Intermountain Catholic editor receives highest journalism award

Intermountain Catholic

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Barbara Stinson Lee, Editor of the Intermountain Catholic, stands with Daniel Wunaki to receive the Utah Press Association's Master Editor Publisher Award in St. George March 24. This award is the highest honor given by the professional organization of Utah journalists.IC photo by Christopher Gray

ST. GEORGE — Blue pencil at hand, Intermountain Catholic Editor Barbara Stinson Lee is comfortable offering help drawn from her years of experience at any stage of the preparation process for the paper she joined in 1986. Twenty years and almost a thousand issues later, Lee can recognize events of statewide importance before they are anything more than ideas kicked around a coffee table. However, through a major diocesan conspiracy, Lee was faced with something unforeseen: on March 24, Lee was honored with the Master Editor Publisher Award by the Utah Press Association, the highest individual recognition offered by the organization of professional Utah journalists.

Only the sixth woman of 46 Master Editors named by the UPA, Lee found her calling as a writer after having already studied drama and worked in health care. In the commemoration delivered to the Winter Convention of the UPA, Laurie Wynn of the Wasatch Wave said, "Like many people in newspapering, Lee didn’t specifically study journalism although she had a case of ‘writer’s itch’ that kept her putting words on paper.

"Along the way she made the acquaintance of the late Msgr. William McDougall, a Catholic priest who was placed in (the UPA’s) Hall of Fame in 1999. Lee began writing for a clever column called ‘Church Mouse’ in the paper he was editing – today’s Intermountain Catholic – and it whetted her desire to continue writing," said Wynn.

Now the author of the column "Off the Record," Lee sees her time at the head of the paper of the Diocese of Salt Lake City as an experience to witness the everyday faith stories touching the lives of Catholics throughout Utah. In an interview with her paper, Lee said, "Mission in the Diocese of Salt Lake City is of paramount importance, because we are a mission diocese. It would be impossible to work for the diocese and not have the mission ingrained in your very soul.

"We have some of the most remarkable missionaries here in this diocese. Msgr. Michael Winterer of Christ the King Parish in Cedar City, Diocesan Administrator Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald, and other priests, religious women like Sr. Yvonne Hatt of Cedar City who have done remarkable things, and the lay people of the diocese who keep the missions alive – all are extraordinary and I want to tell their stories. Theirs are the stories of the first Apostles, the early Christians who made the sign of the fish with their feet in the sand. That to me is what mission is about."

Lee continued, "In this very complicated world, in this very complex society where everything is so slick, I think we forget that the telling of simple faith stories and not-so-simple faith stories is the bedrock of what Christianity is. People’s personal experiences of Church and people’s personal experiences with their God. Their faith is so basic, so real, so sincere, and so moving that books and volumes could be written about the faith stories of the people

of Utah.

"I’ve traveled to 16 or 17 foreign countries with the Intermountain Catholic, but Utah is always best because what we have here is the essence of the universality of the church. People from all walks of life, people from all different countries, being one, just as they do it everywhere else, but they do it here together. We reflect a pilgrim church, we reflect a mission church, the early Christians, the first Apostles, the first disciples of Christ. That is why I do what I do," she said.

In a statement to the Intermountain Catholic, Diocesan Administrator Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald congratulated Lee saying, "She has been distinguished by her integrity and honesty, and has been a credit in the ministry of the Intermountain Catholic. We commend her on the occasion of this great honor."

Addressing the Utah journalists after receiving the award, Lee thanked former bishops of Salt Lake City Bishop William K. Weigand of Sacramento and Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco, Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald, husband Jack Lee, longtime UPA promoters Jim and Bette Cornwell of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Salt Lake City and others involved "in a wonderful and touching conspiracy to get me to St. George to accept the award.

"For the past 20 years, I have been blessed by talented people who have mentored me, gifted staff members who have supported me, and for 31 years a loving husband who has sacrificed greatly for the work I do. I can only try to give back to the diocese, the Intermountain Catholic and our readers, and the Utah Press Association some fraction of what I have received."