Editor Receives National Award
|
This article originally appeared in Issue# 25
 |
Media&Values founding editor Sr. Elizabeth Thoman, CHM, was honored October 10 in Washington, DC with the Faith and Freedom Award for religious communications presented by the Religious Heritage of America.
She is the first Catholic sister and one of the few women to receive the award for "outstanding and creative" use of the media to communicate the ethics and principles of religious values.
A national interfaith organization, the R.H.A. has given the award in the past to communications leaders of many denominations including Dr. Everett Parker of the United Church of Christ, Lilian Block, founder of Religious News Service, Franciscan communicator Rev. Anthony Scannell, OFM Cap., and the Jewish writer and scholar, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Nominated as a "singular force in defining the field of communications in the contemporary church during the past decade," Sr. Elizabeth was selected primarily for initiating and developing Media&Values as a forum which "shapes criteria for questions about human values in an increasingly mediated society."
In accepting the award, Sr. Elizabeth explained that Media&Values is the kind of publication that exists to "made a point, not a profit."
"Those who are bishops and leaders as well as those who counsel families, teach the young or work with the poor, cannot afford to be ignorant about the impact of the media revolution happening around us. To put our heads in the sand is to bury with us the very values we are challenged by the Gospel to proclaim to our times."
Sr. Elizabeth noted that Media&Values continues because many people care that the voice of values be heard in today's Media Age."
She particularly mentioned present — and past — staff members who work "more for love than for money;" the magazine’s Board of Directors who care enough to risk approving deficit budgets "with a prayer to Providence for a generous donor;" and loyal subscribers whose "renewals each year are a great vote of confidence when all the experts tell us we're too small to survive."