November 2004
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the scoop
behind Flint's famous face
ABC 12's Bill Harris
By Bob Horning | Photography by James
Luning
 Bill
Harris is the anchor at six and eleven o’clock for Channel
12 News (WJRT, Flint). He has received an Emmy award for
special coverage of President Bush’s 1992 area visit, twelve
more Emmy nominations, and the National Academy of Television Arts
and Sciences Silver Circle Award for 25 years of distinguished service
as a television anchor. He and his wife, Jane, and their two children,
Nicole and Christopher, are members of Holy Family Parish in Grand
Blanc.
FAITH: You have been an anchor at the same station for 27
years. You must like your work.
Harris: I not only like my job, I love it! I am blessed
to have had so many good experiences at Channel 12. In a profession
known for its lack of stability, I’m very lucky. Not only
do I have a great job and a great place to work, I also have a great
family, friends, and co-workers; I live in a wonderful community
and belong to a great parish.
FAITH: Before we hear about your experiences, tell us about
your growing-up days.
Harris: I was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts. My father
was Irish and a shop worker in a gun factory. My mother was Polish
and a clerical worker. Holyoke was very much a Catholic community,
with a Catholic Church on almost every corner it seemed. I can remember
Good Friday services at the Polish church when we would go on our
knees all the way down the aisle to reverence the cross.
 FAITH:
Were family devotions part of your life?
Harris: No. Strangely enough, there weren’t many
outward signs in our home, but we were still very much a Catholic
family. Seven o’clock Mass every Sunday. There’s a story
I like to share about the faith of my parents. My father retired
in his early fifties after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He
was an Irish tenor with a wonderful voice, before the cancer. One
Christmas Eve we asked a close friend, Fr. Roy Duquette, to celebrate
Mass in our home. Just prior to the final blessing, my mother asked
my dad to sing Adeste Fidelis. Thinking this was an impossible and
ridiculous request, I looked at my mother, wondering if she had
lost her mind. But to everyone’s amazement, my dad somehow
was able to sing loud, clear, and in Latin, no less. He practically
blew out the windows. It was beautiful, miraculous. That was the
last time he spoke clearly. That showed the faith of my parents
– my mom had the faith to request the song, and my dad had
the faith to attempt it.
 FAITH:
What got you interested in broadcasting?
Harris: Other kids my age wanted to be policemen, firemen
and cowboys. I wanted to be a radio D.J. My first break came when
I was in grammar school. The Boy Scouts and the City of Holyoke
sponsored a program called Good Government Day. Selected scouts
would choose lots for different roles in city government. Everyone
wanted to be mayor or fire chief. Since I already had a makeshift
radio station in the basement of our home, I wanted the job of news
director at the local radio station. When it came time to pull a
position out of the hat, my prayers were answered. When the Good
Government program concluded and the other kids went home, I asked
if I could spend the rest of the day at the station. They said “yes,”
and from then on, I spent countless hours there learning the business.
On my sixteenth birthday, station management hired me as a staff
announcer.
FAITH: And it took off from there?
Harris: Yes. While still in high school, I actually worked
at two radio stations. I was a staff announcer for WCRX in Springfield.
I hosted a classical music show there on Saturday mornings; in the
afternoons, I did rock n’ roll on the Holyoke station. As
a result, I now love all kinds of music, but am partial to classical
and oldies. By the time I went to college, I had shifted careers
from radio to television.
 FAITH:
Was your Catholicism keeping up with your career?
Harris: During my freshman year at Boston University, I
went on a Cursillo weekend retreat. It was a tremendous experience.
Prior to that, my faith, while certainly an important part of my
life, was often kept at arm’s length.The Cursillo experience
helped me re-examine my life, relationships, priorities, goals,
and values; ultimately, it helped put my Catholic faith on par with
everything else important to me.
FAITH: When did you get into the news?
Harris: I went back to Springfield after college and thought
my professional life would be that of a TV director. But I soon
found myself gravitating toward the newsroom. Eventually, I was
offered – and accepted – a full-time position in the
newsroom, as a reporter and anchor.
FAITH: How did you like that?
Harris: I found that I am a reporter at heart. When a big
story breaks, I am ready to run out the door. My boss sometimes
has to tell me, “Stay here, Bill. We need you on the anchor
desk.” Because most anchors also have reporting experience,
their job in the studio is like that of a quarterback. Today’s
news anchors are more than just news readers. We are often referred
to as the gate-keepers.
 FAITH:
Tell us some of the favorite stories you have covered.
Harris: I love police reporting. I did a special on the
Michigan State Police Emergency Services team. I followed them for
several days, trained with them and even rappelled down a building.
Another time I flew with the Thunderbirds, the precision air team,
during a show at Wurtsmith Air Force Base. It was more fun than
the rides at Cedar Point.
On the religious side, I have been able to cover two papal visits,
one in St. Louis in 1999, and Toronto’s World Youth Day in
July of 2002.
FAITH: How did you feel about seeing the pope?
Harris: You can feel his charisma. You have to be in his
presence to realize how closely the youth are tied to him. You can
see the love for young people in his eyes and his connection with
them.
FAITH: How does being a Catholic influence your work as a reporter/anchor?
Harris: The ideals, goals, beliefs I have as a Catholic
make me who I am, and come with the package. I don’t leave
that at home. Does that mean I wear my Catholicism on my sleeve?
No. But I believe it makes me a better person, and therefore a better
reporter.
FAITH: What if someone complains that for
a Catholic to cover a papal visit or the sex abuse scandal, there
is a loss of objectivity?
Harris: We do get that occasionally, but to me it makes
sense to have someone covering Catholic issues who is knowledgeable
about the Church. My news director has both an expectation and a
demand that stories be balanced.
During the priest scandal, I was able to follow Fr. Joe Krupp for
24 hours with the hope of giving our viewers a better feel of who
priests are and what they do. They were able to see that a priest’s
day is more than nine-to-five, see what’s involved in seminary
preparation, and what the Church is doing to prevent abuse from
happening again.
FAITH: What is the hardest part of your job?
Harris: Tragedy. It’s tough to report a kidnaping,
a death. We have to make ourselves handle it for the moment, and
then deal with our emotions later, usually by talking it out with
others. I still remember the first fatal accident I covered.
FAITH: When you aren’t working, what do you do?
Harris: I like to do family things. In addition to our
family time, Jane and I jog together. It’s a health kick.
She has run her whole life, and we enter the ten-mile Bobby Crim
(a race begun by the former Michigan Speaker of the House to raise
money to support Special Olympics) every year. It was at the five-mile
marker years ago that she announced to me that she was pregnant
with Chris.
FAITH: Can she beat you?
Harris: (laughing) Always!
FAITH: Back to the original question.
Harris: I’m also involved in the Children’s
Miracle Network, American Red Cross, Buick Club of America and the
Flint Symphony Orchestra. I was instrumental in bringing a televised
Christmas pops concert, modeled on the Boston Pops, to this area.
It is now broadcast statewide.
FAITH: What does your faith mean to you?
Harris: I can’t imagine our lives without Catholicism.
There would be a void.
My wife, daughter, son and I are extraordinary ministers of Communion.
The defining moment of everything we have talked about in this interview
occurs every time my family and I are allowed to actively participate
in the liturgy and distribute Communion.
---
 Catholic
journalism and communication are important ministries in the Diocese
of Lansing. Here are two offices that work to get the word out about
Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church:
 FAITH
Magazine: (517) 342-2595
Department
of Communications: (517) 342-2475. This office operates
the Outreach Mass: Sundays on WHTV, UPN 18 at 10 a.m., WLAJ, ABC
53 at 6 a.m., and WSMH, FOX 66, at 10 a.m.
what I did on my
spring break:
why I chose service instead of sand and sun
By Patricia Majher | Photography by Christine Jones
 While
many of her classmates were soaking up the sun in exotic places,
Lauren Wisniewski spent her 2004 spring break in Nashville, inside
a Catholic Social Services office, helping refugees resettle in
their new land. And she loved every minute of it.
Lauren, a recent University of Michigan graduate, was a coordinator
and active participant in a national student service program called
Alternative Spring Break, or ASB. Started in 1991 on the campus
of Vanderbilt University, ASB encourages college students to spend
their spring vacations in active service to others.
Sound like work? It is. But, according to Lauren,
it’s also spiritually enriching and incredibly enjoyable.
“It’s an awesome experience,” she affirms.
Lauren first became involved in ASB during her freshman
year – “I read about it in my church bulletin.”
That year, the ASB group from St. Mary Student Parish in Ann Arbor
was planning a trip to Augusta, Ga. to work for the local chapter
of Habitat for Humanity.
On the long car ride down to Augusta, everyone wondered how a group
of northern college students would be received. In fact, their welcome
couldn’t have been warmer. As Lauren reports, “The mayor
came out to greet us and even declared a special day in the city
to honor us.”
The St. Mary’s group immediately pitched in to help the community’s
own residents build affordable housing for deserving families.
“It amazed me that so many people got together to do something
good for others,” she says. “I realized from watching
them that service is not just a commitment of one week a year.”
Though the work was hard and the sleeping arrangements – on
the floor of a local Methodist church – even harder, Lauren
vowed to do more to help.
The next year, she signed up with the Alternative Spring
Break group going to Baltimore, Md. There, in a soup kitchen,
she got to see how a nonprofit organization works behind the scenes.
And she was impressed – “So much planning goes into
feeding lunch to 250 people each day.”
Lauren had the opportunity to interact with many of the guests on
a one-to-one basis – “I saw people in the most difficult
circumstances who still managed to hold on to their faith. That
taught me there was no reason I shouldn’t, too.”
 After
two years of observing how ASB worked in her parish, Lauren decided
to take an active role in planning the 2004 trips. So she
accepted the role of coordinator. “I appreciated what had
been done for me (by previous coordinators),” she says, “I
just felt it was time to step up and give something back.”
St. Mary’s parishioners unfailingly supported all the ASB
fundraisers, including pancake breakfasts, bake sales, bottle and
can drives, and T-shirt printing.
The coordinator position really kicked into high gear in January
of this year. “I had to organize four groups of 12 and train
eight site leaders,” Lauren notes. She decided her group would
visit the Baltimore soup kitchen, a Habitat site in Meridian, Miss.,
a social service agency in Crank’s Creek, Ky., and the Nashville
refugee resettlement assignment mentioned earlier.
After making sure everyone arrived safely at the four destinations,
Lauren attached herself to the Nashville group and got to work.
“Our main job was to welcome refugees from Sudan and
Bosnia to America,” Lauren says. Some of the group’s
duties were lighthearted in nature, such as taking refugee children
to a hands-on science museum. But mostly it was hard work –
from staffing a distribution center that gave out bedding and furniture
to actually helping families move into their first apartments. “Professional
movers don’t get nearly enough credit,” she humorously
relates.
Nights were again spent on a church floor – this time, Baptist
– but spirits were high. “Our faith reflections really
sustained us. One of the things we did was go as a group to see
The Passion on Ash Wednesday.”
Lauren and others took pictures of the week’s activities and
turned them into a slide show, which they shared with parishioners
upon their return. “That was our way of saying thanks to St.
Mary’s,” she explains.
Looking back on the 2004 ASB trips, Lauren seems amazed at how much
she gained from the experience of being coordinator. For
one thing, speaking before the congregation and making countless
arrangements on the phone helped her overcome her natural shyness.
Lauren’s leadership abilities were also enhanced by the experience,
enabling her to supervise the site leaders with ease.
More importantly, her dedication to service was significantly deepened
by her association with ASB. “Now, I love to give my time
to others,” she says simply. “I can’t imagine
not doing something.”
When asked if she ever regrets her decision to give up the opportunity
to relax in the sun and the sand on a traditional spring break,
she replies with an immediate, “No!”
“It meant more to me to be involved with the communities I
visited,” she explains. “I wouldn’t have done
it any other way – tan or no tan!”
---
For more information about Alternative Spring
Breaks, contact the student parishes of our diocese:
 St.
Mary Student Parish,
331 Thompson St., Ann Arbor.
(734) 663-0557
St.
John Student Parish,
327 M.A.C. Avenue, East Lansing.
(517) 337-9778
Holy
Trinity Student Parish,
511 W. Forest, Ypsilanti.
(734) 482-1400
I survived my alcoholic husband:
why I remember him with love
By Marybeth Hicks | Photography by Tom Gennara
 Five
years ago, Cathy lost her husband to alcoholism.
By the time he “hit bottom” and was willing to enter
rehabilitation, it was too late to save him from the toll addiction
had taken on his body. Cathy turned her suffering into action by
becoming her parish’s representative to the Bishop’s
Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs. Now, she helps families at Sacred
Heart Parish in Hudson by serving as a resource for those who seek
help and hope. Here, Cathy reveals in her own words what it was
like living with an alcoholic spouse.
The hardest part was knowing he was hurting himself
and being helpless to do anything about it. Recovery has to come
from the addict. No matter how much you tell them they have a problem,
you can’t do anything unless it comes from them. So you feel
powerless … helpless. My husband was a very high-functioning
alcoholic. He was in constant denial that his drinking was a problem.
His co-workers thought he was outgoing and funny, but I knew him
to be quiet and shy.
Everyone around him realized he had a problem except
my husband. I knew he was slowly killing himself … you can’t
drink the way he was drinking and live for very long. But even I
never realized how much he drank. I knew he drank every single day,
but it turned out he had his public bottle and, like most addicts,
he had a “private stash.” I found lots of bottles hidden
around the house after his death.
I was fortunate because I didn’t discover
a newfound faith during my husband’s struggle with alcoholism;
I had grown up in the faith. My inner strength comes from my faith.
The thing about having faith in God is that He’s there for
you 24/7. He’s the constant in my life, in happy times and
in the worst times. Life is nothing but change, but the one constant
is God’s love for us. Both (my husband) and I were raised
as Catholics, and he was also faithful. Our prayer together was
that God would give us the strength to accept His will.
 My
advice is go get help for yourself. Go to Al-Anon. I never
did this and that’s a mistake I made because I didn’t
take advantage of the support they could have given me. When you
live with an alcoholic, you need to take care of you. You can’t
take care of someone else if you don’t take care of yourself.
Try to get your spouse into counseling or AA, but even if you can’t,
go to Al-Anon and take your children, too. Get everyone around the
addict on board.
The biggest mistake we made was not having an intervention.
If we had known what to do and how to do it, we might have made
a difference. You need to be loving and supportive but you have
to tell the addict how his or her drinking is affecting others.
The first year after (my husband) died was the
worst year. I was in a deep depression. I went to work but other
than that, I never left my bedroom. Slowly, I started coming out
of it. Eventually, I got more involved in my parish. I started by
working on the parish festival and this helped me meet more people.
Then I began helping with the children’s Mass program. When
I saw the posting for the parish rep position for BCOAOD, I heard
God calling me to take a positive step and save someone else. Now,
I’m involved in Visions and that’s taking it one step
further.
If you really love the person and you’re
willing to support them, it doesn’t have to be all bad. My
life with (him) had a lot of joy. But if he had been an abusive
alcoholic, I would not have stayed. I wouldn’t have put myself
in danger even though I loved him.
God has His reasons for everything; they’re
not always clear to us… when I fell for (my husband) I didn’t
know I could love someone again because I had been hurt before.
God put me in his life for a reason just as he was in my life to
show me I could love again.
---
A vision of sobriety
The angry shouts coming from the library in the Diocesan
Center at St. Mary’s Cathedral escalate as the conflict between
a father and son moves toward potential violence. It sounds
like someone has a gun. A woman – the wife and mother –
screams to stop what is clearly the latest battle in a long, ugly
war.
And then, “CUT!” This is Visions, a theatrical production
about addiction and hope, in rehearsal for its Michigan debut at
the Diocese of Lansing’s Common Conference. Its stars are
not thespians, but ordinary folks from across the diocese –
parish representatives to the Bishops Office on Alcohol and Other
Drugs.
The purpose of Visions is simply to share that message of hope with
addicts, including the estimated 94 percent of alcohol- or drug-dependent
users who deceive themselves into believing they have no addiction
problems.
Bringing Visions to Lansing
is part of the work of the Bishop’s Council on Alcohol and
Other Drugs. Director Bob LaPrad first saw the production
last year in Washington, D.C. and knew it would be a blessing to
audiences in the Diocese of Lansing. “The goal is to show
this play at the Common Conference and then out of that, to take
it to parishes and facilities throughout the diocese to spread the
message of God’s healing grace. Our parish reps to BCOAOD
serve as wonderful resources to families throughout our diocese.
Performing in Visions is another way they will carry the message
of hope and healing into the community. We view ourselves as ‘wounded
healers’ because we all are recovering from alcoholism or
drug addiction and we understand what the characters in the play
are going through.” Bob says the actors, in their role as
advocates and representatives, will talk with audience members not
only about when and where to perform the play in the future, but
also about questions and concerns related to addiction.
The “vision” is the moment when the addict turns to
God and realizes the “pain and suffering were a gift that
brought us to our knees.” In this moment, God is present and
healing begins. It’s a moment, and a vision, the Lansing troupe
will portray realistically and respectfully, because it brought
each one to God.
---
Your DSA stewardship at work –
Catholic Charities
For more
information on dealing with substance abuse for yourself or a loved
one, contact your local Al-Anon/AA, your parish representative to
the Bishop’s Council on Alcohol and other Drugs, or call:
Catholic Social Services of Lenawee County,
(517) 263-2191
Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County,
(734) 971-9781
Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties,
(810) 232-9950
Catholic Social Services of Livingston County,
(517) 545-5944
Catholic Charities of Jackson,
(517) 782-2551
Catholic Social Services of Lansing,
(517) 272-1524
pumpkin prayer
here’s a little prayer to say as you cut out your jack o’lantern
 Cut
Off The Top:
Lord, open my mind and fill me with
your wisdom and guidance.
Scoop Out The Yuckies:
Lord, take out all my fussies and frownies
and fill me with your love.
Carve Out The Eyes:
Lord, open my eyes to see all the beautiful
things you have made.
Carve Out The Nose:
Lord, help me to be
a sweet fragrance for you.
Carve Out The Mouth:
Lord, help me always speak your
words of love and kindness.
Place in A Candle:
Lord, let me be a light to others
for you have filled me with your light.
– Unknown Origin
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