Around New England

Episcopal Bishop Offers ‘Blessing of Journalists’

February 21, 2019

The Episcopal bishop of Western Massachusetts conducted a “Blessing of Journalists” service Wednesday.

The noontime service at Christ Church Cathedral in Springfield was dedicated to Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian national whom Saudi government operatives murdered in the country’s embassy in Turkey on October 2, 2018. Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, was a Washington Post columnist.

“So many times reporters have literally lost their lives or lost their freedom. So we celebrate life and we take that as an inspiration,” Bishop Douglas Fisher said Wednesday, February 20, according to WWLP-TV Channel 22 in Springfield.

The diocese also named the recipient of its first bishop’s award for journalism excellence:  Carrie Saldo, host of Connecting Point on WGBY-TV, Springfield’s public television station.