Family beckons us to retirement

As many of our readers know first hand, grandchildren can easily tug at your heartstrings. That has indeed been the case with my wife Genie and I. Our daughter Christina and her husband Bobby, blessed us with our first grandchild, Joseph Isaac, in August. My son Matthew and his wife Jes are scheduled to bring our granddaughter Aurora Jeane into our lives on July 4. Our heart is made full of joy by the fact that our daughter Monica and her fiance Ryan will enter into the holy sacrament of matrimony in September. Genie and I want to be an active part of our children and grandchildren’s lives so by the time you read this column we will be comfortably living in retirement learning to spoil grandkids.

We leave, however, with saddened hearts as our more than seven-year stay in Corpus Christi was truly blessed. My work as editor of the South Texas Catholic was the capstone to a long and rewarding career. I will be forever grateful to Bishop Michael Mulvey for the opportunity to come to Corpus Christi and take the helm of an already excellent newspaper. 

With the help of a superb staff, Mary Cottingham and Adel Rivera, some outstanding correspondents and a supportive diocesan family we were able to make a very successful transition from a newspaper to a magazine. We accomplished this by always keeping our stewardship responsibilities in front of us; we achieved this fantastic upgrade at a considerable reduction in cost.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the incredible support I received from the presbyterate, the religious sisters and brothers and the deacons of the diocese. They were, in a word, fabulous. At the risk of leaving people out, I am also very grateful to the many personnel in the parishes and Catholic schools, as well as so many members of the faithful who dedicate their lives to the Church at their parishes, schools and lay apostolates.

The magazine, of course, was not our only task. We also created a dynamic website for the magazine, southtexascatholic.com, that provides valuable information to the faithful between the publication of the magazine. Another accomplishment for which I am very proud is the electronic archiving of the South Texas Catholic since its inception in 1966 and making it available to the public online. 

We also took on the publication of the “Catholic Directory for the Diocese of Corpus Christi,” not only improving the format but also making it available online. Behind the scenes, not known by the public, we initiated two electronic newsletters to keep the presbyterate and the diocese and parish staffs informed of the bishop’s initiatives. Additionally, we oversaw the transition of the diocese website to a new user-friendly format and helped with the entry into the new social media of Facebook and Twitter. 

It was, indeed, an exciting seven years. 

But as the old saying goes, all good things have to come to an end. And so this good thing does for me but thankfully not for the readers of the South Texas Catholic. We leave the magazine in excellent hands, and it will continue just as it did before I arrived on the scene. This publication was an institution in Corpus Christi long before my arrival, and it will be for many years after my departure.

I am reminded of a story I wrote for the Catholic Spirit in Austin some years ago. It was about a retiring priest. He told me that when he was a boy growing up, his family went on annual vacations and his father always stopped at the same places. He asked his father why he always stopped at the same places and his father responded: “because it is a good stop.” And so I can say without reservation that the Diocese of Corpus Christi was “a good stop.”