Christopher Gaul, former managing editor of the Catholic Review, dies at 72

The Catholic Review ^ | Oct. 18, 2012 | George P. Matysek Jr.

[MDJohnPaul]

Catholic Review File Photo

There were countless angles a journalist could have taken in writing a preview story about Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Baltimore in 1995. Christopher Gaul, then the senior writer at the Catholic Review who later became the newspaper’s managing editor, decided to examine what others ignored: the source of the 80,000 Communion hosts that would be consecrated during the Oct. 8 papal Mass at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Gaul traced the story all the way back to a Kansas wheat field, where grains were harvested and shipped by railcar to New Jersey to be stone-ground into whole wheat flour. The flour would eventually be taken to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Washington, who made it into simple dough.

Gaul’s prose matched in tenderness the love the sisters put into making the Communion wafers, and would win him a journalism award from the Catholic Press Association in 1996 - one of many he received in his 10 years at the Catholic Review.

Daniel Medinger, former editor/associate publisher of the Catholic Review, said Gaul’s treatment of the story was typical of the tenacity, care and thoroughness he brought to his job.

Gaul, 72, died Oct. 18, after a nearly yearlong battle with cancer. He worked at the Catholic Review beginning as a writer in 1995 before becoming associate and then managing editor. He had also produced and hosted Catholic News Radio and Catholic Review TV.

In Baltimore, Gaul worked as a reporter for The Sun and The Evening Sun from 1961 to 1968. He was an on-air investigative reporter and documentary film producer for WJZ from 1968 to 1974. He was an independent documentary film producer from 1992 to 1995, and, for 10 years, was the on-air medical reporter for WBAL-TV.

[MDJohnPaul]

Christopher Gaul was one of the great journalists of Baltimore.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.