Buy The B.C. Catholic – five cents!

By LAUREEN McMAHON

This year, as The B.C. Catholic newspaper celebrates its 75th anniversary, the story of former parish "news boy" Chris Reiter provides a snapshot of how the newspaper actually made its way into Catholic homes before World War II.

When Reiter read some time ago that it is 75 years since the paper began being published, he thought it might be interesting to today’s readers to discover how distribution was handled before the publication began to be mailed out directly to customers.

In 1938, Reiter was a St. Mary’s Grade 4 student, having moved with with his parents, brother, and sister from the prairies to the Okanagan and then to Vancouver. They finally settled about a mile from St. Mary’s Church.

He recalls that, in his years as an altar boy around 1940, he was asked by pastor Father Adrian Beausoleil to pass out copies of each edition of The B.C. Catholic Newspaper at the church door for five cents a copy, first come, first served.

"I took over the responsibility from another altar boy, Billy Pope, when he began helping his dad clean the church. I was glad to get the job, even though it came with no money, just a pat on the head," Reiter told The B.C. Catholic with a big grin.

"At that time the rectory, where the newspapers were delivered each week, was a big, beautiful house, but the church itself was an ex-butcher shop, just a little building. Father Beausoleil, who was our first priest, directed the building of a school before he died."

Reiter remembers opening up the bundle of about three dozen copies of the newspaper which arrived on the parish doorstep each week. He made sure, he says, to position himself just right so people wouldn’t miss him as they entered and exited the church.

"I felt like a real newsboy when I held them up for everyone to see," said Reiter at his Port Coquitlam home, where he and his wife Loretta have lived for the past 38 years and raised their large family.

"I held the copies up very high as everyone passed by. It was fun! Then, once a month, I took the money which I had collected from the sale of the papers down to the cathedral offices on Richards Street, climbed the stairs, and gave it to the editor, Father Henry Bader."

Reiter has great recall of some of the legendary figures from The B.C. Catholic’s past, including its first editor, Monsignor D.J. Carey, and Val Roach from the Hastings News, who was generous with his time and talents and helped to put the paper together in its early years.

Reiter said he and his family stayed on as parishioners of St. Mary’s until the diocese decided to build St. Jude’s Church on Renfrew Street. Then he and his brother Bill were among the first to become altar boys at the new church.

Later, the Reiter family moved to St. Helen’s Parish in Burnaby. By Grade 9, he had decided to enter Vancouver Technical School so he could learn a trade.

When Reiter and his wife married, theirs was the first Nuptial Mass to be celebrated at Vancouver’s Holy Family Church, at 38th and Beatrice, said Reiter.

"They didn’t even have the proper flooring in at that time," said Reiter with a laugh, "but we had a wonderful time anyhow!"

Reiter said he has enjoyed his life, watching the city and surrounding areas grow up before his eyes. He also, he added, continues to anticipate the arrival each week of The B.C. Catholic!