Happy Birthday to us!

Next week, The Compass, your diocesan newspaper, will celebrate its 25th anniversary. For those keeping track - especially those who want to send chocolate - the official birthday is Oct. 7, although chocolate is an acceptable gift at any time.

Just as many people have a hard time with birthdays - the attention is great even if an extra year isn't - so does The Compass, but for a different reason.

The Compass traces its roots back to 1956 when Bp. Stanislaus Bona and Fr. Orville Janssen founded The Register, which was part of a national chain of diocesan newspapers. About a dozen years later, the link was broken and the paper became The Spirit. That lasted until 1978 (and included about a year when the publication was a monthly magazine) when Bp. Aloysius Wycislo and then-Fr. Stephen Halbach started The Compass. The name has stayed the same since, though the identity of the publisher, editor and staff, format and appearance have changed several times.

Twenty-five years later our mission remains the same - providing direction and information for Catholics in the Green Bay Diocese.

Happy Birthday to us! And a big thank you to all of you.