Catholic Media Association executive director, Rob DeFrancesco, talks to CMA members on the first full day of the Catholic Media Conference in Portland, Oregon, July 5, 2022. (HCH photo | Anna Weaver)
The Hawaii Catholic Herald attended the annual Catholic Media Conference in Portland for the first time in a number of years and also took home a handful of Catholic Press Association awards for work done in 2021.
The newly renamed CMA (formerly the Catholic Press Association) held its annual Catholic Media Conference from July 5-7 in Portland, Oregon. It was the first in-person conference for association members since 2019. The 2020 conference was originally slated to be in Portland but was held virtually instead due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Associate editor Anna Weaver attended in person and editor Patrick Downes attended virtually, the first time that CMC has offered both in-person and online CMC attendance options for its members.
It is at the annual Catholic Media Conference that the Catholic Press Awards are announced each year.
The Hawaii Catholic Herald won four of those recognitions this year. Those included first place for Patrick Downes’ story “Hawaii bids aloha to Korean War sainthood candidate” and honorable mentions for its annual diocesan financial report, Mary Adamski’s “View from the Pew” column, and “Hidden Loss,” a story on the diocese’s miscarriage ministry by Anna Weaver.
The Catholic Media Conference included workshops on a range of media topics. Xaviere Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart, who serves as undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, and Timothy P. O’Malley, director of education at the McGrath Institute for Church Life and academic director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, gave keynote addresses.
The conference is also a chance for Catholic media professionals to mingle and learn from each other. Weaver and Downes attended sessions on professional burnout, young adult Catholics, website design, adding humor to publications, podcasting, and church disaffiliation among the many seminars offered.