28,000 pages later, Origins founder to try life without deadlines

Published: 2007-03-28

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When David Gibson was asked to start a new version of a Catholic Church documentary service, the idea of providing texts of papal documents, bishops' speeches and scholarly papers with historical and news context was a bit radical. Thirty-six years later, Origins has evolved into a must-have service for bishops, scholars and parish staff who want to keep up with who's saying what in and about the church. And as Gibson, 65, heads into retirement after a career as the editor of Origins, he still talks with a sense of wonderment about what his baby has become. Days before he officially never had to worry again about the perpetual deadlines of the last 36 years, Gibson managed to take an interview that was supposed to be about himself and turn the discussion back to his pride about what Origins has become. "It is amazing to have that kind of legacy," he said, noting that about 28,000 pages of text have appeared under the Origins logo since 1971. "How many people have the reward of leaving something like that behind?"

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