The Original "Dear Padre"

Do you have a question for The Padre?

Catholics are always asking questions about their faith. In our pluralistic, secular society many are confused about what the Church really teaches, what Catholics should believe, and how they should behave in their daily lives.

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For nearly 45 years, many Catholics have turned to the “Dear Padre” column in the pages of their Sunday bulletins, where each week a priest columnist addresses a particular issue and presents the Catholic teaching or perspective on these subjects.

From 1989 to 2002, I organized and wrote the “Dear Padre” column, which appeared in parish Sunday bulletins throughout the English-speaking world. On Monday mornings, I would receive phone calls from various pastors, parish priests, and parish staff members offering me theological advice or insight about the “Dear Padre” question and answer that had appeared in their Sunday bulletin that week. Many times, they would disagree with my column and share with me their version of what I should have written. Throughout the week, I would receive dozens of letters from the Catholic faithful, usually with the “Dear Padre” column cut out, and their comments were written on the top, bottom, and along the sides. Sometimes the comments were critical, sometimes thankful or encouraging. But the comments were always interesting. The Catholic public was very much alive and interested in its faith.

—Fr. Paul Coury, CSsR

The short line-up of "Dear Padre" writers dates back to the birth of the “Dear Padre” column in 1976. During this period, Liguori Publications had noticed through phone calls and letters that people were asking very basic questions about their Catholic faith. These were Catholics who grew up in the experiential years of religious education in the middle to late sixties. They were now adults, settled in communities, with their children attending very structured religious education classes. These parents found themselves unable to answer many of the religious questions that their children brought home from those classes. The parents would call their parish priest, the director of religious education, or even a Catholic publishing house to find the answers that would deepen their own knowledge of their Catholic faith and give them reasonable responses for their children.

Liguori Publications responded to this climate of questioning with a book entitled Handbook for Today’s Catholic and with a weekly column that would appear in the parish Sunday bulletin, now know as Our Parish Community bulletin. The column was entitled “Dear Padre.” This column was modeled after the many popular question-and-answer columns, such as “Ann Landers,” that appeared in the daily newspapers. The response to these two products was overwhelming. The “Dear Padre” column quickly became a hit, surpassing the one million mark in readers, and has remained popular for the past four decades.

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Learn more about the "Handbook" series, including Handbook for Today's Catholic.

Also Available: Dear Padre: Questions Catholics Ask (Now on Sale!)