Special events are being planned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first edition of The Tablet. At least one has suddenly taken a delightful turn.

The Centennial Mass, which will be celebrated Sunday, Feb. 24, at St. James Cathedral in Downtown Brooklyn, also will serve as the occasion to honor our Associate Publisher, Frank DeRosa, for his 50 years of service to the Diocese of Brooklyn. Frank, whose main job is as director of the Diocesan Public Information Office, will be the guest of honor at the reception in St. James Pavilion following the liturgy.

Frank began his career as a reporter for The Tablet in 1958. For the next 50 years, every diocesan position he has held has interacted in some way with The Tablet. When he left the paper’s staff in 1968, he moved over to the Chancery where he worked with Msgr. Thomas Flanagan in the Public Information Office. That’s the place members of the press will call when they are looking for official reaction to news items from diocesan officials. For many years, he was the voice of the Brooklyn Diocese with radio spots on WOR radio and TV shows on WOR-TV.

Part of Frank’s job there has been as liaison to The Tablet. He issued press releases, secured diocesan assignments, and set up interview opportunities for us. Twelve years ago when the associate publisher’s slot became vacant, Bishop Thomas V. Daily turned to Frank and said, “Why don’t you take the job, you know more about what’s going on there than anyone else.”

And so he did. The result has been the cementing of a wonderful relationship between the diocesan newspaper and diocesan officials at the Chancery. No lay person is as well-respected and as equipped to represent the Diocese of Brooklyn as Frank DeRosa. Among members of the secular media, Frank’s name is synonymous with fair play, cooperation, and good will. Many secular journalists have volunteered for pro bono projects with the diocese based on their friendly relations with Frank DeRosa.

Plans for the celebration to honor Frank are incomplete at this time. But the details will evolve as we get closer to the date. I announce this special occasion here because more than once someone has said to me that they would like to be notified if anything was being held for Frank DeRosa because they wanted to be part of it. So, here’s your chance to say thank you to someone who has been so much a part of diocesan life for the past 50 years and who has been part of half of The Tablet’s history.

Invitations to the affair have gone out to all former Tablet employees, past and present members of the board of directors, and editorial advisory board, as well as to special friends of The Tablet. If you have not received that mailing, please call us and update your mailing information.

On Friday, April 11, a gala dinner in honor of The Tablet’s 100th birthday will be held at the Brooklyn Marriott Hotel. Hundreds are expected to turn out for that event which will feature a talk by Cardinal John P. Foley, a former Catholic Press editor who now serves at the Vatican as the Grand Master for the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre.

It promises to be an eventful year. Even as we celebrate our past, we look to the future with the additions of several new features. You may have noticed the new monthly column by Father Tad Pacholczyk on Making Sense Out of Bioethics. Also we are in the midst of running a series on The Feminine Genius (see Page 18 for the second installment). And we are hoping to give the paper an entire new look by year’s end, with changes in layout and design that will help make it an even more interesting read.

We hope all of you will be joining in the festivities at some time during the year. Attending the Mass and honoring Frank DeRosa on Feb. 24 would be a great start.

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Some readers have complained about the use of the word Xmas in our look back last week at a past edition of The Tablet. We used the word because that is how it appeared in 1912 on the front page of the Jan. 13 edition.

I am sure that The Tablet’s staff at the time meant no disrespect to the celebration of Christmas. Historically speaking, the Church was not involved in the same cultural war on Christmas as it is today.

Also back then, the newspaper columns were quite narrow and hard type had to be condensed into the shortest number of letters. The case for Xmas could have been made since the Greek letter chi (our X) and the rho (our R) was an early Church symbol for the Greek word for Christ. The symbol can still be seen on some Mass vestments. The Tablet, in 1912, was using the X as a shortened form of the chi rho.

Today, it’s different; such a symbol is rightfully interpreted as an opportunity for leaving Christ out of Christmas. Certainly no one knows that more than The Tablet which has been championing the campaign to keep Christ in our present circumstances.

Our use of the X last week was simply in keeping with historical accuracy and should not be construed to be anything but that.