“If you want to make money,” says Tom Szyszkiewicz ’84, “don’t go into Catholic journalism.”
This is just one of many “hard-earned” lessons he has learned during a 40-year stint in Catholic media. Over his career, he has worked across the field as an editor, a freelance writer, and a radio producer.
He fell into the profession somewhat by accident. After he earned a theology degree from Franciscan University, he and his wife moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. There, at the local March for Life, he met Father Thomas Commer, publisher of the Catholic Bulletin. Father Commer gave the young graduate a job on the spot.
“The journalism bug bit me,” Tom says.
Eager to begin writing in earnest, he approached the National Catholic Register.
“Assign me a story that is not going to be front page news,” he told them, hoping they would see his abilities and eventually allot him a more prime spot. Instead, the editor assigned him the story of Helga Wanglie, an elderly woman on life support who was the center of a nationwide right-to-life debate.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “The story was being covered by the BBC, the New York Times, Washington Post, all the networks.”
As luck would have it, Tom had connections to one of Wanglie’s lawyers and to an attending physician. His story made the front page of the Register—above the fold and in color.
Thus began his freelance career. His work was also published by Our Sunday Visitor, Inside the Vatican, and Catholic World Report, among others.
To the Wanglie piece, and others like it, Tom “was able to bring a Catholic moral understanding.” Many of his articles concerned equally complex life issues. Another award-winning article exposed the practice of early (and illicit) induction of “fetuses with anomalies” at Catholic hospitals. Perhaps it is no coincidence Tom’s career in journalism began with a chance meeting at a March for Life.
Tom went on to serve as editor for the Catholic Times in La Crosse, Wisconsin, for four years. In 2004, a friend urged him to apply for a job at Relevant Radio. He put in an application with no radio experience, and 21 years later, he is still producing the Drew Mariani Show.
Tom understands the need for Catholic voices in an increasingly confused media landscape.
“It’s not just putting our Catholic-colored glasses on,” he says. The Catholic perspective comes from “an active prayer life.” This allows the journalist to be “in touch with the truth Himself” and “bring to society the love and truth of Jesus Christ.”
