Two Things

Friday, Apr. 15, 2016

Every once in a while several people ask me the same question regarding the Intermountain Catholic. When that happens, I try to address the issue either by publishing an article about the matter, or, in this case, writing a column about it.

The question that prompted this particular column is whether the Intermountain Catholic will publish articles about the Catholics who have thrown their hats into the ring for upcoming local elections.

While it may seem obvious that we should profile them, we won’t. If we were to do so, we would be required by law to do the same for all the candidates, and we don’t want to be in the position of writing about someone whose position might be contrary to the tenets of the Catholic faith.

The same applies to political advertising. We can’t accept ads from only the Catholic candidates; it’s either we open it to all of them, or we take none of them. 

The part of me that keeps an eye on the budget urges me to take all the advertising, because it would significantly increase our bottom line, but the managing editor part of me overrules this temptation because I agree that our content should be in keeping with the tenets of the Catholic Church. (We had enough of a tempest last year caused by the ad for the Pregnancy Resource Center dinner – while the center offers live-saving alternatives to abortion, which is definitely a mission we Catholics support, I fielded several calls and emails from readers who were angry that the ad prominently displayed a photo of the dinner’s keynote speaker, Sarah Palin. My reply that she was appearing not as a political candidate but rather was bringing a pro-life message fell on deaf ears, as did pointing out that it was a paid advertisement, not editorial content.)

The second part of this column regards the Year of Mercy reflections series on page 3. Many people have told me how much they enjoy reading these, and I think they add a wonderful touch to the paper. However, we’re in danger of having to discontinue the series because we’ve run out of submissions.

This is entirely my fault. When we started the series, I worried that I would be inundated with submissions, so I only asked specific people to submit reflections, but now I need 16 more to take us through to November, which is when the Year of Mercy ends.

Therefore, I’m asking all the Catholics in Utah to consider writing a Year of Mercy reflection. The criteria are that the theme must be mercy, the piece must be no more than 300 words, and the content must be in keeping with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

I’m sure you’ve noticed how very different each reflection has been, and yet every one has brought a beautiful message. Some writers have focused on what mercy means to them, others have described a time when mercy touched their lives, while still others have based theirs on Scripture.

If you have a story to tell about mercy, I’d love to hear it. I’m willing to help with spelling, grammar, punctuation, finding the right phrasing, and getting the proper word count. (I am very strict about keeping it to 300 words, so if it’s too long, I will edit it to the proper length and send it back for approval.)

Oh. One other criterion: The reflections must be signed and include your parish affiliation. I won’t publish anything that’s anonymous or with a pseudonym. 

If you’d like to submit a reflection, please contact me at marie@icatholic.org or call 801-456-9340.