Paul Thomas Moore

The Catholic Post has a new staff writer. He is Paul Thomas Moore and if the name sounds familiar it’s because he has contributed the column “In My Father’s House” to The Post since November 2018.

“We know readers have enjoyed Paul’s columns and look forward to the stories he will tell of the people, parishes and schools of the Diocese of Peoria,” said Jennifer Willems, editor of The Catholic Post.

Moore “inherited” the space for “In My Father’s House” from his father-in-law, the late Jerry Klein, a columnist for The Post and a well-known central Illinois journalist and author for more than half a century.

Moore took early retirement from the Canadian government in 2018 to join his wife, the former Mary Louise Klein, who had returned to Germantown Hills to care for her elderly mother and father. Before that, she and Moore lived in Nova Scotia for 17 years following their marriage in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria on April 1, 2000.

Paul Moore came out of retirement in 2022 to take on a communications position at Illinois Central College.

“I couldn’t resist — I just had to apply,” he said when the position at The Catholic Post became available.

While in government, Moore worked as a senior communications officer, writing news releases and speeches on behalf of senior officials and government representatives. Earlier, he worked in the private sector as a marketing and public relations freelancer, as well as an occasional media commentator and journalist (i.e., interviewing Wayne Gretzky).

In the early 1990s, Moore served as the editor and publisher of a small pro-life newspaper “New Life Style,” and provided the Diocese of Halifax, Nova Scotia, with media relations around the ordination of priests and the installation of the incoming archbishop.

Moore has a bachelor of public relations degree from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, and an MBA from Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is an accredited business communicator.

He and Mary Louise attend St. Mary of Lourdes Parish in Germantown Hills. Daughter Sarah lives in Nova Scotia.

He can be reached at pmoore@cdop.org.