WCAT Radio The Open Door (October 16, 2020)

This coming week on The Open Door we discuss Catholic journalism and publishing. We’re keen to explore, as well, the media landscape in a time of cultural confusion. Our welcome guest is Greg Erlandson. In 2016 he became Editor in Chief of Catholic News Service. CNS serves Catholic publications and dioceses throughout the United States and around the world. For 15 years Erlandson was President and Publisher of the Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division. He had served first as Editor in Chief at OSV Publishing. In 2014 he was one of six experts appointed by the Council of Cardinals to the Vatican Media Committee to propose reforms for the Vatican’s media operations. He is co-author of Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal (2010). Among the questions we’ll ask him are the following. Please feel free to suggest others! (October 16, 2020)

1. Can you give us an overview of Catholic journalism today, noting some of its highs and lows? What changes have your seen over the past several years?
2. How fares Catholic publishing today? What do you see happening in the next decade?
3. People first! What it is like for what some call “the ink-stained wretches” in Catholic journalism and publishing?
4. Please outline for us Bishop Burbidge’s new pastoral letter on communications.
5. What factors come into play in the ever shrinking number of newspapers of every sort?
6. Can you tell us about the challenges you see in the digital transformation of much of contemporary culture?
7. Is there a contest, both visible and invisible, between the word and the image? Is there a way to integrate them?
8. A final question: Who are some of the saints and heroes of Catholic journalism and publishing?