A joy-filled ride at the Clarion Herald

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

I just want to start by saying how blessed I know I have been to have had a newspaper career in the town where I was born since right after college in 1981. It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than 17 years since I first started writing for the Clarion Herald. Before that, I worked for 25 years at The Times-Picayune.

It’s been a beautiful ride.

I realized over the past year that “there is a time and purpose for everything” under heaven, as so elegantly written in Ecclesiastes 3. For me, that was working. The pace I have been keeping for so long just wasn’t cutting it any more. I was ready to slow down.

So, I’ve decided to retire.

Last year reinforced how much I valued and needed family, and how they needed me for different reasons. Life throws all of us curveballs, and, if I’ve learned anything in my 65 years of life, there has to be a God accompanying you to give you the strength to handle them. (You know, that poster of two footprints in the sand with only one person walking along the beach.)

I’ve been fortunate to have a flexible enough career where I could take children (and my granddaughter) to the office and even to interviews, if I had to. Not many can say that. Yet, there were tradeoffs. I always felt like I was working – whether in my head formulating a story over something I was witnessing or physically somewhere covering one. And, I couldn’t always take all the vacation that I earned.

To say that I’ve grown as a writer and editor would not be an exaggeration. I’ve had many wonderful colleagues along the way giving guidance that I now call friends. I’ve also lost co-workers who were way too young.

When Peter Finney Jr. gave me a chance to put my faith to work at the Clarion in 2007, I didn’t know what I had in store. I will forever be grateful to Peter for having enough faith to hire me as associate editor when he did. Had I not left The Times-Picayune when I did, heaven knows what the trajectory of my life would have been. Just a few years later, The Times-Picayune stopped publishing as a daily paper (until John Georges rebooted it) and many of my colleagues lost their jobs.

These years at the Clarion Herald have really opened my eyes to our Catholic faith and allowed me to share my faith with you, our readers. While our faith has not always shown its pretty side, experiencing how so many New Orleanians are living out their Catholic faith of charity to others far outweighs the negative and gives me hope for the future. As is true with any entity, it’s individuals who commit the sins and make the mistakes, but also magnificent individuals that further the Word of God through their acts of kindness and generosity.

In this ministry of Catholic journalism, I’ve seen this countless times and learned so much from your evangelization individually and as a group. Witnessing our Catholic faith in action by priests and laypeople, as often as we do here at the Clarion, certainly encouraged me to seek a deeper faith: committing to an hour a week in an adoration chapel, reciting the rosary regularly, reading religious books and the Bible, although I still have a tough time understanding some of it. (I guess Bible study is in my future!)

Each day of my life will be different now. I won’t have to come into an office or work on weekends – for the first time in more than 45 years! That will be an adjustment, but it is something I am looking forward to.

I know I will miss my dear colleagues and the many friends I have made through this crazy world we call journalism. I can say I survived Hurricane Katrina, the oil spill, other hurricanes, COVID, the changing morals and “mores” of society. Each person has impacted me in a different way, so I know their absence will be felt regularly at different moments.

And, I will miss all of you out there who let me know you liked (or even didn’t like) a story, called with ideas and were generally kind and loving to me whenever our paths crossed. I hope you felt I returned your kindness and love.

We have hired two new writers. One is Kim Roberts ([email protected]), whom many of you know from her involvement in Catholic schools and the Council of Catholic School Cooperative Clubs. The other is Macie Batson Capote ([email protected]), a recent Loyola University New Orleans communications graduate. Both have joyful spirits and are coming in with wonderful ideas to take the Clarion Herald into the future. Feel free to contact either one of them as you did me.

So, keep our faith going, see the world with hopeful eyes and be as kind and charitable as you can.

I heard three acronyms from Lenten mission speaker Greg Raymond in late February that are worthy to implement: B+B – “Be the Blessing”; L.I.G.H.T. – “Let In God’s Healing Touch”; and H.O.M.E. – “Humbly Offer Mercy Every Day.” That’s what can make your life and the world better.

Feel free to reach out anytime at [email protected].

Clarion Herald associate editor Christine Bordelon will retire March 22. [email protected].