Catholic Advance editor retires after 36 years

By Christopher M. Riggs

Several of my keyboards have been sent to the recycling bin during the 36 years I have had the honor of being editor of the Catholic Advance.

I recall how nervous I was on my first day in the editor’s office and how the late Sr. Cecilia Bush – who I succeeded in October of 1988 – calmed and reassured me that all would be well. She was likely already in the middle of praying a novena for me. Her prayers, it seems, were answered.

Because I have been responsible for using barrels of ink and a small forest to print the Catholic Advance over the decades, I will minimize the ink and paper used for this farewell.

It has been an honor to have served the faithful of the Diocese of Wichita. I have been blessed to assist four bishops in my tenure. Bishop Eugene J. Gerber was the first. He was followed by Bishop Thomas Olmsted, Bishop Michael Jackels, and our current shepherd, the Most Rev. Carl A. Kemme. The diocese has been blessed to have had these four exceedingly capable men occupy the bishop’s cathedra.

The Catholic Advance has changed significantly during their tenure.

I began editing the diocesan newspaper during the genesis of desktop publishing. Initially, articles for the Catholic Advance were given to a co-worker who retyped them onto narrow rolls of special paper on a machine that used a laser to “burn” the text onto special paper. The paper was run through a waxing machine and pasted onto large sheets of cardboard the size of the newspaper. Those completed sheets were then delivered to the printer who took pictures of the sheets to process metal plates used to print the Catholic Advance.

Photographs for the Catholic Advance were initially taken using black and white film. I recall spending many hours on Monday afternoons in a darkroom printing photos for the next edition. At the time the Catholic Advance was weekly.

With the help of Don McClane Jr., the Advance’s longtime (now-retired) production manager, I moved as quickly as possible to desktop publishing. That, along with digital photography and the internet, revolutionized the production of the diocesan newspaper.

The Catholic Advance was one of the first Catholic newspapers in the country to have a website. I don’t recall the exact year – that is lost in the ether of the internet – but it was as early as 2003. Don used .html and one of the early website-building applications to upload the weekly editions to the worldwide web.

Today, in addition to the printed Catholic Advance, the Office of Communications and the Advance staff oversee the production of a digitized version of the printed newspaper, various other printed material, a weekly e-newsletter, a diocesan website, video, and social media.

The Catholic Advance adopted all of the electronic methods of communication as they developed, but the objective of the diocesan Communications staff has always been the same: to help the bishop in his mission to get his flock to heaven. I pray the Catholic Advance has been and will continue to be a tool of information, evangelization, and sanctification for the bishop.

I have been brought to tears by the number of co-workers, friends, and acquaintances who have thanked me for my work as editor. Thank all of you who have assisted me throughout these years. You have been integral in the production of the newspaper.

I am passing my editorial pen to Del Torkelson. Please be as kind and responsive to his requests as you have been to mine. I will no longer edit the Catholic Advance but I will nominally be connected to the diocese in a small role updating diocesan history.

May God continue to bless you and the Diocese of Wichita.