A Catholic Editor, and Much More

Some thoughts, if I may, on the recent passing of a fellow Catholic diocesan newspaper editor.  

Don Zirkel, who died Jan. 23 at age 95, worked at the venerable Brooklyn Tablet (the first, and now last surviving, diocesan publication in our NYC-Long Island area) for 37 years—17 of them, from 1968-1985, as its editor.

But as Newsday’s Bart Jones detailed in a terrific obituary piece, Don Zirkel was more than a Catholic journalist.

While not infrequently challenging its governance and precepts, his was a lifetime of service to the Church, from his days as a high school seminarian; to his time as a corporal and assistant Army chaplain serving stateside during the Korean war; and, from 1979 on, as an ordained deacon.

He was an activist, especially in retirement, not only advocating for the social causes he believed in so strongly, but also immersing himself in service to others, volunteering in soup kitchens and in missions to Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

And he was a devoted family man, who with his late wife Marie had nine children.  

I believe I only met Don once, when, in retirement in the 1990s, he joined us as a panelist on one of our Catholic Forum television shows on the diocesan Telecare channel, where we gathered Catholic journalists for lively discussions of religious, cultural, and public policy issues.

In many ways we differed in outlook.

As editor of his diocesan newspaper, Bart Jones pointed out, Don Zirkel “used his perch to challenge people, right up to the pope.” He advocated for women priests, and “allowed for dissent on the church’s teaching on birth control.”

I, too, during a later, different era, tried to use my editorship of The Long Island Catholic to challenge people. But I also felt a diocesan newspaper was a teaching instrument for the Church, that should be clear and faithful in articulating, explaining, and defending her teachings and practices.

He editorialized against right-to-lifers as “politically naïve” for their opposition, back in the 1970s, to the gubernatorial candidacy of then-Rep. Hugh Carey, a kind of “favorite son” of the Brooklyn Diocese.

In the late 2000s, I criticized social justice Catholics for attacking Rep. Paul Ryan as anti-poor over conservative economic proposals that he contended were the most effective approach to lifting people out of poverty.         

As an activist, Don focused on peace and justice issues. My activism, both before and after my time at The Long Island Catholic, has been primarily in the pro-life cause.

But whatever our differences, I found Don Zirkel, in our limited interactions, to be always thoughtful, respectful, and civil in tone—qualities glaringly lacking in today’s public discourse.

During my time as editor, he occasionally sent a letter to the editor—tweaking us at times, over editorials like one on Memorial Day that he felt gave insufficient emphasis to the need for peace advocacy, and one differing with what we argued were dangers to the elderly and terminally ill posed by provisions in Obamacare.

But he also took the time to write when he liked something in the paper, once commending us for giving consistent attention to the voices and activities of lay Catholics throughout the diocese. Coming from such a distinguished veteran of Catholic journalism, I appreciated both his well thought out criticisms and his encouragements.

Finally, Bart Jones reminded us of the incident back in 2008, when Don Zirkel found himself under arrest for entering the Smith Haven Mall wearing a T-Shirt with an anti-Iraq War message. Following a peace rally outside the mall, he and his wife had gone in for a cup of coffee. Told to leave or turn his shirt inside out, Don refused—and was carted off to jail.

Eventually the charges were dropped; but we should all be profoundly grateful—whatever our views on the subject of his protest—for his courage, and his willingness, at age 80, to spend several hours in jail to uphold his—and our—First Amendment freedom of speech.

That has particular resonance right now, amid revelations that following last January’s March for Life in our nation’s capital, two government agencies prohibited groups of pro-lifers from wearing buttons or clothing with pro-life messages inside their buildings. The National Archives ordered a group of pro-lifers to remove or cover up their messages, while the Smithsonian ejected 12 students and their chaperones of Our Lady of the Rosary School in Greenville, South Carolina for wearing wool caps that read simply, “Rosary pro-life.”

In both cases—after the American Center for Law and Justice got involved—the federal institutes apologized, and acknowledged that the actions taken against the pro-lifers were in violation of their normal policy.

Don Zirkel clearly understood that freedom of speech goes hand in hand with freedom of religion, also protected by the First Amendment. He spent his entire life exercising both, and defending his right to do so, as he sought to promote justice and peace as he understood them to be taught by his Catholic faith.

Whatever our differences, this Catholic is grateful for his witness and his courage.