By the time you are reading this, I should be on maternity leave, with my first-born, “Rosie,” in my arms. Becoming a parent has been a well-spring of blessings, starting with God’s beautiful gift of life and trickling down through the incredible people my husband, Chaz, and I have near to our hearts.
The outpouring of love for Rosie before she was even born was staggering—I joke that she has enough clothes to have an outfit change every three hours for the first six months of her life. That love is also measured in hand-crocheted blankets, sincere promises of prayers and in the dedication of our friends and family, who showed up in droves to help us pack and move into a new home a month before my due date.
I’d also like to talk about my Catholic Echo family, beginning with Bishop Bonnar, who was among the first people I told of my pregnancy. The diocese offers maternity leave, but because I didn’t set up my job to be away from it for very long when the magazine launched, figuring out my leave was a challenge. I knew I could push the magazine schedule ahead if I worked really hard, but that would only earn me about seven weeks. I casually said to Bishop Bonnar, “Having a special issue I can be filling with content now might help extend my leave.” And within 24 hours, I had an email from the Bishop outlining a special issue dedicated to prayer for October 2026, which included a meeting invite to discuss writers for each topic.
From there, my team scrambled to get it all done—finishing a nearly-miraculous three issues of The Echo, without complaint, in record time. This issue is one of them, and the special October issue is the final one. I will not be contributing to it, because it is so full of excellent content that there isn’t room. But I wanted to tell the story of why and how it came about, because I want readers to know what a blessing it is to be in the Diocese of Youngstown.
This issue highlights our diocesan priests and religious who are celebrating jubilees, plus retirements and parish anniversaries (page 15). It also provides information on September and October events (page 6) and Good News (page 10), including resources on celebrating Saint Francis’ feast day next month (page 12).
I hope you enjoy it all. God bless, and I look forward to returning to you soon.
Until next time,
Katie Wagner
