![[Antczak Picture]](AntczakAJ_02.JPG)
Antczak, Alfons Joseph
born: 1922
journalist
San Gabriel. Writer/Editor. born: Detroit, Mich., Aug. 3, 1922; B.S., Loyola U.; married: Helen Elizabeth Fitzpatrick [Ed. Helen died March 21, 1994]. children: Mary, Helen, Margaret, Teresa, Al, Tom, John, Joseph.
Military Service: Corporal USAF, 1945. Editorial Start, The Tidings, 30 yrs. Contributing: America, Columbia, Our Sunday Visitor, El Vintanle Dominical. Member: Catholic Press Council, Newman Club of L.A.
From: "Polish Americans in California 1827-1977 and Who's Who," edited by Jacek Przygoda, Polish American Historical Association, California Chapter, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, 1978.
Alphonse J. Antczak
Editor and Reporter
by Stanley Stankiewicz
Alphonse J. Antczak was a journalist for 42 years, specifically for The Tidings, the weekly newspaper of the largest archdiocese in the nation. He was a reporter for 26 years and an editor for 16 years. Al Antczak was the 16th editor of the paper and he was the ninth layman in charge of The Tidings.
Mr. Antczak was also correspondent for the National Catholic News and the United States Information Service. His articles were published in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Through four decades of writing, Antczak reported on papal activities, emphasis on life of the local archdiocese, and on themes of peace, justice and human dignity. Mr. Antczak received many honors for his work and dedication to the church. Pope John Paul II bestowed on him the "Benemerenti Medal." He also received several national awards from the U.S. Catholic Press Association for reporting and editorial writing.
Mr. Antczak's father was Polish. His mother was a native of Mexico. Al Antczak married Helen Fitzpatrick whose ancestry was Irish. Mr. Antczak refers to his children as PIMAs, which stands for Polish, Irish, Mexican Americans. The Antczaks have four daughters and four sons all of whom were educated in Catholic schools. One daughter, Dominican Sister Mary Catherine, is the director of schools in California and Mexico conducted by the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose.
During World War II Mr. Antczak served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a radio operator in the China-India-Burma Theater. Because of his travels abroad, and due to his penetrating observations of the living conditions of common people, he wrote several award winning articles on the subject of aliens and immigrants.
Throughout his career, Al Antczak reported on a wide spectrum of papal activity and teaching, ranging from John XXIII's encyclical Pacem in Terris to John Paul ll's Laborem Exercens. Underlying them were the fundamental themes of peace, justice and human dignity. The relationship of mankind to God and to the world, Antczak wrote, is encompassed in the Second Vatican Council's document of The Church in the Modern World. He wrote, "This document says that we are not merely passengers in the Bark of Peter. We are expected to be part of the crew."
Al Antczak obviously is part of that crew. In his 42 years of work at The Tidings he helped produce the newspaper for more than 2000 weeks. He defined Catholic newspapers as reporters of the news of the world "from an objective moral, religious perspective. Through them the Church informs, teaches, suffers, yearns, reforms, exhorts and counsels."
He views the two pivotal events of his newspaper career as the Second Vatican Council and the great growth of the Church of Los Angeles. The great part of that growth, he said, was based on immigrants and the gifts of their culture. Because of this, he said, the Church is much alive here. Much of that vitality comes from the 42 years of Al Antczak's work on The Tidings.
From: Polish Americans in California, vol. II. National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs & Polish American Historical Association. California 1995.