Father Eddie Fitzgerald, who has been editor of the Salesian Bulletin for the past 23 years, has received the main award in this year's Religious Press Association Awards.
Father Fitzgerald, who also worked for RTE for 15 years, was diagnosed as having inoperable advanced colorectal cancer in February and is writing a book on how to deal with cancer and other serious illnesses.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony in Portlaoise yesterday, he quoted the Welsh proverb that "Bad news goes about in clogs; good news in stockinged feet," in reference to the religious press being another, more positive reality in the area of communications.
Father Fitzgerald said that as well as being a voice for the marginalised, the religious press reminded us of a reality where "values like love, compassion and sharing challenge the individualistic materialism, hedonism and short-term gratification which are so widespread today."
The writer and broadcaster Ms Breda O'Brien won the award for the best article on a religious topic in the secular media, for a piece published in this newspaper last March 4th. It argued that Archbishop Desmond Connell's controversial remarks about children and family planning were misconstrued because "some people in the church have not learnt that how you say something is as important as what you say."
She wrote that Archbishop Connell's remarks raised valid points in relation to the negative aspects of contraception that should be questioned in a mature manner.