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Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published September 21, 2007

In 1883 the newspaper changed its name toThe Michigan Catholic and had a new logo.

The Western Home Journal (which later became The Michigan Catholic) began publishing on Sept. 28, 1872.

Detroit – Had Fr. Gabriel Richard's plans for a Detroit-based Catholic newspaper panned out, the Archdiocese of Detroit's newspaper would be looking forward to celebrating 200 years of operation in 2009, and be the oldest Catholic paper in the United States.

But Fr. Richard's Michigan Essay, which debuted on Aug. 31, 1809, never made it to a second issue, let alone a second century.

Instead, today's Michigan Catholic has its roots in The Western Home Journal, which began publishing as an eight-page weekly Sept. 28, 1872.

Savage

The privately owned paper was started by J.D. Finnegan, and operated out of an office at the southwest corner of Woodward and Jefferson avenues, the site of today's Hart Plaza.

The name, Western Home Journal, might sound a bit odd, but Michigan was still considered part of "the West" in those days – remember "champions of the West" in the University of Michigan's fight song? Sure, there was a lot of U.S. territory to the west of us, but not many people west of Illinois.

The Western Home Journal was mainly filled with short stories and serialized novels. Still, events such as the establishment of new parishes or schools did get mentioned.

Hughes

Sullivan- Conlon

William E. Savage became the paper's editor in 1878.

The Michigan Catholic name first appeared with the Jan. 6, 1883, issue, and William H. Hughes was listed as editor and proprietor.

Under Hughes, the publication became more of a newspaper, although most of that news was of a national or international nature – particularly news from the home countries of the largely immigrant Catholic faithful, and especially from Ireland.

But in 1891, Hughes made news of local parishes a weekly feature of The Michigan Catholic.

Another regular feature added in the early 1890s was a regular column aimed at children and written by "Aunt Rowena, the Children's Friend." Her identity — Josephine Byrnes Sullivan-Conlon — was not revealed until 1901, and she was still with the paper when Hughes died on Jan 17, 1917.

One week before the paper's 50th anniversary, the Sept. 21, 1922, issue announced a circulation campaign to put "The Michigan Catholic in every home in the Diocese of Detroit."

The main headline on the front page from May 31, 1956,announces that 67 men would be ordained to the priesthood statewide.

The front page of The Michigan Catholic for July 29, 1920, carried the announcement that the paper was now owned and operated by the Diocese of Detroit next to a photo of Bishop Michael Gallagher.

In fact, Sullivan-Conlon became the first woman editor of the paper, running it for the next several years until it was sold to the Diocese of Detroit in mid-1920.

With diocesan ownership, The Michigan Catholic got its first priest as editor, when Bishop Michael Gallagher appointed Fr. (later Msgr.) Frank Pokriefka as editor.

Msgr. Pokriefka stayed at the helm of the paper throughout the prosperous 1920s and the Depression poverty years of the 1930s, with Anthony Beck as his managing editor. Fr. Harry Paul was named editor in 1940, and he was followed in 1947 by Msgr. Hubert Maino.

Besides his work with The Michigan Catholic, Msgr. Maino became known to the wider Detroit-area community as a long-time regular columnist for The Detroit News.

Edward McDonnell, who had become the managing editor in 1946, was succeeded in the 1950s by John Kenny.

Over the years The Michigan Catholic operated out of a variety of locations. Sometime after its founding, it moved to Rowland Street, and then to State Street between Washington Boulevard and Park Place, behind the old bishop's mansion (where St. Aloysius Parish's Community Center now stands).

The offices moved to Parsons Street next to the old Girls Catholic Central High School, but its building was torn down so the Chapel of the Little Flower (now St. Patrick Church) could be built in the mid-1920s.

The paper had to give up its next building – on Hamilton Avenue a few blocks south of West Grand Boulevard – because it was in the path of the new John C. Lodge Freeway.

It then moved to 644 Selden, between Second and Third, in February 1947, and stayed there until relocating to Sacred Heart Seminary in the 1980s. In the late 1980s the offices moved to their present location, the Gabriel Richard Building in downtown Detroit

Msgr. Maino turned over the reins of the paper to Fr. Richard Parrish in 1956, and he was followed by Fr. William X. Kienzle in 1962. Francis Lenhard became managing editor the following year after the sudden death of Kenny.

The mid-1960s were a time of considerable prosperity for The Michigan Catholic, with a circulation of around 150,000, making it the largest weekly newspaper in the state. In those days, archdiocesan policy required a certain level of parish support for the paper.

Msgr. Pokriefka

Beck

Fr. Paul

Msgr. Maino

Fr. Parrish

Although Fr. Kienzle would later leave the priesthood, the name William X. Kienzle has an international reputation because of the series of mystery novels he wrote – the first of which, "The Rosary Murders" (1978), was made into a motion picture starring Donald Sutherland and Charles Durning in 1987.

In his mystery novels, crimes are solved by a Fr. Robert Koesler, who is editor of a weekly newspaper called The Detroit Catholic. If Fr. Koesler sounds like a thinly disguised Fr. Kienzle, Fr. Koesler's right-hand person at the fictional paper is based on Margaret Cronyn, the real-life paper's longtime women's editor, who became managing editor, and then was named editor after Fr. Kienzle left both the position and priesthood in 1974.

Cronyn remained at the helm of The Michigan Catholic until she retired in 1985, and continued to write occasional columns for the paper well into the 1990s.

She was followed by Alfred Doblin, who served as editor several years before going on to work at a couple of other Catholic newspapers and then making his way back into secular journalism in New Jersey.

Longtime Detroit News sportswriter Herb Boldt took the editor's chair on an interim basis, and served until the appointment of Jay McNally in 1990.

The Michigan Catholic once again had a priest at its helm in 1994, with the appointment of Fr. (now Msgr.) Patrick Halfpenny as editor in chief.

McNally was the last lay person to hold the title of editor, but after his departure in late 1994, the remainder of the 1990s saw Susan Barovich, Karen Pitton and then Kristie Persinger in the position of managing editor.

Msgr. F. Gerald Martin was editor in chief from 1997-99, and he was succeeded by Fr. (now Msgr.) Thomas Rice, who continues to direct the paper.

Veteran Oakland Press journalist and entertainment section editor Marylynn G. Hewitt, SFO, has been managing editor since late 2001.

Under their leadership, The Michigan Catholic has won a number of local and national awards, including the Catholic Press Association's 2007 award for general excellence.

It didn't rate top billing then, but "Vatican approves increased English in U.S. Masses" was arguably the most significantheadline on the Oct. 28, 1965, front page.	In 1983 The Michigan Catholic changed to its currenttabloid page size, and the main story on Jan. 21 was the 10thanniversary of the anti-abortion battle.
The funeral of Pope John XXIII was the main story in theJune 6, 1963, issue.	A headline in the Aug. 17, 1939, issue trumpeted the fact the 94,000 pupils would be enrolling in local Catholic schools the next month.