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The April 2, 2009 issue of The Catholic Sun.

This issue preview is a bit tardy — only one day before the issue date. Some of you have already received the issue in the mail.

Some of the April 2, 2009 issue of The Catholic Sun has already made it to our Web site. There’s a story covering the investiture ceremony for three diocesan priests, coverage of a healing Mass Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted celebrated for abuse victims, and this issue’s Your Catholic Neighbor profiles Dorothy Westfall of Radio Family Rosary.

The president of the University of Notre Dame was in the headlines last week for inviting President Barack Obama to speak at the this year’s commencement. Bishop Olmsted wrote a letter to the Notre Dame president asking him to reconsider the invite. You can read that letter in the April 2 issue, or you can read it on our Web site.

In the issue, you’ll find stories on Holy Week, the Charity and Development Appeal and an upcoming ecumenical conference. You’ll also find out that Catholics in our diocese are ramping up their adoration of God in the Eucharist — establishing perpetual adoration in Glendale and dedicating seven days and nights to adoration in Phoenix.

I mentioned it in a previous blog post, but I think it’s worth repeating. The print edition is still our primary mission at The Catholic Sun. There’s no substitute for 117,000 copies of the paper circulating throughout the state. We are in the homes of every Catholic registered at a parish in the Phoenix Diocese. Our Web features compliment the print edition — they cannot replace it.

Bob Zyskowski, president of the Catholic Press Association, talked about it in his February column for The Catholic Journalist.

“The Catholic press in many cases has led the charge for the Church with regard to the Internet. John Fiester pioneered Catholic Web presence through St. Anonthy Messenger and AmericanCatholic.org. The number of people whom the Church is touching via Catholci press Web sites and creative use of blast e-mails, e-newsletters and RSS feeds is growing — and thanfully so; our Church — our Catholic journalists — need to be on the Web to reach more people.

“But please, let’s not fool ourselves on the impact of the Web.”

He went on to detail, for example, that the USCCB Web site’s movie reviews received 1.2 million hits last year. That’s a big number — until you compare it to the 26 million who read Catholic publications. Assuming each publication runs one movie review a month, that’s 312 million movie reviews published each year.

Zyskowski goes on to trim the number — say only half of readers go to the movies, and some Catholics might subscribe to magazines and newspapers that publish the same review. And what if half don’t read the paper. Still, after cutting down the number by nearly 85 percent, you have 39 million readers. That number still dwarfs the 1.2 million that read the reviews on the Web site.

You can read the whole column here, but the point is that print matters — a lot. It certainly matters to us.

There’s a couple features in the April 2 issue — a sidebar detailing Holy Week and some adoration tips from Poor Clare Sister Esther Marie — that just wouldn’t be the same on the Web. You’re not going to take your laptop to adoration with you, but you might glance at The Catholic Sun before you enter the chapel.

As our editor, Rob DeFrancesco, wrote in the March 19 editorial:

“It’s good to know that despite the prevailing trends in communication, the fads that can vary from month to month, we remain fixed on the Real Presence of Christ, which is the source and summit of our faith, and the unmovable and unchanging center of our existence.”

I hope you enjoy the April 2 issue. If you have ideas for how we can improve, please let us know. We’re here to serve.