. . . at a press conference on June 18, when the encyclical was announced.

This is a watershed moment for the church, for humanity and for the planet, which Pope Francis calls our common home. It’s time for the church to be bold — to speak about major issues — and to achieve a new level of relevance in people’s lives.

Missed this at the time, but wow. Second only to the coming Day of the Lord.

That “new level of relevance” too. Higher and higher with our relevance factor.

— Note: It’s how public people talk that gets me, as in my coming book, Illinois Blues: How Oak Park-based state office-holders talk to people. — 

Received Catholic Press Assn. award posthumously at recent convention.

1. 

   Editor of Catholic New World in Chicago receives CPA’s Bishop John England Award on behalf of late Cardinal George

   Joyce Duriga, editor of the Catholic New World in Chicago, receives the annual Bishop John England Award June 24 from Timothy Walter, executive director of the Catholic Press Association, on behalf of the late Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago. The cardinal, who died earlier this year, was recognized “for distinguished service in exercising and defending the First Amendment rights of Catholic newspapers,” during the 2015 Catholic Media Conference in Buffalo, N.Y. (CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Catholic New World)

He was praised by the CPA awards committee:

He regularly addressed issues of religious freedom in his column for the Catholic New World. These columns were often reprinted in diocesan newspapers around the country and regularly received more than 10,000 page views on…