|
Inside
NCR
Fr. Edward Nadolny, by most any
measure, is an innovative entrepreneur. The pastor of St. Stanislaus parish in
Meriden, Conn., knows how to raise money -- and he uses it for good causes.
Like keeping kids in Catholic schools. He has helped organize local Polish
immigrants to sell pierogi, Polish ravioli, with sales now reaching the million
dollar mark.
Now to a long list of such causes, Nadolny has added the
publication of "Essays in Theology," the weekly column of Fr. Richard McBrien,
in the Hartford, Conn., local daily, The Hartford Courant.
Two months back, The Catholic Transcript, the archdiocesan
newspaper, decided, when changing from a weekly to a monthly, to drop McBrien's
column after 30 years of publishing and syndicating it. The Transcript
has said it no longer had the room; McBrien says it had long been looking for a
reason to get rid of him. In any case, most observers would agree that
McBrien's open and inclusive view of the church has not mixed well with
Hartford Archbishop Daniel A. Cronin's hard-line view of Catholicism.
Nadolny insists that the Transcript's decision was not the
reason he decided to begin taking out weekly, quarter-page ads in the
Courant. He says he just wanted to make sure Hartford readers could be
exposed to the church. He likes McBrien, thinks the Notre Dame professor is a
first-rate evangelizer and wanted to see his presence in the local market place
of ideas. At a cost of $1,200 for each ad, McBrien has been appearing in the
Courant weekly since the Oct. 12 issue.
Nadolny says the first column came out of his own pocket, but
through a request contained in the ad he has raised another $5,000. He is
asking readers to pledge one dollar a month to keep McBrien in print. The ad
appears Saturdays in the paper's "Faith and Values" section.
Nadolny is pleased so far. The Transcript, he says, reaches
some 15,000 readers; the Courant reaches 621,000 -- with an estimated 40
percent being Catholic. Since Nadolny took on the McBrien project, the local
Meriden, Conn., newspaper has decided to begin running McBrien as well.
How long can the project continue? The marketplace will help
answer that question, Nadolny says. He notes that donations to the effort are
tax deductible.
Checks, he said, can be made out to: Fr. Nadolny's Good News Fund.
Address: 82 Akron St., Meriden, CT 06450.
The striking, sad story from Rwanda
is worth a footnote. To celebrate its silver jubilee in 1989, NCR
sponsored an essay contest for college students. Daniel Curran, author of the
Rwanda story, won second prize.
-- Tom Fox
National Catholic Reporter, November 22,
1996
|
|