One of Our Own: Spotswood native takes ‘Spirit’ helm
By Carolyn Hughes
Correspondent
With her Nov. 17 start as the new managing editor of The Catholic Spirit, Kathleen Ogle feels she has finally found a way to combine her talents and her desire to serve the Church.
Born in Spotswood, Ogle brings a wealth of editorial, production and managerial experience in publishing to the position. She also has a heart for the Church and has spent many years discerning how to best serve God’s people.
So it was with delight when attending Mass in Corpus Christi Church, South River, Ogle discovered in the weekly bulletin the vacant managing editor’s job on The Catholic Spirit.
Ogle applied and found she had the skills, experience and education the diocese was seeking. “As managing editor of The Catholic Spirit, I can have it both ways: my passion for news and managing publications combined with service to the Church,” she said.
Ogle’s journalism experience began at Spotswood High School as a reporter on The Scribbler. As undergraduate, she was a staff writer at The Daily Targum, Rutgers University’s independent daily newspaper, and held several editorial positions. Following graduation, she managed Targum’s production department.
She returned to news reporting and editing on a group of medical newspapers published by Slack Inc., Thorofare.
After nearly a decade in medical journalism, Ogle took a break from the corporate world and spent a year in full-time volunteer lay ministry with Redeemer Ministry Corps, sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Redeemer, Huntington Valley, Pa.
“I had questions about what I wanted to do with my life,” Ogle said, “and I felt that it was time to try something else.”
During that year she worked as a chaplain intern in Holy Redeemer Hospital and Medical Center, Meadowbrook, Pa., and also in a transitional housing facility for women and children in North Philadelphia. She then studied theology at Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C.
Describing her lay ministry experience as “something I always wanted to do,” Ogle discerned that it was not her calling and returned to medical publishing for two years at Dowden Health Media, Montvale.
But a desire to serve the Church and to use her skills in that service remained, until she found herself saying, “Yes,” to managing the diocesan newspaper.
“I am thrilled to be here,” Ogle said. “I have always wanted to work on a diocesan newspaper, but I never imagined I would have the opportunity.
“My approach to editing is that we need to fulfill the mission of the publication and to meet the needs of the readers,” she said.
“I want to figure out how The Catholic Spirit will best meet the needs of the people of the Diocese of Metuchen.”
Ogle agrees with Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski that a diocesan newspaper is first and foremost a “tool of evangelization.”
“I want to reach more Catholics in the Diocese of Metuchen. More people need access to this newspaper because it will nurture their faith,” Ogle said.
Ogle attended Spotswood public schools, holds a bachelor of arts degree in English from Douglas College, New Brunswick, and has completed course work for a master of arts degree in theology at Washington Theological Union.
On the parish level, she has been involved in the RCIA process; served as a catechist in St. Lawrence Parish, Lindenwold, and as a substitute catechist in St. Joseph Pro-Cathedral Parish, Camden.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law