By Barb Arland-Fye
Larry Duke, a retired art teacher and member of St. Anthony Parish in Davenport, has designed the winning logo for the Davenport Diocese’s Year of Faith observance. Bishop Martin Amos and his staff chose Duke’s entry from among 189 designs submitted to The Catholic Messenger, which organized the contest. Entries were received from students at Prince of Peace Catholic School in Clinton and Notre Dame Catholic Schools in Burlington and youths and adults from throughout the diocese.
“Because there were so many wonderful logos it was difficult choosing one,” Bishop Amos said. “The one we chose seemed to speak clearly to the message that we in the Diocese of Davenport are celebrating a ‘Year of Faith!’”
The winning logo will appear on a new diocesan prayer card created for Year of Faith and on diocesan and Messenger communications pertaining to the year.
Duke, 62, was vacationing in New Mexico when he received word his design had been selected for the diocesan logo. “I think it’s wonderful,” he said by phone. “I didn’t know what kind of competition I would have.”
His background is in art. “I was an art teacher in the Davenport schools for 33 years,” he explained. He’s continued to dabble in art, creating posters for St. Anthony Parish and taking up digital photography. He also does some interior house painting. The logo contest was something he thought he could do, and he followed the contest directions assiduously. “I knew the cross would be front and center,” he said of his design.
Teresa Mottet of St. Mary Parish in Fairfield was first runner-up with a meticulously hand-drawn design that included outlines of the diocese’s 22 counties. Her artwork impressed the bishop and his staff. In fact, they liked elements of each of the runners up and found it difficult to choose between them.
Several artists included notes and letters explaining the prayerful process that entered into the design.
Sherri Cunningham of Prince of Peace Parish in Clinton wrote: “Dear Bishop Amos and ‘Logo’ contest committee, I am hoping that you received many responses from Catholics wanting to share their talents for our ‘Year of Faith.’
“I have seen how my own children are confronted with confusing messages today that conflict with their faith. I pray that they discover on their own now, as adults, how Jesus is our ‘Prince of Peace’ and we cannot truly see a peaceful world without his ‘beacon’ of light to show us the way.” Her design featured a chalice, a lighthouse and a peace sign, all interconnected — symbolizing her local parish, the diocese and the universal Church.
The Year of Faith is a celebration of the universal Church that begins on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (Oct. 11, 2012) and concludes on the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King (Nov. 24, 2013).
The Holy Father announced the Year of Faith to confront secularism and other challenges and to encourage Catholics to rediscover the faith and the “joy and enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ.”
See other finalists from the logo contest at: Year of Faith Finalists
