Two Ave Maria Press authors, also priests of the Congregation of Holy Cross, won first-place Catholic Press Association awards at the 2012 Catholic Media Conference in Indianapolis on June 22.

Rev. Ronald Raab, C.S.C., author of The Unsheltered Heart and associate pastor of Saint Andre Bessette Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, won in the category of best regular column, spiritual life, for three columns in Celebrate! magazine: “Getting Our Feet Wet” (Spring 2011), “Message in a Bottle” (Summer 2011), and “Off The Wall” (Fall 2011).

According to the judges, “The author offers insight and inspiration in each column, driving the reader to think about each column well after reading.” Raab previously won first place in the column category in the 2012 Canadian Church Press Award for the same series of columns.

Rev. Daniel G. Groody, C.S.C. won first prize for best coverage of immigration for his America article “A Theology of Migration.” Groody is associate professor of theology and director of the Center for Latino Spirituality and Culture at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies. Groody and Cardinal Roger Mahony are coauthoring a forthcoming mini-unit on immigration for high school students.

The judges noted that his story was “One man’s personal journey, experiences, and reflections. Never loses the big picture. Everyone should approach immigration thus.”

Groody recently received the Touchstone Award from the National Federation of Priests’ Councils.