One last time

RICHARD A. SOKERKA

This will be my last issue as Editor/General Manager of The Beacon and as the Diocese’s Director of Communications.

That was a difficult sentence to type. You have seen my face and read my editorials on this page each week for the last 32 years, but the time has come for me to say farewell and begin my retirement and my next journey in life.

My time at The Beacon and the Diocese has been the most fulfilling and fruitful of my 50-year career in journalism, communications, and newspapers.

So very much has changed in those decades as to how a newspaper is produced, from using a typewriter on which I wrote my first published story in 1972 to the streamlined computers of today and electronically sending the pages of each issue of The Beacon to our printer in South Jersey in the blink of an eye.

The technology available in our lives today is indeed amazing, but it has also changed the way many of us receive our news. The internet has transformed our lives and changed society like no other tool invented in our lifetime. However, not everything on the internet is good for society. Anyone can post anything at any time of the day that can damage someone’s reputation or career. The issue is that no one is held accountable for the content they post or if it is factual or even true. Criminals have found the internet to be a new gold mine for their illegal operations and a veritable cash cow for stealing funds from vulnerable victims.

It is most important in this day and age to tread carefully online and trust only known sources for information, most especially when it comes to matters of faith and the slanderous attacks being posted against the Catholic Church.

That is the reason why The Beacon still has an important place in the lives of Catholics across our Diocese. Week after week, it publishes the Truth found in the tenets of the Catholic faith and the Gospel values so very lacking in today’s society.

I have been privileged to follow in the footsteps of some of the best Catholic newspaper editors in the nation. In my career, I have never worked harder nor had a greater sense of accomplishment than serving the people of our Diocese in my role at The Beacon and as diocesan Com­muni­cations Director.

The successes of The Beacon as an award-winning Catholic newspaper are not mine alone, but are to be shared with others whose support, encouragement, and contributions made them possible.

So, I would like to thank every single one of my extremely talented staff that made my job easier.

I would like to thank my wonderful wife, Linda Lee, and my family, for their enduring support for the many nights and weekends that my work for the Church required.

I would like to thank our loyal readers who looked forward to getting their paper in their mailbox every Thursday.

I would like to thank the many priests and religious, too numerous to mention, for their unending support of The Beacon.

I would like to thank my colleagues at the Chancery who were always there to lend a helping hand at any time.

Finally, I would like to thank the three bishops, all publishers of The Beacon, under whom I served. I thank them for their trust and confidence in me and their zealous support of The Beacon as a tool of evangelization.

I look forward to enjoying my retirement, but know that I will always remember all of you who have touched my life and my faith in so many ways.

Keep up your good work for the Church and the faith we all hold dear.

God bless and keep you all!