other Vatican II documents influenced the way the church sees the media as a communication tool. But it was the decree's second chapter that offered a vision for the Catholic press in the modern world:

"To instill a fully Christian spirit into readers, a truly Catholic press should be set up and encouraged," it states. "Such a press -- whether immediately fostered and directed by ecclesiastical authorities or by Catholic laymen -- should be edited with the clear purpose of forming, supporting and advancing public opinion in accord with natural law and Catholic teaching and precepts. It should disseminate and properly explain news concerning the life of the church."

What Inter Mirifica (the document's Latin title) -- along with other council documents -- did was create an environment that allowed the Catholic press to grow and mature. To a great extent, its growth and maturity was the result of a newly empowered laity who found careers in Catholic journalism that heretofore were positions held by priests.

In the Superior diocese, this transition has been witnessed at the Catholic Herald. Founded in 1953, the newspaper's first three editors were priests. In 1987, Bishop Raphael M. Fliss appointed the first lay editor, Sam Lucero, who turned over the post to the paper's first lay woman/managing editor, Julie Miller, in 2002.

The Catholic Church has long been the object of criticism for its male-only priesthood and a male dominated administration. While holy orders continue to be off limits to women, the Catholic press, especially diocesan newspapers, has benefited from the gift of highly educated and faith-filled women.

As a life-long Catholic journalist, every step of my journey has been influenced by women. My first editor, Lois Spear, was a Dominican nun who was a hard-nosed professional. An educator by training, she demanded perfection while maintaining a caring attitude for her underlings.

Over the next two decades, many other women I encountered in the Catholic press continued to shape my view that some of the church's most talented women have found a home behind an editor's desk.

For all the positive changes that have taken place in the church and the Catholic press, we can thank Vatican II. Pope John XXIII said the council's purpose was to open the church's windows to allow fresh air in. Nowhere has that outcome been felt more profoundly than in the Catholic press.

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2003