OSV News has designated St. Titus Brandsma as the organization’s patron. It is a strong recognition by the news organization of Brandsma as a model for journalists. OSV News, the national and international wire service that began after Catholic News Service was discontinued at the end of 2022.
"When the OSV News team met in October 2022 for our first planning session and retreat, we knew we wanted in our corner a patron saint to intercede on behalf of our team and our work. The problem was figuring out just who to select," said Gretchen Crowe, editor-in-chief of OSV News. "We considered, of course, St. Francis de Sales, the beloved saint of Catholic journalists. We also discussed St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. John the Apostle, St. Paul, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, and Blessed Carlo Acutis, among others."
OSV News even considered compiling what one person called a "spiritual board of directors" with a few saints, she said. "But ultimately, we landed on St. Titus Brandsma because of his embrace of Catholic journalism as a means of evangelization -- a point that is at the heart of the mission of OSV News -- and because of his powerful and brave witness as a disciple of Jesus Christ," said Crowe, who was elected president of the Catholic Media Association this year.
She said that, besides his preaching and work in publishing, in which he founded and edited newspapers and magazines, St. Titus's work in the Catholic press put him in a position to stand up to the Nazis, who were trying to force publications to print their propaganda. There were more than 30 daily Catholic newspapers in the Netherlands in the 1930s.
St. Titus paid the ultimate price for his opposition, being arrested, imprisoned, and executed on July 26, 1942, in the Dachau concentration camp.
"The OSV News team was very moved by this story and by the courageous witness of St. Titus in standing up for the truth, and so we adopted him as our patron as we began our work," Crowe said.
Carmelite Michael Driscoll of Boca Raton in South Florida, who was healed of metastatic melanoma through the prayers of thousands to St. Titus, is also actively encouraging Catholic leaders to recognize the Dutch saint as the modern patron of journalists. Fr. Michael’s healing was accepted as the miracle needed for the Dutch Carmelite's canonization.
Earlier this year during an interview with a small group of journalists, Pope Francis spoke openly about his support for the idea of having St. Titus become a new patron saint of journalists.
Such recognition of St. Titus would come from Pope Francis. The journalists accredited to the Vatican have made a very public push for the designation as well. During the week of activities leading up to the canonization in May 2022, they sent a letter to the Holy Father requesting the recognition of St. Titus.
In one of the church's strongest acts of resistance toward the Nazis, Catholic newspapers were prohibited by the bishops of the Netherlands from publishing advertisements from the German occupiers. Father Brandsma, who was the bishops' liaison to the Roman Catholic Journalists Association, wrote a letter to all Catholic press editors, saying that the publications "may not allow these (National Socialist Union, Nazi) advertisements if they want to maintain their Catholic identity." He then travelled to visit the various editors to encourage them to remain true to their vocation as Catholic journalists.
(Adapted from the Florida Catholic, William Cone, Should St. Titus Be Patron of Journalists? July 12, 2023)
