More tributes to Cardinal Foley (part 2)

(CNS/Paul Haring)

It was no surprise that, as soon as I posted links yesterday to some of the tributes being written for the late Cardinal John P. Foley, several new ones would come in:

• Bob Zyskowski, associate publisher of The Catholic Spirit in St. Paul, Minn., writes movingly of the cardinal as a mentor (he hired the 22-year-old Zyskowski in 1974 to be news and sports editor at The Catholic Standard & Times in Philadelphia) and a friend (he baptized two of the four Zyskowski children). He recalls that the future cardinal taught “the truism that Catholic media have nothing to fear from reporting bad news” and showed him “how to love the church, warts and all.”

• Bill Howard, editor of The Colorado Catholic Herald in Colorado Springs, admits he didn’t know the cardinal very well but recalls being “instantly impressed” when, during a chance encounter, “he quickly took to asking me about what I did and about our paper.”

• Msgr. Owen F. Campion, associate publisher at Our Sunday Visitor, was another close Catholic press friend of the cardinal. (My wife still chuckles when she remembers seeing the two of them laughing and trading stories over breakfast at a hotel coffee shop six years ago.) Msgr. Campion remembers his last visit with the cardinal three weeks earlier and says no one ever could miss seeing his profound faith.

• Michael La Civita, editorial director of ONE Magazine, published by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, writes that “for those of us in the trenches of the Catholic media, Cardinal Foley was like a godfather, a prelate with media credentials.” He also recalls that the then-archbishop always would attend the annual conventions of the Catholic Press Association but “did not preside at events or deliver keynote addresses. Instead, he mingled with the gang — attending seminars, asking questions, grabbing minutes here and minutes there for a question or simply to tease. His presence was powerful.”