Tony Spence, Catholic journalism veteran, dies at 71; called his work ‘a vocation I truly love’

Anthony J. “Tony” Spence, former director and editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service, died July 28 in Nashville, Tennessee, after a long illness. He was 71.

“The Catholic Media Association is grateful to God for the life of Tony Spence,” Gretchen R. Crowe, editor-in-chief of OSV News and president of the CMA board, and Rob DeFrancesco, CMA’s executive director, said in a July 30 joint statement on behalf of the CMA.

“Tony was board president from 1994-1996, and the 2010 recipient of the St. Francis de Sales Award, the highest individual honor given by the Catholic Media Association for outstanding contributions to Catholic journalism,” they said. “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.”

For those who knew Spence well over these many years, the most common description of him — offered with immense fondness — was “Southern gentleman.”

“He carried something of the dignity of a Southern gentleman, I guess. That of an old-time Nashvillian,” said Rick Mussachio, executive director of the Tennessee Catholic Conference, who in 1998 succeeded Spence as editor of the Tennessee Register, newspaper of the Nashville Diocese.

“He really helped connect me to the Catholic community in Nashville,” Mussachio told OSV News. “He had a real interest in seeing the Catholic community in Nashville succeed.”

Christopher Gunty, associate publisher and editor of Catholic Review Media in Baltimore, appreciated the Nashvillian character as well.

“I served for two years as vice president while Tony was president of the Catholic Press Association, so we talked at least once a week during that time,” he told OSV News. “The board members started keeping track of ‘Tony-isms,’ unique turns of phrase born in Tony’s Southern roots. For example, he said if we presented a certain, possibly unpopular idea to CPA members, we would be ‘like a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs.'”

Helen Osman, for a time Spence’s boss as secretary of communications for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, remembered one occasion where Spence’s colloquialisms couldn’t pass the language barrier.

They were both on a trip of the Catholic Press Association — now called the Catholic Media Association, or CMA — to visit with Catholic editors in former Soviet bloc nations. In Warsaw, Poland, they heard complaints from editors about how, with actual press freedom, they were no longer the exclusive purveyors of uncensored truth and had to compete with publications from outside Poland.

Spence, she recalled, took it all in; and then the Nashville native drawled as homespun advice, “Well, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

The translator, unfamiliar with the expression, looked horrified and announced, “I am not translating that!”

Osman called Spence “a delight as a colleague,” adding, “Truly, he knew his craft as a journalist and editor.”

Carol Zimmermann, a former reporter at CNS, which closed its Washington office in December 2022, and the newly named news editor at the National Catholic Reporter, attested to that: “Tony Spence was kind to a fault. He was an old-school Southern gentleman who always said hello, held doors open, sent cards and asked how your family was.

“When he stopped by your desk in the newsroom you knew you’d be in for a treat because he’d probably say something funny that would often include an exaggerated expression along with the phrase ‘Well, as we say down South … .”

“Tony was appreciated for his dedication and hard work as well as for his hearty laugh and his generous spirit,” said Greg Erlandson, who succeeded Spence as director and editor-in-chief of CNS. “I knew personally of his kindness to me during a difficult time and many others can share similar stories.”

When he was named the director and editor-in-chief at CNS, based in Washington, in February 2004, where he served until 2016, Spence had been executive director of alumni communications and publications at his alma mater, Vanderbilt University.

He replaced Thomas N. Lorsung, who retired in late 2003 after 31 years with the news service, including serving as its director and editor-in-chief since 1989.

Lorsung called Spence “an accomplished personable journalist. His talent and Southern charm will be missed.”

Before going to Vanderbilt in 1998, Spence was editor-in-chief and general manager of the Tennessee Register Inc., which publishes the Tennessee Register, from 1989 to 1998. He also served as associate editor and managing editor at the newspaper and was the communications director of the Nashville Diocese from 1992-98.

As president of the CPA from 1994 to 1996, he oversaw the establishment of the Catholic Advertising Network and the Catholic Press Foundation. He also was a co-founder of the Appalachian Press Project of Kentucky and Tennessee, chaired the CPA’s liaison committee with CNS in 1997-98 and organized the association’s 1998 convention. He had been a board member of the Catholic Volunteer Network since 2010.

Spence suffered from kidney failure and other ailments in recent years, and hoped to get a kidney transplant.

“In texts over the past few months he said things such as, ‘It is a long road trying to recover, but trying’ and ‘struggling but OK.’ He also still asked about my family and cheered me on about my new job,” said Zimmermann.

At CNS, “he was quick to praise reporters for good work and to raise his eyebrows over questionable things he saw in the church and U.S. politics,” she said.

“Tony had a great sense of humor and a quick laugh, but he also could be very serious, whether it was discussing the future of the Catholic press, or the importance of our vocation,” Gunty said. “Even when he was dealing with illnesses, he tried to keep a positive attitude, and strove to help others.”

In 2006, Spence was named to a five-year term as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. He was president of SIGNIS North America — the world Catholic association for communications — and on the board of directors of SIGNIS International.

It was during the annual Catholic Media Convention in New Orleans that Spence received the CPA’s St. Francis de Sales Award, known as “the Franny.”

In accepting the honor, Spence told the award luncheon that when Msgr. Owen Campion, a Nashville priest, former editor of the Tennessee Register and author at Our Sunday Visitor, gave him his first Catholic press job at the Tennessee Register, “I thought I would give it a year.”

“It hardly took that long to realize it was much more than a job,” he added. “It was a vocation. And one I truly love.”

Spence thanked his colleagues for sharing his “love of this vocation.”

“Remember that every day, every single day, you make a difference in the lives of your readers, your listeners, your viewers and your students,” he said. “You have made a tremendous difference in mine.”

Born Dec. 27, 1952, to Joe A. and Ruth Robertson Spence, he attended Father Ryan High School in Nashville and the University of Tennessee Knoxville before graduating from Vanderbilt.

Survivors include brothers Don P. (Joan) Spence of Nashville, and Jeffery B. Spence of Abingdon, Md.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated Aug. 9 at St. Henry Catholic Church in Nashville.

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