As you may have noted in these pages, Commonweal and its friends held an evening of dinner and conversation at the Essex House in Manhattan on September 26 to celebrate the magazine’s eightieth year of publication. At the event, syndicated columnist Mark Shields graciously accepted the inaugural American Catholic in the Public Square Award. “We wanted to honor Mark,” Editor Paul Baumann explained in his introductory remarks, “for his achievements as a voice of reason and sanity during a time when those virtues often seem absent from our politics and our common life.” About 325 Commonweal contributors and readers were on hand for the festivities. Some traveled great distances, including author Jack Miles, who flew in from Los Angeles, and longtime subscriber (going back to the 1960s) John Borst, who made the two-day drive to Toronto from his home deep in Ontario before getting on a plane to New York. Contributor Tim Schilling came all the way from the Netherlands! The dedication and generosity of these and other supporters have kept us going for the last eighty years. Here’s to the next eighty.