Quasquicentennial News Roundup
This morning, our local newspaper the Tacoma News Tribune, ran this photo in their “Looking Back” section. I have reproduced the caption exactly as it appeared in today’s paper.
Holy Rosary parish celebrated its 50th anniversary on Oct. 19, 1941, with a processional led by altar boys exhibiting varying degrees of piety and including the Bishop of Seattle, Gerald Shaughnessy. The young cross-bearer is Daniel Jacques, and the acolytes on either side are Robert Beaudean and George Bader.
Note the snarky tone when referring to the Altar Boys. Not to mention the use of “processional” as a noun. Oh, and this was 75 years ago. What about this past weekend?
This is, as far as I can tell, the entirety of their coverage of our 125th anniversary. Apparently, this event is not news to them.
By contrast, the Tacoma Weekly published a small article a few weeks ago that, while brief, was a nice summary of the upcoming events.
Not huge, but workmanlike. All the facts, none of the snark. They even included a nice photo of our church and rectory.
By far the best coverage was, as one would expect, in our Archdiocesan magazine, Northwest Catholic. The story actually leads with the same photo the News Tribune used, with a much better caption.
A line of altar boys lead a procession to Holy Rosary Church on the occasion of its golden jubilee on Oct. 19, 1941. Seattle Bishop Gerald Shaughnessy is near the rear of the procession.
They also use quite a few more photos, including a much larger version of the campus photo also run by the Weekly.
The in-depth article, published last week, talks about the history and achievements of the parish, including information about our German heritage, some quotes from our Parish Council president and our pastor, and a nice aside about the first couple married in the parish. Writer Michelle Bruno did a great job on this piece.
I’m most disappointed about the Tacoma News Tribune. We sent them the same press releases, they had access to the same people, they even interviewed Fr. Wichert and our Quasquicentennial Committee chair, but they still decided that this wasn’t newsworthy.
It’s pretty clear that they don’t take the religion beat seriously. Even the page labelled “Religion” on their web site is a blank placeholder.