'Catholic Register' captures multiple honours at Catholic media awards

The Catholic Register earned recognition in 14 categories at the Catholic Press Association Awards on June 10, including two first-place awards for our columnists and six writing awards for Associate Editor Michael Swan.

Deacon Robert Kinghorn earned top honours in the Best Regular Column category among national newspapers for his Church on the Street series. In the Scripture category for columns, The Register’s Fr. Scott Lewis took first place with entries from his weekly God’s Word on Sunday column.

The CPA awards are handed our annually to acknowledge outstanding work by members of the Catholic Media Association, which come from across the United States and Canada.

The Register earned honourable mention in the Best National Newspaper category, as well as third place for Best Seasonal Issue (our Christmas edition) and an honourable mention for its special supplement Thank You issue honouring all those who aided in the COVID-19 battle during the first wave of the pandemic.

It also earned second place for Best Front Page among national newspapers and another second for Best Layout of an article.

In the writing categories, veteran journalist Swan once again added multiple honours to his resume. In the In-Depth News Reporting category, he captured third place for his look at how COVID-19 magnified the disparities in society. In the social justice category, Swan’s examination of the the climate crisis on the fifth anniversary of Laudato Si’ also captured third place honours, as did his personality profile of Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow.

There were also three honourable mentions for Swan: one for his series of articles on migrant workers affected by the pandemic; another for his reporting on the fallout from the revelations of sexual abuse by Jean Vanier; and a third for his analysis of the drop in marriage and divorce rates.

Former Register publisher Jim O’Leary, who retired last summer, earned an honourable mention for his editorial on the expansion of assisted suicide laws.

The CPA awards ceremony was held virtually for the second straight year as part of the three-day Catholic Media Conference. In April, The Catholic Register earned honours in 10 categories at the annual Canadian Christian Communicators Association Awards, which features media outlets from all Christian faiths in Canada.