BALTIMORE—The Georgia Bulletin received nine Catholic Press Awards during the 2023 Catholic Media Conference held June 6-9 in Baltimore.

The Georgia Bulletin earned awards for stories, columns, photography and its website.

The award presentations are an annual program of the Catholic Media Association. The program accepts work completed by the association’s members in the United States and Canada from the previous year. The awards presented to The Georgia Bulletin were:

• First place for Lorraine Murray for Best Regular Columns (spiritual life category). Judges commented that Murray’s columns were “well-constructed and a quality read.”
• Second place Best Multimedia Package—Social Justice Issues (all member category) for “Catholic-Jewish dialogue group visits important civil rights sites,” a collaboration of archdiocesan videographer Allen Kinzly, and newspaper staffers Samantha Smith and Johnathon Kelso.
• Second place for Best Photograph (portrait category) for “Joseph Newton of Peachtree Farm” by Johnathon Kelso.
• Third place for Best Photograph (also portrait category) for “Atlanta Catholic transforms personal suffering into hope.” Kelso earned this recognition for his portrait of Paula Umana.
• Third place for Best Reporting on Social Justice—Dignity and Rights of Workers presented to Andrew Nelson for “New farm helps people with disabilities to ‘live, work and thrive,’” a feature on Peachtree Farm. Judges wrote that Nelson’s piece was a “nice slice-of-life look at faith in action.”
• Third place for Best Sports Journalism (feature or column) to Nelson for “Girls’ flag football growing in popularity, kicks off at St. Pius X High School.”
• Third Place Best Sports Journalism (sports news) to Nelson for “Marist falls to Woodward in Battle of the War Eagles,” covering a Friday night football match-up.
• The Georgia Bulletin also received two separate honorable mentions for Best Newspaper Website, and for Best Newspaper, which are general excellence awards.

Joseph Newton holds a tray of tomato seedlings inside the greenhouse at Peachtree Farm. The photo won a second place in the 2023 Catholic Press Awards in a portrait category. Photo by Johnathon Kelso

The theme of this years’ conference was “BMORE Faithful.” Next year’s meeting will be held in Atlanta.

Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington celebrated the closing Mass for the Catholic Media Conference at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore on June 9.

He told the journalists and communications professionals that their calling is “to heal the blindness that too often distorts the eyes and confuses the hearts of people in our world.”

“You are the people who are directly engaged in the revelation of things that are concealed and hidden, but also life-giving for our church,” the cardinal said. “The work of revelation in which you are engaged is also about the hopeful, the uplifting, the spirit-building, the works of God.