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May 9, 2024Shuffling into the kitchen of my Del City home one late-1970s afternoon, an item on the back page of the Sooner Catholic seized my attention.
Featured prominently on the paper left atop the glass table so familiar for the time: song lyrics penned by one of my boyhood rock ‘n’ roll heroes, Todd Rundgren – “Love is the Answer.”
Made more famous by the soft rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley, the song was actually not out of place on the pages of a Catholic newspaper, with a message instructing that in all dire situations, the answer is to “love one another.” A number of Christian performers have covered the song over the years.
That afternoon, as the lyrics jumped off the page, immediately the Sooner Catholic became a bit hipper and cooler for a kid still far from finding his way in the faith.
Truth is, the Sooner Catholic has been occasionally hip and often cool, especially in a Catholic way, now spanning five decades. The publication turns 50 this year, marking a run that has seen the paper document our local history in the Church, delivering the major moments and issues, the news of parishes popping up all across the prairie, celebrating achievements – and some regrets. These pages have featured so many key figures guiding our spiritual needs, from the four bishops tasked with overseeing the expansive archdiocese to the religious and lay people performing great work, both in the spotlight and behind the scenes.
While similar publications have been discontinued in areas across the country, the Sooner Catholic continues to seek and deliver compelling stories that speak to who we are as Catholics in Oklahoma. Our communications efforts don’t stop with just print, either, yet are dedicated to telling rich stories through video and photos, highlighted on our website and across several social media platforms.
And there are many stories to tell in many ways, spanning the entire archdiocese covering the western two-thirds of the state.
“Though media channels have certainly evolved over the years, the printed word remains an effective form of communication,” said Archbishop Paul Coakley. “The Sooner Catholic, in conjunction with our various digital media platforms, is vitally important in the life of our archdiocese for purposes of evangelization, formation and the communication of timely information.”
The Sooner Catholic made its debut in 1974, accompanying the split of Oklahoma from one to two dioceses. The publication grew from a newsletter to a full paper in 1975, with Archbishop John Quinn on the front page writing on the importance of what Pope Paul had labeled “The Year of Reconciliation.”
A dive into the archives reveals that Father David Monahan served as Sooner Catholic editor, alongside co-editor Sister Martha Mary McGaw for a period stretching across the 1980s and 90s, when both also wrote for the paper.
The 90s also found Archbishop Eusebius J. Beltran as Sooner Catholic publisher and popular writer of “The Good News …” column. More interesting tidbits:
A current prominent media presence was found on the pages of the paper in 1998, with then Father and now Bishop Robert Barron the subject of a Q&A titled “How to Build a Priest.”
On Jan. 2, 2000, the paper reported Archbishop Beltran’s deliverance of Mass at the Myriad for the jubilee celebration in a Holy Year that marked the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ.
In 2005, the Sooner Catholic heralded 100 years of the diocese of Oklahoma.
The Jan. 1, 2006, issue hailed “The Year of Father Stanley Rother” in the 25th anniversary of his martyrdom. And we’ve celebrated his great example many times since, including his beatification and the rising of the shrine that bears his name in south Oklahoma City.
For a while, song lyrics kept appearing, too, in a feature called “On the record.”
And those are but a sampling of the stories tracing the growth of faith throughout the archdiocese.
The look and layout of the paper has changed over time, as things do. The commitment to documenting history, however, remains the mission of the Sooner Catholic.
John Helsley is the editor of the Sooner Catholic.
