Earlier this month – April 4, to be exact – The Tablet began its 100th year of publication. You will notice on our front page that the masthead will tell you this edition is part of Volume 100 of The Tablet. Next April 4, we will be 100 years old.

Naturally, we are planning a series of celebrations to mark this auspicious occasion. Details will be forthcoming, but suffice it to say now that in February Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio will be the main celebrant at a Centennial Jubilee Mass to be offered at St. James Cathedral-Basilica. In April, there will be a Centennial Dinner at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. Anyone who attended our 95th year celebration in 2003 can attest that we know how to have a party.

Updated History

Also, there are plans for an updating of The Tablet’s history. In 1983, when we marked our 75th anniversary, then-Father Alden Brown penned a popular history of the diocesan newsweekly. The assignment for bringing us all up to date has gone to Patrick McNamara, the assistant archivist of the diocese, who holds a Ph.D. in church history. Hopefully, the book will be completed for distribution at the dinner.

As with any celebration, a working committee has been formed. It will be expanded as we move closer to the events of the anniversary.

Just as the Church has changed tremendously in the past 100 years, so too has The Tablet. It can be said that The Tablet has reflected the tenor of the times as it has been published all these years. That would be in keeping with Pope Paul VI’s metaphor of the Catholic Press as a mirror to the times in which it exists. Look at what’s going on in the Church and that should be what is found on the pages of your Catholic newspaper.

There has been great interest in the history of the paper. If you have been following the letters to the editor, you will notice these past few weeks that readers have been debating the contribution made by Patrick F. Scanlan, Editor of The Tablet from 1917 to 1968. Scanlan, a controversial figure, was clearly a product of his times. His fiery style and eloquent pen made The Tablet a must read across the entire country in the 1940s and 1950s.

Times changed and those changes called for a change in the leadership of The Tablet in 1968 when Don Zirkel, who worked many years under Scanlan, became the Editor of the Post-Vatican II era. When Deacon Zirkel left to pursue other ventures in 1985, the structure of the paper changed again and I was asked to be responsible for the editorial side. In the past 80 years, there have been only three editors. These days, Zirkel can be found in Suffolk County where he lives in retirement and remains busy with his ministry as a deacon.

What form The Tablet will take in the coming years is a matter of great discussion these days. Again we have had a structural change with Father Kieran Harrington’s appointment as Vicar for Communications. The move has been to coordinate the various communication tools of the diocese into a unified effort.

Bishop DiMarzio has challenged us all to look at our efforts in new ways, but he has assured us that he is firmly committed to publishing the diocesan newspaper.

We are currently studying new ways to distribute the paper, new ways of attracting advertisers, new ways to reach newcomers to the diocese. There are no simple answers but we certainly know what the questions are.

The struggles we have as a religious business venture are not unique to us. They are the same problems that the approximately 160 diocesan newspapers in the United States and Canada wrestle with every day.

History Repeats Itself

In a sense, it is history repeating itself. In its infancy, The Tablet struggled mightily. In its first year of existence, under private ownership, the financial problems were staggering. It wasn’t until Christmas 1909 when Brooklyn’s second bishop, Bishop Charles McDonnell bought the paper for $3,600 that it achieved some sort of financial stability. Ever since that day it has been the official publication of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

We’re working so that history will again repeat itself and The Tablet will once again achieve some of the lofty circulation and financial figures that it enjoyed in the past. From its very first editions, The Tablet presented an authoritative and comprehensive picture of what was happening in the Church. We pledge to continue to do so and we encourage you all to participate in our centennial events as they take place next year.