By Michael Motes

The GEORGIA BULLETIN was named second best among the newspapers in its field at award presentations on the final day of the Catholic Press Association convention in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

In the field were 50 Catholic newspapers from around the country with circulation under 17,000.

The judges said of the BULLETIN: “The GEORGIA BULLETIN is a most readable paper. The priest-editor seems not afraid of tackling anything or anybody –including two professional football players who roughed up a couple of sheriff’s deputies and were released after apologies. One sample of interest-provoking material in this paper is a caption on a photo of Fidel Castro receiving a Bible from a Chilean cardinal. It read: “Is Castro Convertible?”

The judges explained why the BULLETIN did not win first place: “The GEORGIA BULLETIN came in a very close second. What lost the crown was the flooding of pages 2 and 3 with ads; it was unfortunate that the issues submitted were circulated in the three weeks preceding Christmas.”

Finishing just ahead of the BULLETIN in first place was the SOUTHERN CROSS of the sister diocese of Savannah, a paper that, like the BULLETIN, is printed by the Chalker Publishing Company in Waynesboro, Ga. Fr. James Maciejewski, editor of the BULLETIN, congratulated the SOUTHERN CROSS and observed that the awards were a high tribute to the Chalker Publishing Company and to John Markwalter, who directs the composition of both papers in Waynesboro.

In third place was the CHURCH WORLD of Portland, Me. Following were MISSISSIPPI TODAY of Natchez, Miss., THE CATHOLIC MISSOURIAN of Jefferson City, Mo., and THE OBSERVER of Monterey, Calif.

Dr. Russell J. Jandoli, chairman of the Department of Journalism of St. Bonaventure (N.Y.) University, served as supervisor of judging.

The judges were: Frank Angelo, Detroit Free Press; Albert Bloom, THE JEWISH CHRONICLE; Donald E. Brown of Arizona State University; Millard Brown, BUFFALO EVENING NEWS; Erwin D. Canham, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR; Don Carter, MACON TELEGRAPH AND NEWS; Thomas E. Engleman, consultant, Princeton, N.J., Harry E. Heath Jr., Oklahoma State University; Edward Maher, former city editor, NEW YORK JOURNAL AMERICAN; Ted Majeski, UPI; C.S. McCarthy, Duquesne University; Dick Stroble, Associated Press; John Tebble, New York University; Charles A. Welsh, Associated Press; Ralph Williamson, HOME NEWS, and Kenneth L. Woodward, NEWSWEEK.