One of Archbishop O’Leary’s first major acts during his episcopate was to establish The Western Catholic, an Archdiocesan newspaper. Its mandate called for the weekly to report on religious news and to assist people to better understand the teaching of the Church. Inspired by the Second Vatican Council, Archbishop Jordan in 1965 created the Western Catholic Reporter (WCR), a newspaper with a unique mission of serving the Catholic community through high-quality journalism, to replace the Western Catholic. Editor Douglas J. Roche and other Archdiocesan leaders saw a need to give Catholics deeper insights into the Council. The result was Vatican II and You, 13 public lectures given by experts and published in the WCR.
The 20th century's rapid developments in technology began to change the way the Church communicated with the faithful. Both Rev. Spicer and Rev. Fitzgerald gave the Church a voice in the media. The Adult Learning Commission, established in 1968, offered a weekly TV series on the Gospels of Mark, John and Luke. The Communications Centre produced religious videos and TV shows, including Living Today, a half-hour weekly program on ITV that was viewed across Canada, and Open Window, a 13 week series on Third World poverty and other issues, was aired on the Provincial Education Channel.
Today the Archdiocese uses websites, social media, live webcasting and videoconferencing to bridge the distances among the faithful. With the rise of the Internet and the resulting shift to online news, the WCR launched an online presence in 1996. The print publication was reaching more than 6,500 readers when it closed in 2016, in favour of a greater focus on digital news. The Archdiocese then developed GrandinMedia.ca, a news portal website to deepen our understanding and to share our faith with the world, especially in our engagement with the wider society.
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