Two Catholic publishers are marking their 100th birthdays in 2012. Our Sunday Visitor, the Indiana-based publisher of Catholic books, Bibles, a weekly newspaper, and church resources celebrates its anniversary with a slate of events beginning next month. On May 5—the date in 1912 when the first issue of its OSV Newsweekly came out—OSV will hold an open house at its national headquarters in Huntington, Ind. Then OSV co-hosts for the first time (with Criterion, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis) the Catholic Media Conference (June 20-22) in Indianapolis, sponsoring the opening dinner.

The national celebration of the anniversary comes on September 28 at the Grand Wayne Center in Fort Wayne, Ind. A symposium will feature Cardinal Francis George of Chicago; teacher, speaker, and author Scott Hahn (The Lamb’s Supper); and Helen Alvare, associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law. The keynote speaker at a dinner that evening will be Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. A special commemorative edition of OSV Newsweekly dated September 30 will feature images of one front page for every year between 1912 and 2012.

Chicago-based Loyola Press also turns 100 this year. Though the press is not planning any events, it has marked the milestone by commissioning an original portrait of St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Society of Jesus in 1540. The portrait is being used for the cover of Loyola’s fall catalog, as well as for the cover of Just Call Me Lopez: Getting to the Heart of Ignatius Loyola by Margaret Silf (Aug.). In the book, a present-day woman encounters St. Ignatius, who helps her after she is struck by a car. They have a series of conversations that form an unusual spiritual friendship.

Andrew Yankech, business development manager for trade at Loyola, told RBL, “The goal of the book is to humanize a man whom even many Jesuits say they feel estranged from.” The book will be on sale in time for St. Ignatius’s feast day on July 31; celebratory banners will fly on Ashland Ave. in front of Loyola’s Chicago headquarters. (The portrait of Ignatius is being made available free for anyone who wants to use it, Yankech said.)