BY FATHER JAMES MACIEJEWSKI

The “30” mark is part of the jargon of journalists. It’s a sign that a story or a report has ended.

With this column and this edition I’m writing ”30” to my work as editor of the BULLETIN.

I leave with a bittersweet sense of nostalgia and a sack full of indelible memories.

Memories of events and places, but mostly memories of people.

People like Michael Motes, with whom I’ve had an extraordinary three-fold relationship. He has been my friend, my associate editor and my parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle parish.

And Marie Mulvenna, our other associate editor, who worked so tirelessly for the paper while suffering a long disabling illness. So many of our feature stories originate with the ideas that were hers.

And Leonard Markun, our relentless and indefatigable advertising manager. A paradox inasmuch as he is a Jew working for the Catholic press, he’s also one of the most decent people I’ve ever known.

And Dave McGill, a “convicted Christian,” in the idiom of the Jesus people, who has never taken a dime for his work as cartoonist. We must be one of the only Catholic papers in the country with our own cartoonist.

And Teresa Gernazian, an always-smiling lady whose faith and optimism have never been dimmed, even when she lost her beloved husband Harry so suddenly. I still wonder how she keeps coming up with fresh ideas for columns.

And John Markwalter, who oversees the composition and printing of the paper in Waynesboro. John is a real “man of the Church” who well deserves the ecclesiastical honors that have come his way.

And Owen Campion, the very able editor of the Catholic paper in Nashville who became my very good friend and confidant.

And Gerry Costello and Henry Gosselin, wise old heads who edit Catholic papers in Paterson and Portland, who let me pick their brains when I was just a novice newsman in 1971.

All my thanks to these good people and to many others I don’t have space to mention. It’s to their credit that I can leave with the happy feeling that the indicators or quality are favorable. By that I mean that the circulation is steady and the advertising revenue is up. The many letters to the editor, even when they’re quite critical, indicate an interested readership. And we’ve had the good fortune to receive professional recognition within the Atlanta secular community and from the national Catholic press.

As I look back I won’t forget, I won’t regret but I won’t miss the long Mondays that yawned into Tuesdays when I ended a night’s work in a pre-dawn breakfast with Michael at the Marriott.

And I have the same feeling about those early Wednesday mornings – rising at 3 o’clock to research and write an editorial and sometimes a column.

I’ve been re-reading the first column that I wrote when I became editor in 1971. I said:

“My aim as editor is to make the BULLETIN a vehicle for information, a forum for dialog and an instrument for teaching…This newspaper should be to its readers both a challenge and a comfort. It should respect diversity and promote unity. It should transmit cherished heritage in modern idiom.”

We’ve tried to stay true to that vision, and you as readers are the best judges of whether we’ve succeeded. We’ve taken our lumps, often justifiably. On days when I though we were taking some cheap shots, I used to like to look up to the bulletin board above my desk, where I long ago put up the words of Bishop Leo Pursley:

“If Jesus Christ himself were editor, with the four evangelist as staff writers, some readers would not be pleased.”

On this same point, there’s something I’ve always wanted to say, and I guess this is my last chance to say it, namely, that some of our most strident critics fail to understand the difference between advocacy (the subjective opinion which appears in our editorials, columns and letters) and reporting (an objective effort to transmit the news without slant or bias). Some readers just don’t understand what a news report is.

It’s like what David Brinkley once said about broadcast journalism:

“We reach a lot of people who don’t really understand what news is. They don’t understand what journalism is. They don’t understand what a reporter is. They have the idea that when we put something on the air it means we like it. It means we advocate it, support it, believe in it. They simply don’t understand that our job is to tell what happened, whether we like it or not.”

In addition to whatever pain such problems present, there are some big financial problems that lie ahead for the press. Postal rates are shooting for the stratosphere and the cost of newsprint is rising rapidly too. Some creative thinking will be needed to solve such problems.

Nevertheless I wrap up three years of work with a confirmed and unshakable opinion about the value of the Catholic press. I know of no other way the Church can do such a comprehensive job of communication so cheaply. An eager and lively diocesan press is simply essential for the vigor of the local Church.

As for my job as editor of this paper, it has been exhausting and sometimes frustrating, yet fulfilling and even exciting. I thank the archbishop that I had this opportunity to reach and touch so many people.

This particular column has certainly not been the best I’ve ever written for the BULLETIN. From the standpoint of style it may be the worst. But it’s my heart rather than my head that put these thoughts down.