THE A.D. TIMES, newspaper of the Diocese of Allentown, received two awards in the just-announced Catholic Press Association (CPA) 2018 Catholic Press Awards.
First place for Best Editorial on a Local Issue was awarded for “Praying for a ‘Full House’ This Christmas” by Father Eugene Ritz in the December 21, 2017 issue. In an article to highlight Bishop Alfred Schlert’s “Home for Christmas” invitation, Father Ritz compared the elements of a five-card stud poker hand with the story of the Incarnation.
At the time of publication Father Ritz was chaplain at Berks Catholic High School, Reading and a student in the School of Canon Law at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. Effective June 19 he is Diocesan chancellor; director of the Office for Permanent Diaconate Formation; and chaplain of Notre Dame High School, Easton; with residence at St. Anthony of Padua Rectory, Easton.
Honorable mention for Best Reporting on Vocations to Priesthood, Religious Life or Diaconate was awarded for “Spotlight on Seminarians” by Staff Writer Tara Connolly, for the seminarian profiles published in the November 2, November 16 and December 21, 2017 issues.
Those profiles featured seminarians Kevin Gembarski, Philip Maas, John Maria and Jeffrey Tomczyk.
THE A.D. TIMES competed against other non-weekly diocesan newspapers in the United States and Canada with circulation of 25,001 and higher. This brings to 35 the number of CPA awards for THE A.D. TIMES in its 29 years of publication, in reporting, news writing, feature writing, editorial writing, sports writing, news coverage, front page content and design, graphic design, and photography.
THE A.D. TIMES is distributed by mail and email to more than 51,000 Catholic families in the five-county diocese, and posted on the Diocesan website, www.allentowndiocese.org.
