Msgr. Roger J. Landry
The Anchor
Editorial
February 6, 2026
This is the last print edition of The Anchor.
The Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is a time for everything, a time to be born and a time to die (3:1-2). The Church continuously lives out the mystery of the grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying so as to bear fruit (Jn 12:24). She marks this reality of life and death and the connection between them in every baptism and every funeral. Institutions, parishes and even dioceses that are brought into existence to fulfill the mission of the Church to proclaim the Gospel and make saints, for various reasons, like every human life, inevitably come to an earthly conclusion. Jesus indeed reminds us that all the things of this world are passing away — including all our spoken and published human words — but stresses that his words alone will never pass away (Matt 24:35).
Every death brings with it a natural sense of sadness, proportionate to the connection, dependence on, and love for whom or what one has lost. When the Diocese of Fall River announced two months ago that February would be the last print edition of the Anchor, some of the faithful of the diocese were understandably upset. Such disappointment is one of the greatest tributes the Anchor has ever received. Some who started young have been faithfully reading the Anchor — more than 3,000 editions! — since its debut on April 11, 1957.
In faith, however, as we proclaim at every Mass, it is right and just, our duty and salvation, always and everywhere to give God thanks. And so it is fitting that this final editorial be dedicated to that gratitude to God and to all those who have made the print edition of The Anchor possible.
In the first edition, Bishop James Connolly wrote that the name of this diocesan newspaper was chosen not just for its nautical significance for Catholics along the Atlantic coastline of southeastern Massachusetts, but because of its Biblical significance as “the symbol of the theological virtue of hope — living hope that animates, consoles, and strengthens the just Christian in the midst of his labors.”
This newspaper has sought ever since to be a sign and instrument of Christian hope — spurring the faithful of the diocese to faith and charity, consoling them during national and Church crises, and striving to help them to become holy in the midst of daily activities. Through information and formation, it has ultimately sought to bring about personal, ecclesial and social transformation, helping those within the Diocese become more knowledgeable about the faith so that they might look at the news through the light of the Good News and share that vision with others.
Since its founding, The Anchor has spanned a lot of history.
It has covered the papacies of Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis and Leo XIV; the episcopacies of Fall River Bishops James Connolly, Daniel Cronin, Sean O’Malley, George Coleman and Edgar Da Cunha; and the pastors of so many parishes without whose work in promoting subscriptions The Anchor would have never gotten off the ground.
The Anchor has likewise followed the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Ford, Carter, Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, Obama, Biden and the two terms of Trump and examined the strengths and weaknesses of the tenures of Massachusetts Governors Furcolo, Peabody, Volpe, Sargent, King, Dukakis, Weld, Cellucci, Swift, Romney, Patrick, Baker, and Healey.
It has profited from the dedication and pursuit of excellence of so many executive editors, editors, managers, reporters, and photographers for whom we thank God one more time: Monsignors Daniel Shalloo, John Moore, Roger Landry and Gerard O’Connor; Fathers John Driscoll, John Cronin, Stephen Downey, John Crowley, Kevin Harrington, Roland Bousquet, Edmond Rego, Edward Byington, John Folster, and Richard Wilson; Deacon James Dunbar; Sister Gertrude Gaudette, OP; lay apostles Hugh Golden, McGee Winner, Rosemary Dussault, Marcie Hickey, Dorothy Eastman, Cecilia Belanger, Jean Judge, Avis Roberts, Thomas McDonnell, Eileen Lardner, Marion Unsworth, Joseph and Marilyn Roderick, Bill Morrissette, Clement Dowling, Russell Collinge, Jack Smith, Edward Rosa, Ernest Torchia, Hugo Poisson, Ron Baptista, Pat McGowan, Barbara Reis, Dave Jolivet, Ken Souza, Wayne Powers, Mary Chase, Rebecca Aubut, Matt McDonald, Brian Kennedy, and Joan Warren.
Various national columnists — including Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Frank Sheed and George Weigel — have grace our pages as well as too many homegrown regular columnists to enumerate who with dedication have shared their faith, talents, and practical wisdom about living the faith better in season and out. They were augmented by guest articles and columns from diocesan priests, deacons, religious and lay faithful. It has been an earthly image of what the Letter to the Hebrews calls a great cloud of witnesses, all giving testimony to events as well as the vitality of the faith within the diocese through all circumstances.
To all those who have been part of casting the Anchor beyond the veil (Heb 6:19) as well as planting it firmly in the rich soil between Attleboro to Provincetown, Nantucket and the Vineyard, we owe our sincere thanks and prayers that God to reward them for this service.
What began on Monsignor Shalloo’s rectory floor at St. Joseph’s parish in Fall River, progressed to an office over Lafayette Bank on Bedford Street in Fall River, moved to the linotypes of Leary Press, and later relocated to offices on 432 and finally 887 Highland Avenue, had a very good run. The archives stretching back to the first edition — still available on the Anchor website (anchornews.org) — are a chronicle of faith, the deeds that flow from it, and the challenges that confront it. Those archives will remain a resource for us to know better our diocesan roots so that Catholics today and tomorrow can remain fruitful shoots.
The vast majority of Catholics now receive their news in ways other than weekly or monthly print newspapers. News cycles can make what happened literally yesterday seem like no longer “news.” Sustaining a newspaper financially requires subscriptions, advertisement revenue and fundraising and, as subscriptions decrease so does advertisement income. Bishop da Cunha deserves much credit for keeping the Anchor going for many years as many other diocesan and secular newspapers folded and as the Anchor, despite cutting expenses, still went from black to deep red. He did so out of respect for those within our diocese who still much prefer their news in print. Good stewardship, however, means that such annual losses cannot continue until the Parousia.
Like in other dioceses, now The Anchor will be cast into the deep through its website (anchornews.org) and through a new digital edition that will be emailed for free each week to anyone who signs up via the same website or by the QR code found elsewhere in this edition. Please sign up and spread the word. Despite the end of the print edition, it’s certainly a welcome development that, because of cost savings, The Anchor will now be able once again to be a weekly organ of the good news happening throughout the Diocese and her parishes, augmented by national, international and Vatican news coverage from OSV (Our Sunday Visitor) News.
Throughout the centuries, Catholics have never really said, “The end,” because the Catholic story never ends. In languages influenced by the Christian faith, we have rather entrusted each other and our works literally “to God” — adeus in Portuguese, adieu in French, adios in Spanish, and addio in Italian. The English goodbye has similar roots: it’s a contraction of the Old English expression godbwye, meaning, “God be with you.”
And so with gratitude to every reader for taking part in the faith-filled conversation that has happened in these pages for nearly seven decades, we entrust each other to God as we take this dialogue online. From there, we now continue the Church’s mission of proclaiming the Gospel and making disciples across the Southcoast and helping everyone drop their Anchor in God.