The final print edition of The Catholic Times, marks the end of 151 years in which the news of the Diocese of Columbus has been reported by one of three print publications – The Catholic Columbian from 1875 to 1939, The Columbus Register from 1940 to October 1951, and The Catholic Times since then.
RELATED: The Catholic Times moving to all-digital reporting
Stories in those newspapers have covered the tenures of 13 bishops of the diocese and 12 popes, as well as 28 presidents of the United States and 37 governors of Ohio.
Since 1875, the print newspaper has been an important means of communicating with the people of the diocese’s 23 counties. But the internet and other forms of technology have changed the communications landscape, allowing the diocese to refocus its resources to reach as many people as possible in a more cost-effective manner, and so the Times is realigning to an all-digital format.
A similar switch is occurring at newspapers in dioceses around the nation, including Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo and Youngstown in Ohio, as well as New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Pittsburgh and the national Our Sunday Visitor newspaper. All have either switched to all-digital or gone to a monthly or quarterly magazine format.
In addition, many large cities no longer have secular print newspapers, including Atlanta; Newark, New Jersey; Salt Lake City; Little Rock, Arkansas and soon, Pittsburgh, where the Post-Gazette, the oldest newspaper west of the Allegheny Mountains, plans to cease operations after 240 consecutive years of publication.
The forerunner of the three Columbus diocesan newspapers appeared in 1874, six years after the diocese was founded. Its genesis was an event familiar to American Catholics in any era — a parish festival. This festival was designed to raise money to build St. Joseph Cathedral, which was under construction at the time and completed in 1878.
Columbus’ first bishop, Sylvester Rosecrans, appointed a first-year seminarian named Dennis Clarke to put together a daily promotional bulletin about the event. The four-page festival publication (three pages of advertisements, one of publicity) was called the Cathedral Fair Messenger and was issued from Oct. 26 through early November to coincide with the festival’s run.
Bishop Rosecrans must have been pleased with the publication because its last issue included a notice that “a Catholic weekly in Columbus may date its origin with the dawn of the last quarter of the nineteenth century.”
The Catholic Columbian fulfilled that prediction with an issue dated Jan. 9, 1975, “under the immediate and entire control of the Rt. Rev. S.H. Rosecrans.” Clarke was business manager and the bishop wrote the editorials, a practice he continued until his death three years later just after the cathedral was completed. Its front page included the motto, “This Is the Victory Which Overcometh the World — Our Faith,” which the paper retained throughout its 64-year history.
Like most small newspapers of the day, it contained relatively few local items and was mostly made up of stories taken from other publications and from letters sent from around the diocese and elsewhere. The biggest local story in the first edition was announcement that Bishop Rosecrans had been selected as one of 19 American prelates with the privilege of assisting at the papal throne during Masses celebrated by Pope Pius IX.
Other local briefs informed readers that the Feast of the Epiphany, Jan. 6, was a holy day of obligation; that the Dominican Sisters of Sacred Heart Convent at Seventh and Broad streets were prepared to teach music, French and drawing; and that Father Gallagher, president of St. Aloysius Seminary on West Broad Street in Columbus, had visited the office of the new publication. In an era when trains were the principal means of intercity travel, a railroad timetable was included.
Clarke remained with the paper, became a priest in 1879 and was appointed chaplain of the Ohio Penitentiary, then located downtown in what’s now known as the Arena District. He sold a part interest in the Columbian to John Kuster one year later.
Father Clarke took an extended leave of absence because of illness in 1883 and sold the rest of the paper to Kuster in 1884. He then became pastor of Columbus Holy Family Church, where he remained until his death in 1920.
Kuster was publisher until he became ill in 1905 and sold the Columbian to James T. Carroll, who, along with his son, Thomas, published it until 1938. Through the years, it included a mixture of local and national Church news, stories explaining Catholic teaching, editorials, columns, short fiction, including serials, and poetry.
For the most part, it retained the look of the first issue, with columns filled with small type, headlines rarely more than two columns wide and few photos or other illustrations.
One of its most popular features was the weekly “Catholic Viewpoint” column written in the early 20th century by “R.C. Gleaner.” The “R.C.” stood for “Roman Catholic” and was a pen name for Father L.W. Mulhane, pastor of Mount Vernon St. Vincent de Paul Church. Father Mulhane’s column continued through 1924, one year before his death.
In 1938, faced with declining circulation, the Carrolls tried to sell the newspaper. Eventually, they gave it to Bishop James J. Hartley. A newly formed company would look after the material publication, while the bishop could encourage and direct the editing without incurring any financial obligation. Father Herman Mattingly was editor at this point and Father Paul Glenn, philosophy professor at Columbus St. Charles Seminary, had begun a column called “By the Way.”
It’s not known for certain when the Columbian published its last issue. Several histories of the diocese say the date was Dec. 30, 1938. However, the diocesan Catholic Record Society has a 65th anniversary issue dated Aug. 18, 1939.
The Register took its place at the start of 1940. It was part of a national chain of diocesan newspapers published under the Register name, all of which included the national edition of the Register, which continues to be published today, plus the diocesan newspaper as a separate section.
This was an economical practice but had one tremendous drawback for the Columbus diocese. All editions of the Register were printed and designed at the national newspaper’s plant in Denver, 1,160 miles from Columbus, so most of the paper’s stories were several days old before they reached readers.
People who were used to the staid look of the Columbian may have received quite a jolt when the first edition of the Register, dated Jan. 5, 1940 (single-copy price two cents), appeared in their mailboxes.
The new publication matched the look of its national counterpart, with eight-column streamer headlines across the top of both the first (local) and second (national) sections, more pictures and artwork and a more eye-catching appearance in general.
“The paper belongs entirely to the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Columbus, and its chief ambition is to bring every week to each family and individual of the diocese an interesting and instructive view of the daily life of the Church at home and abroad,” Bishop Hartley wrote in the first edition. “Of course, the true Catholic viewpoint upon all moral and social questions will always be clearly set forth by the priests whom the Bishop has approved to edit the paper.”
Front-page news in the first issue included a Holy Name Society rally scheduled at the cathedral, an announcement of a talk by Oklahoma City Bishop Francis Kelley at St. Mary of the Springs College (now Ohio Dominican University) on the future of Christianity, a story on three Dominican sisters celebrating golden jubilees, and a photo of prominent scientists who had gathered in Columbus for a meeting of the Catholic Round Table of Science.
Running down the first column on the left side of the paper, a spot it was to occupy for the duration of the publication’s existence, was Father Glenn’s column, now titled “As We Were Saying.” Father (later Msgr.) Glenn never left any doubt as to where he stood on matters of faith. He would not hesitate to attack any hint of anti-Catholic bias at a time when many Catholics in the United States felt they were being treated as second-class citizens.
Msgr. Mattingly’s 1975 history of 100 years of Catholic newspapers in the diocese notes that Msgr. Glenn in 1944 “received considerable criticism for his own castigation of the very popular movie ‘Going My Way.’” Msgr. Glenn said that if he were to rate the movie, he would place it in the “Condemned” category of the Legion of Decency, a Catholic organization that once rated films on their artistic merit and moral suitability.
Msgr. Glenn said Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald’s portrayal of two Catholic priests in an urban parish lacked real understanding of the Church and the priesthood. “(The film) deals with the sheerest superficialities and even with these it does not deal honestly,” he wrote.
Major local stories covered by the newspaper included the death of Bishop Hartley and the appointment of his successor, Bishop Michael Ready, in 1944, the realignment of diocesan boundaries in that same year that led to creation of the Diocese of Steubenville and to the current configuration of the diocese, and the growth after World War II that resulted in creation of several parishes in suburban Columbus.
The final edition of the Register was dated Sept. 28, 1951. One week earlier, an announcement appeared saying the paper’s name would be changed and it would be printed locally.
The first issue of the renamed Catholic Times, dated Oct. 5, 1951, was printed by the Hilltop Record, a weekly newspaper serving Columbus’ west side. The front page was much less cluttered in appearance than that of its predecessor, whose page makeup matched that of the national Register of that era.
It contained a mixture of local and national news. Locally, the main stories were about plans for meetings in Columbus of the national Catholic Conference on Industrial Practices and the Midwest Clergy Conference on Negro Welfare during the week ahead.
Also highlighted were reports on the first general meeting of the diocesan St. Vincent de Paul Society and the diocesan Council on Catholic Women’s annual convention. Worldwide, the news included a plea by Pope Pius XII for family recitation of the Rosary and a speech by President Harry Truman on America’s religious heritage in which he said the nation’s greatest hope of victory over communism “lies in the God we acknowledge as the ruler of all.”
Msgr. Mattingly continued as editor, giving him the distinction of editing all three weekly newspapers that have served the diocese. Msgr. Glenn’s column, renamed “Just Among Ourselves,” was retained and continued until his death in May 1957.
Msgr. Mattingly had been appointed pastor of Columbus Holy Rosary Church in 1950, and because his pastoral work was taking an increasing amount of time, he resigned as editor in 1954. He was succeeded by Father David Dennis and returned as editor briefly in 1958, editing the paper from the Holy Rosary rectory, after Father Dennis left the priesthood.
The description of “Renaissance man” would be a fitting one for Msgr. Mattingly, a priest for 55 years and a pastor for most of that time, in addition to being a teacher, scholar, historian, radio broadcaster and editor. He had two bachelor’s and two master’s degrees and two honorary doctorates, and taught religion, science and mathematics at the former
Columbus St. Charles Seminary from 1929 to 1948. After retiring as a pastor in 1974, he headed the Catholic Record Society, an organization he helped establish to preserve archival materials for the diocese. He died at age 82 in 1984.
Father George Fulcher became editor of the newspaper in June 1958 and stayed in the position until early 1967. He became auxiliary bishop of Columbus nine years later and, in 1983, was installed as bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette, Indiana, a position he held for less than one year before dying in an auto accident in early 1984.
In 1966, the printing functions for the newspaper were transferred to the national Catholic weekly Our Sunday Visitor of Huntington, Indiana, an arrangement that lasted until 1972. During that period, the masthead of the Times listed it as an edition of the Visitor and a copy of that paper was included with each issue of the Times. Father Fulcher was succeeded as editor in 1967 by Father James Hanley.
Three years later, Bishop Clarence Elwell appointed Mike Collins as the first layman to serve as editor of the paper. Father John Geiger was listed as managing editor, but his functions were those of a business manager. Collins spent his entire 42-year career in journalism with the newspaper before retiring on Jan. 30, 2004, just 12 days before his unexpected death at age 65.
Collins, a graduate of Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School, was hired by the Times as a staff writer in 1962 soon after receiving a degree from Ohio State University in English. He became news editor in 1966 and editor four years later. After 25 years as editor, he was succeeded by Father W. Thomas Kessler in 1995. Collins then became consulting editor, a title he held until his retirement.
“Mike was a very intelligent man,” said Lou Fabro Sr., who himself had a long career with the newspaper, serving as its sports editor on a part-time basis from 1957 to 1987. “He had an encyclopedic mind. He could find anything quickly or know where it could be found. He was an excellent writer and very devoted to the faith. He loved reading, and it’s a shame he died before he got a chance to read all the books he wanted to once he retired.”
In a retirement interview with the Times, Collins described working with the newspaper as “one of the few jobs a person can do today where you can see the results of your labor. Every week you can see what you’ve done. There it is.”
He said his proudest achievement as a reporter was the paper’s 1968 issue commemorating the 100th anniversary of the diocese. “I wrote everything (in that issue) that wasn’t written by either James Thurber or Willa Cather,” Collins said. “It was really beyond the staff’s capacity, but I was too young and stupid to know that.”
Collins was editor in 1972 when the newspaper switched from broadsheet size to its current tabloid format and returned to being printed locally. Father Kessler was succeeded as editor in 1998 by Mark Moretti and in 2007 by David Garick, who had been a reporter for WOSU radio in Columbus.
Under Garick, the newspaper increased its local content, switched to more of a magazine-style format, added more color pages and more color and black-and-white photos and began placing more emphasis on its website.
News stories during Garick’s time as editor included the National Catholic Youth Conference in 2007, which attracted 20,000 young people to Nationwide Arena and the Greater Columbus Convention Center, the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 and the election of Pope Francis as his successor later that year. Between 2007 and 2017, the Times published profiles of every parish in the diocese.
Garick retired at the end of 2017 and was succeeded by Doug Bean, formerly of The Columbus Dispatch. In Bean’s eight years as editor, the Times focused more closely on local content. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the newspaper permanently transitioned from a weekly to biweekly publication. The paper also increased in size, going from an average of 16 to 20 pages to a 28- to 32-page standard size. Though retaining its tabloid format, the pages recently became larger in size, and the print and photo quality continued to improve.
The paper published large issues when Bishop Frederick Campbell was succeeded by Bishop Robert Brennan in 2019 and when Bishop Earl Fernandes was consecrated three years later to succeeded Bishop Brennan, now bishop of Brooklyn, New York.
Recent major news stories include the effects of the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV in 2025; the SEEK26 conference at the beginning of this year in Columbus, attended by more than 16,000 Catholics, most of them college students; the continuing impact of the diocese’s Real Presence, Real Future restructuring plan; the growth of the diocese’s Catholic population to about 505,000 as members of multiple ethnic and cultural groups have come to central and southern Ohio; a significant increase in the number of young men from the diocese studying for the priesthood; the passing of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage through the diocese in 2024; and the recent announcement that Ave Maria Academy, the first new diocesan grade school in 30 years, will open in the fall to serve Columbus-Powell St. Peter St. Joan of Arc Parish..
The meaningful stories of the Diocese of Columbus will continue to be told on The Catholic Times website.
