After 100 Years, 3 Names and 5 Bishops, Today’s Catholic Prints Its Last Issue — and Hands the Mission to Vibrant Catholic The story of this newspaper begins not with a press run but with a problem. In the early years of the 20th century, anti-Catholic sentiment ran high across America, and misi nformation about the Church circulated freely in the popular press. Bishop John F. Noll of Fort Wayne — a tireless priest-journalist who had founded Our Sunday Visitor as a national weekly in 1912 — understood that the antidote to falsehood was truth, delivered directly into the hands of the faithful. On January 3, 1926, under the masthead of Our Sunday Visitor — Fort Wayne Diocesan Edition, that vision took root in northern Indiana. The paper’s purpose, as Bishop Noll articulated it, was unambiguous: The mission of the Catholic press, he wrote, “must be identical with the mission of the Church — namely, to teach, to promote the interests of Christ actively, to defend His religion against the slanderous accusations of its enemies.” For the next 100 years — across three names and five bishops — every editor, writer, photographer, advertising executive and designer who passed through these pages would be, in one way or another, its steward. As the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend prepares to write the next chapter in its story with the upcoming launch of its new quarterly magazine, Vibrant Catholic, we take this opportunity to look back at the legacy of the newspaper told by the men and women who made it their vocation to share the stories of the Church — within the boundaries of the diocese and beyond. 100 Years of Telling the Story of the Church Our Sunday Visitor — Fort Wayne Diocesan Edition  •  The Harmonizer  •  Today’s Catholic On January 3, 1926, under the masthead of Our Sunday Visitor — Fort Wayne Diocesan Edition, Bishop Noll’s vision took root in northern Indiana. It’s worth repeating here: “The mission of the Catholic press evidently must be identical with the mission of the Church,” he wrote, “namely to teach, to promote the interests of Christ actively, to defend His religion against the slanderous accusations of its enemies, to analyze national movements and world problems in accordance with the Christian philosophy.” It was a declaration as much as a mission statement. Through the decades that followed, the diocesan paper chronicled the full sweep of Catholic life in northern Indiana and the wider world — the death of Archbishop Noll in 1956, the renaming of the diocese as Fort Wayne-South Bend in 1960, the upheaval and renewal of the Second Vatican Council, the shift to the English Mass. When President Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963, the front page bore both the grief of a nation and the particular sorrow of its Catholic readers. In 1972, Bishop Leo A. Pursley invited readers to give the paper a new name. The winning entry — The Harmonizer, submitted by Monsignor Thomas L. Durkin, rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception — captured both the spirit of the times and the enduring purpose of the press. An editorial in the issue announcing the name change stated: “This is a day of contention and strife. … But into all this is introduced The Harmonizer. It indicates a mission whose sole purpose is to create harmony through the constant presentation of truth and understanding.” On October 26, 1986, the paper became Today’s Catholic, passing from the national stewardship of Our Sunday Visitor into the full editorial care of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. The People in the Pages What does it mean to cover the Church for a living? Ask anyone who has done it and the answers tend to circle back to the same place: the people. Ann Carey came to Today’s Catholic by a path that was anything but direct. She had wanted to be a journalist since childhood, but life intervened. She married, moved to South Bend, waited until her youngest was in school, and then wrote an article about a local Catholic endeavor and mailed it to the paper. A few days later, editor Lou Jacquet called. “It’s wonderful to find someone who knows the difference between a noun and a verb!” Carey remembers him saying. He apologized that he could pay only $10 an article. She didn’t care. That was 1981. Her last article ran in 2026 — 45 years of chronicling the life of the diocese. “Even if I had received an advanced degree in theology,” she reflected, “I don’t think I would have had the diverse education in the faith that I received during my 45 years of writing articles on various topics related to Catholicism.” Jill Boughton sent her first article to editor John Ankenbruck in 1987 and has been writing for the paper ever since — sometimes, she recalled, conducting interviews or attending events “accompanied by a baby or my mother-in-law, who spent her final years in our home.” Among the hundreds of stories Denise Fedorow wrote in her 25 years as a freelance writer, she said a few stand out. She spent years following the formation of the diocese’s first Hispanic deacon class, attending their classes and retreats, and witnessing their ordination. She wrote about a DACA recipient whose story was picked up by Catholic News Service. “Those stories stayed with me,” she said, “because I learned more about the difficulties they endure, and it made me wish that those people who criticize them would remember we were all once immigrants.” Don Clemmer, who served as an assistant editor, put the work in the simplest possible terms: “This diocese bustles with countless stories of faith lived out in our local communities in beautiful ways. Today’s Catholic had the challenge and privilege of capturing those stories and sharing them with our readers.” For Jodi Marlin, who served as editor from 2016 to 2022, the most memorable moments were often the quietest — interviews with people “who shared their faith timidly, maybe because they weren’t sure how it would be received.” It was in those moments, she said, that the paper’s deeper purpose revealed itself. “Secular journalism connects members of the community … on a superficial level. Catholic journalism connects them in a salvific way. It’s a daunting responsibility, but a holy one.” Lou Jacquet, who edited The Harmonizer from 1980 to 1984, came to Fort Wayne as a 30-year-old first-time editor and found himself welcomed like family. What stayed with him was what the work taught him about the bond between an editor and his bishop. “No secrets between us, Lou,” Jacquet recalled Bishop William McManus telling him on his first day — a bishop he described as a colorful, fascinating character who invited the staff to dinner at his home and cooked the chicken himself. Bishop McManus often shared ideas of what might be worth covering but left the content and style to his editors. “I came to the role with some journalistic reporting and editing skills,” Jacquet said, “but my time as editor in Indiana taught me to share from the heart — in columns, editorials, and parish visits — and that readers would respond by sharing their hearts, and their stories as well.” Matt Scheiber, who served as interim editor of The Harmonizer in the mid-1980s, came to the paper after spending most of his journalism career at the monthly magazine U.S. Catholic. He found that a weekly was a different animal entirely. “I wasn’t well prepared for the responsibilities of editing a weekly newspaper,” he admitted. What carried him through was the newsroom around him. “I drew on the enormous generosity and kindness of the small Harmonizer staff and the editorial, artistic, and printing staff at OSV to help me get the paper published each week.” It was, he said, “a turbulent and fascinating time to be editing a Catholic newspaper.” William Cone, who edited the paper from 1998 to 2003, came to Fort Wayne-South Bend from Florida when Bishop D’Arcy named him editor — and like Jacquet, he found the bond with his bishop to be near the heart of the work. He remembered walking with Bishop D’Arcy in Toronto during World Youth Day, telling him about his father’s fatal illness. “He was so comforting,” Cone said. Cone added that while it’s the preference of most writers and editors to stay out of the spotlight, himself included — “I try to be invisible when I’m working” — that proved impossible one day while he was covering a school Mass with the bishop in the gym at Saint Joseph High School. Unsure whether his microphone was working, Cone remembers Bishop D’Arcy yelling from across the gym, “Can you hear me up there, Bill!?” “My cover was blown big time,” Cone said. Tim Johnson was the longest-serving editor of Today’s Catholic, as his nearly 13 years at the helm (2003-16) were bested only by Bill Fink’s 23-year-run (1935-58) leading Our Sunday Visitor — Fort Wayne Diocesan Edition. Asked which moment from his years in the editor’s seat has stayed with him most, Johnson’s mind wandered to Rome. In October of 2006, he traveled to the Vatican with Bishop D’Arcy and a small group of diocesan priests for the canonization of St. Mother Theodore Guérin, who founded the first Catholic school in Fort Wayne on the grounds of what is now the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Johnson and Bishop D’Arcy stayed at the Casa Santa Marta, the guesthouse adjacent to St. Peter’s Basilica. On the morning of the canonization, Johnson woke to open windows, church bells ringing and a choir rehearsing in the distance. “I remember thinking, I must be in heaven.” Johnson continued: “For a kid from Yoder to visit Rome with my bishop as my guide, surrounded by some of my favorite priests … it was an experience I’ll never forget,” he said. “Walking through the streets of Rome with Bishop D’Arcy while talking about my parish in Yoder gave me a profound sense of how deeply connected our local Church is to the universal Church.” It is, perhaps, the perfect image of what this newspaper has always tried to do: take the Catholics of northern Indiana — from Yoder and Goshen and Bluffton and South Bend and everywhere in between — and help them feel the breadth and beauty of the Church to which they belong. The Next Chapter After having written her first article in 1981 and her last earlier this year, Ann Carey admitted to “shedding a tear or two” at the thought of the closing of Today’s Catholic. “I understood Today’s Catholic to be an evangelizing tool,” she said, “and my role as a Catholic journalist was a ministry I was privileged to practice in a profession I loved.” That ministry does not end with this issue. Many of those who shared their stories — in this article and others stretching back decades — will continue to write for Vibrant Catholic. Bishop Rhoades’ vision for this new quarterly magazine carries forward the same restless conviction that drove Archbishop Noll to a printing press more than a century ago: that the people of the Church deserve to be informed, connected and inspired, and that someone ought to see to it. For 100 years, that someone was us. We are privileged to carry on this vital work as we begin the next 100 years. Scott Warden is editor-in-chief of Today’s Catholic. The post Turning the Page appeared first on Today's Catholic. ...read more read less