An In-plant In Limbo

BORN AND raised in Newton, Mass., Bruce MacDonald was jokingly referred to as the “token Presbyterian” when he started his job as a printer with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston (RCAB). In 1984, it was a big deal for a Protestant to be working for the Catholic church. Today, employees’ religious persuasions are quite varied.

Back then, MacDonald was preparing to get married and buy a house with the woman he has been happily sharing his life with for the past 23 years, and he needed more job stability. Financial difficulties at Barker Press, a small shop in the city of Watertown, where he had worked for the previous eight years, were becoming worrisome.

“I couldn’t be in a position where I didn’t know where my next paycheck was coming from,” explains MacDonald. He got wind of an opening at the archdiocese due to a retiring employee and applied.

MacDonald knew early on he would become a tradesman. His father had never gone to college, and financial matters at home meant that college “just wasn’t on the table.” Newton North High offered a program introducing students to trades like carpentry and printing. MacDonald had taken graphic arts classes in junior high so it was the printing portion of the program he gravitated towards. This led to an apprenticeship at Barker Press.

“When I graduated, they offered me a job,” he says.

When MacDonald came to the RCAB, he was surprised to discover there was no print shop.

“There wasn’t even a copy center,” he says. “We had an old multilith press and used paper stencils the secretaries had typed, which I’d then run off the press.”

By 1986, MacDonald had helped set up an in-plant, consisting of a single-color, 11x17? Ryobi press, a vertical metal platemaker and a 20? Challenge paper cutter and folder. The operation continued to thrive under the direction of Bernard Cardinal Law, a strong advocate of the in-plant, which at the time required a staff of six.

Sadly, the sexual abuse crisis that rocked the Catholic church had dire consequences for the print shop.

“It was very hard on morale,” reveals MacDonald. “But Cardinal Sean [O’Malley] is bringing us back. We have a great bunch of people here, and that helps, too. In my estimation, in the 23 years I’ve worked here for the Catholic priests, I’ve found them to be nothing but professional.”

An increasing reliance on electronic media has reduced printing needs. Subsequently, the print shop staff was down