The awards, presented virtually for the second straight year, recognized achievement among faith-based newspapers and magazines across Canada, online and in print, for work done in 2020.

The Register earned two first-place awards: for a feature photo showing a resident of St. Joseph’s Lifecare Centre in Brantford, Ont., Ed Ecker, meeting his great-grandson through a window due to pandemic restrictions; and for best front page, our May 10 issue that featured that same photo, which was taken by Noelle Nieuwenhuis, the recreation therapist at St. Joseph’s.

There were also four second-place honours for The Register among newspapers, including General Excellence, a category captured by a fellow Catholic paper, The B.C. Catholic.

The Register also won second place in the Features   category for a story by Michael Swan on nuclear arms and Canada; in Feature Layout; and in Columns for Deacon Robert Kinghorn’s Church on the Street, which the judge noted were “written with tenderness, empathy and mercy rather than judgment.”

Swan also earned third place in the News Photo category for a picture of a woman waving to residents from the sidewalk outside the long-term care wing of Providence Healthcare in Toronto. Other third-place honours were in Media Review for a column by Sr. Helena Raphael Burns on the musical Hamilton; and in Editorials for The Register’s view on a bill that would bring Canadian law in step with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

The Register’s Youth Speak News writer Mary French was given honourable mention in the Student Award category for her column entitled “Embrace your student vocation.”