Happy Easter!

I think I have written before about Easter being my favorite holiday. I enjoy Christmas, but it has become a time of such hustle and bustle that it’s difficult to experience the true joy of the celebration of the birth of Christ.

Easter, though, comes with six weeks worth of self-awareness that prepares us for the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Without the stress of buying gifts for family, the holiday itself seems to lend itself to a more relaxed family atmosphere. It’s a time of new beginnings and hopefulness for the future as we begin to see signs of spring: flowers blooming, trees budding and grass turning green.

This year at the Catholic Chronicle it is not only a time of new beginnings in our personal lives, but professionally as well. We are working toward preparing a new print product that will be published monthly beginning in August.

As I wrote last month, the Chronicle is changing formats and publishing a larger edition once a month rather than the present smaller edition twice a month. The papers will still be delivered in bulk to parishes and other Catholic institutions throughout the diocese and subscriptions are available for $22 a year.

Last month, I mentioned some of the features that are returning to the print issue. Here are more details on those.

One of the features that went online only two years ago was the parish death notice listing. If you ask Rose Anne Conrad, who answers general calls to the Chronicle, she’d tell you this was the number one complaint she heard after making the switch in 2009. Beginning this August, this feature — a listing of names, ages and dates of death for members of parishes in our diocese — is returning to the print edition. These listings continue to be available online as well.

Another section of the paper that went away in 2009 was the deanery pages. You may remember that each month a different deanery or two was featured within the paper with photos and stories. While stories throughout the diocese are still covered online and in print, there is not a specific focus for a particular region of the diocese as we had in the past.

We resurrect this feature in August by featuring the St. George Deanery. Our Lady, Queen of Peace and St. Luke deaneries are to be featured in September; St. Katharine Drexel and St. Agnes in October; Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in November; the St. Philomena and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha deaneries in December; St. Francis of Assisi Deanery in January; Blessed Junipero Serra Deanery in February; St. Maximilian Kolbe Deanery in March; the St. Juan Diego and St. John Neumann deaneries in April; Our Lady of the Lake Deanery in May and the Precious Blood of Jesus Deanery in June.

Columnists were also missed in print by a number of our readers. In addition to printing columnists again, we are expanding the offerings with more local writers. New columnists include Father Robert Haas, a senior priest of the diocese, who is to write about foreign missions; Deacon James and Ann Cavera are to write about life in “The Second Half;” and Father David Reinhart, a diocesan priest who is presently serving as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force, will write about faith in the military.

We will continue to offer other columnists, including Bishop Leonard P. Blair, Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, George Weigel, The Christophers and yours truly. Not every column will be in the print issue each month, but everyone will be published online every month. Readers of the print edition will know the topic of each of the columnists through print promotions similar to what is published now on page one.

The 24-page monthly paper will also include news from the diocese, nation and world, features, a special section and events listings.

Thank you to all who have written and called letting me know how happy you are that we are returning to a larger publication once a month. Judging by the positive responses, I know this was a good decision. The staff and I appreciate your kind words.