To welcome the new format of The Catholc Leader, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge has written to support the paper’s new direction.
THE Catholic Leader first saw the light of day long ago when things in society and the Church were different.
In the meantime, it has established itself as one of Australia’s leading Catholic papers, with a distribution far beyond the bounds of the archdiocese.
Now as society and the Church move into a new phase, so too The Catholic Leader is entering a new phase of its life. Print media generally are no longer the place where we get our news.
We do that electronically. We rely on print media not for news but for angles on the news or for material that falls outside the category of news.
Some would say that print media have had their day. But more likely they are now having to shape a new identity; and the Leader is no exception to this.
That will happen insofar as the Leader takes its place within the process of evangelisation. We need a new surge of Gospel energy at a time when we may be tempted to close ranks and look inwards.
We need not only to look outwards, but also to communicate in fresh and incisive ways with the world outside the practicing Church community. We need to become more missionary; and this will be the guiding star of the Leader as it enters this new phase of its life.
Of course the Leader will remain a place where we Catholics can communicate with each other, which is vitally important in a diocese as large as Brisbane. But it will also be a place where we Catholics can communicate to those who don’t walk with us and who may not share our beliefs or assumptions.
The Leader has come this far because of the energy and creativity, the faith and generosity of many people. I have every confidence that the same qualities will ensure that the Leader’s future honours the past and that the archdiocesan paper will play its part in the Church’s drive to reach out to all in the name of Jesus.
