Eureka Street was awarded the Australasian Catholic Press Association’s top prize at their annual awards ceremony, held in Melbourne in early September.
The online journal, published by Jesuit Communications, was awarded the Bishop Philip Kennedy Memorial Prize for Magazines in recognition of its continuing excellence in the field of religious communications.
It was the second year in a row that a Jesuit publication had won, with Australian Catholics magazine taking out the prize in 2012.
“We are thrilled with the outcome, particularly for the acknowledgement of issues raised in Eureka Street which clearly resonate with our peers and raise issues that many of the Catholic media feel constrained dealing with,” said Jesuit Communications CEO Damien Nolan.
Eureka Street also received the awards for ‘Best regular online publication’, ‘Best devotional article applying faith to life’ (for Geraldine Doogue’s article, ‘Why I am still a Catholic’) and ‘Best editorial feature – newspaper or magazine’ for its coverage of the Royal Commission.
The night was also a good one for Australian Catholics magazine, which was awarded high commendations for ‘Best mission coverage’ (for Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ’s piece ‘Indigenous missions’) and ‘Best example of education coverage’ (for the Winter 2012 edition).
Eureka Street followed up its success when Evan Ellis won the ‘Best new writer’ award at the Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) Awards on Saturday night.
Jesuits speak on role of Catholic media
The Australasian Catholic Press Association Conference was an opportunity for Catholic media professionals to discuss the role of the Catholic press in covering some of the main issues facing the Church at the current moment, particularly the upcoming Royal Commission.
Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ addressed members at a session on Thursday on the topic. In an accompanying piece in Eureka Street, Fr Hamilton noted that Pope Francis had given the Catholic media some guidance in how it should be approaching its work – as a bridge to the public, rather than a barrier.
“It suggests that Catholic media should report the bad news about sexual abuse and failures of governance. In its coverage it should focus on giving voices and faces to those who have been hurt. It should also encourage its readers to go out into the world in an exploratory and not a defensive way,” said Fr Hamilton.
“As is the case with life itself, those who try to save their reputation lose it, while those who are happy to lose their reputation in the service of the Gospel may save it.”
Meanwhile, in a speech at the Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) conference in Melbourne on Friday September 6, Fr Frank Brennan SJ spoke about the challenge religious publishers face in discerning how to cover disagreement within their faith communities.
“Like Pravda of old, are we here just to put the party line, even if it is espoused by few other than those in positions of religious authority? Do we encourage diversity of opinion to the extent that it can never be said that there is one Christian or Catholic or Anglican position on anything being discussed in the public square?” he asked more than 70 delegates to the conference on Friday.
He noted contesting editorials from two of the leading Catholic journals in the United States. America magazine recently announced new policies for public commentary excluding the terms liberal and conservative.
“The lay-controlled Commonweal finds such an approach too controlling, purporting to paper over real differences which need to be acknowledged if there is to be fruitful dialogue,” Fr Brennan noted.
“Though a Jesuit, I must confess to being more with Commonweal than with America on this one.”
Source: Province Express