1980s: Liguori Publications Embraces the Digital Explosion

1980s: Liguori Publications Embraces the Digital Explosion

By Fr. Byron Miller, CSsR, President and Publisher of Liguori Publications

The electronic revolution of the 1980s created new vistas for Liguori Publications. In keeping with the technological advances of the time, Liguori developed and distributed a user-friendly software line on CD-ROM called Faithware that included Catholic Bible products, Catholic clip art, screen savers, and a homily subscription service. Meanwhile, Liguori’s art department shifted from creating typesetting and camera-ready artwork for its products to what was known at the time as desktop publishing.

In the 1980s, Redemptorist Frs. Joseph Nolen and Robert Rietcheck pioneered the production of audiocassettes and VHS videos at Liguori Publications for the education and formation of adults and children in the faith. Under the direction of Fr. Gary Ziuraitis, CSsR, the audio-video department soared. For example, an animated video, The Proud Tree, was produced to help children understand the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. The Green Hell, a video on the Redemptorists’ missionary activities in the Amazon jungle, won an Emmy for “Best Religious Program” in 1988. Fr. Norman Muckerman, CSsR—one-time president of the Catholic Press Association and a recipient of its prestigious St. Francis de Sales Award—was editor of Liguorian from 1977 to 1989. As a testimony to his gifted leadership, a milestone was reached in March 1982 when subscriptions peaked with a press run of 590,000. (For perspective, when Liguori Publications began seventy-five years ago, the magazine had 20,000 subscribers. When the company celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1972, it had 350,000 subscribers.)

A 2015 report by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), “Catholic Families and Media Usage,” stated: “With Catholic parents today being much less likely than their own parents and grandparents to have their children enrolled in formal religious education or preparing for childhood sacraments, the Catholic Church must hope that the faith is being passed on well at home. When the living room becomes a classroom, many parents must rely on television, books, audio, and the internet as resources to teach the faith to their children. Yet a survey of parents indicates these devices and sources are more often being used for entertainment.”

Trustworthy Catholic publishers—including Liguori Publications—continue to offer pastoral resources in both traditional and electronic formats, whether they’re disseminated by someone seated at a desk, in front of a chalkboard, from a computer or other online device, or on a living-room sofa by the seemingly omnipresent light that never blinks: the TV screen.

Next: Liguori Publications broadens its reach to Catholics and other Christians in the 1990s.