All of us in Catholic media mourn the passing of our good friend, Cardinal John Foley. He was a bright, witty, humble man who served his Church faithfully and well in many capacities: Diocesan newspaper editor, officer of the Catholic Press Association and recipient of the St. Francis de Sales Award, long-time president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and finally, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
Those of us who were fortunate enough to have worked with him or heard him speak know that he was an indefatigable supporter of the Catholic press. An award-winning editor of the Philadelphia Standard and Times at the start of his career, he remained a journalist at heart, and he believed strongly in the importance of this professional vocation for the life of the Church.
As president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, he not only encouraged the Catholic press around the world, but he also spearheaded an effort to make the values and teachings of the Catholic Church relevant in the burgeoning fields of public relations, advertising and digital media.
He should be most remembered for his strong and abiding witness to the Lord in all that he did. In his innate dignity and good will, he was a genuine prince of the Church, and he will be sorely missed by all of us proud to call ourselves his colleagues. May he rest in peace.
Greg Erlandson
President
Catholic Press Association
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He will be sorely missed; he was very kind to our family.
A wonderful son of the church and a person who makes all philadelphia proud he will be missed, I met him in washington and we had a nice chat, he is now in heaven no doubt about it, thomas nawn, a philly boy myself baptized in 1939 at our lady of victory