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December 2008 Editorial
There is a time for everything, “a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted” (Eccl 3:2).
Despite our best, indeed, heroic efforts, we, the editorial staff of The Word, have been forced to face the cruel and sad reality that, due to circumstances entirely outside our control, the time has come to pluck up what was planted over seventy years ago: The Word - a magazine truly worthy of the magnanimous spirit of St Arnold Janssen, the founder of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD). This is also a time to give thanks to so many, and for so much.
In the first place, our thanks are due to you, our readers, subscribers and promoters. I would like in particular to mention our promoters. You have sacrificed so much of your time, effort, and money, to “spread The Word” in season and out of season, many of you for 20, 30, 40, even 50 years. How can I express our thanks to you? How can I express the gratitude of my fellow-SVD missionaries in Ireland and abroad, many of whom (like myself) got their vocation through The Word and whom you supported so generously in prayer and with material help? I cannot. Only the good Lord Himself can reward you. He will. Please be assured of a continual presence in our prayers.
My thanks are due to the Editorial Board, always generous in its advice and never-failing in its encouragement – but also willing to devote selfless hours to the often tedious task of proofreading. Special thanks are due to our printers, in the first place our own Brothers in the SVD Printing Press in Steyl, Holland. They set the highest standard. More recently, Irish printers, such as Smurfits/Microprint and Boylans have maintained the original high standard.
Hidden behind the ancient walls of Donamon Castle, the office and printing-press staff organized the distribution of the magazine with unfailing efficiency. My thanks to each one of them. I also thank Fr Gerard McCarthy, SVD, and all his predecessors, who, as Rectors of the Donamon Community, were responsible not only for the office but who, over the years, have dealt with correspondence of a pastoral nature.
Here we remember with affection and gratitude the late Bro Oliver Moynihan, SVD, who was unstinting in his attention to the pastoral needs of our promoters and subscribers. Our thanks also go to Bro Pat Hegarty, SVD, who set up the original network of promoters in Ireland. A final word of thanks to the many SVD superiors down the years who supported the magazine and who, to the best of their ability, struggled to keep it afloat despite negative trends in Church and society.
Since news of the closure of The Word spread, we have been inundated with testimonies of gratitude for the magazine. Thank you. It is encouraging to know that we had become a treasured feature in your lives and, for many, even part of your spirituality. This is a tribute to the quality of the articles written by authors, many of great eminence.
This, our final, issue is entirely devoted to a selection of the many articles you have enjoyed over the past decades, which enlightened, entertained, and inspired so many readers all over the world. Thanks also to Gerry Colgan, who kept the grey cells active with the crosswords he created. The popularity of The Word is also a tribute to the various layout designers down the years, more recently Lucia Happel, Ard Kranen, and Gabriel Carbone, whose eye-catching design greatly enhanced the articles.
In the final analysis, it is a tribute to the editors who selected the articles and images in the first place and who edited them so carefully. Here I can only mention the longer-serving editors: Bro Paul Hurley, SVD, who edited the magazine for some 40 years, Fr Thomas Cahill, SVD, his successor, and the present editor, Sarah Mac Donald. It is no surprise that The Word won many prestigious awards.
I know that I express all our readers’ sentiments, when I single out Bro Paul Hurley SVD. His immense contribution not only to The Word but to religious journalism in general both in Ireland and abroad cannot be adequately estimated. Like few others, he left his mark on the Irish Church and our overseas diaspora. In a sense, he set the gold standard for religious and, in particular, for missionary publications. He also contributed over a thousand articles on every conceivable topic to The Word as well as hundreds to the major secular or religious newspapers in Ireland and the UK, for which he was awarded many prizes.
Countless missionary priests and Religious, not only SVD, owe their vocation to The Word. Bro Paul managed to convey a sense of the true catholicity of the faith that embraced every aspect of our humanity, from literature to sport, from art to spirituality, and opened up new vistas at a time when narrowness of mind and heart was not unusual. For most of his time as editor, he was a one-man band: writing articles under various pseudonyms (such as Paul Kildare and Paul Ross), editing, selecting images, commissioning, selecting and typing articles, doing the layout by hand, and all the proofreading – long before computers were invented.
My special thanks, finally, goes to Sarah Mac Donald, the present editor, who took over the editorial chair in very difficult circumstances. To say that her commitment to The Word was wholehearted would be an understatement. As editor, she brought the magazine up to new heights of excellence, receiving public recognition of her peers for her achievement by winning the PPAI Religious Magazine of the Year Award in 2004. She also did her utmost to market the magazine, often, for example, standing outside churches on Sundays or manning stalls at exhibitions.
But the time for The Word had run out. It was a hard decision, one not lightly taken by our superiors. And yet we all can look back, as we do with this retrospective issue, with gratitude on so much achieved and on so much joy communicated by those who produced and distributed The Word. Thank you.
D. Vincent Twomey, SVD
Editor in Chief
Fr Vincent Twomey, SVD, will be writing a regular column for the religious magazine, Inside the Vatican. The magazine is offering a special introductory rate to readers of The Word. For further details email: editor@insidethevatican.com
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