Kochi- Jose Kavi, Editor-in-Chief of Matters India, and a regular contributor to the One Magazine of the US, has won the best award for features published in Catholic periodicals of the United States.

His was among 12 awards that ONE, a multimedia magazine of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), won at the Catholic Press Association awards dinner on Friday at the Catholic Media Conference in Buffalo, New York.

His feature titled “Caste Aside” narrates the story of a group of Dalit Catholics living in Bijnor diocese that covers Uttarkhand and parts of Uttar Pradesh state.

The ONE magazine also won the first place for General Excellence.

The panel of judges — comprised of journalism professors from Spring Hill College and Marquette University — wrote:

“First rate journalism. Consistently strong reporting and research, not simply quotes and descriptions. Any one of the news features in a given issue could easily have been a cover story. Great job of putting the reader in far-flung places. … Outstanding.

The editors of ONE raise the bar for every publication that wants to use strong photos in a large format magazine. Compelling photos dominate the spreads and pull a reader into the well crafted text of stories with a distinctive hook for each theme. The magazine also includes well edited news stories about the world of Catholic Near East [Welfare] Association.”

CNEWA has been working among the poor in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe for more than 85 years.

Its website says that Pope Pius XI founded CNEWA in 1926 work through and with the Eastern Catholic Churches to identify needs and implement solutions.

It helps form priests to serve in Egypt, provides irrigation to farmers in southern Lebanon, teach needy children in Ethiopia and educate Catholic nuns in India. It also provides emergency relief to Syrian Christian refugees and counsels war-scarred children in Gaza.

“Together, we build up the church, affirm human dignity, alleviate poverty, encourage dialogue — and inspire hope,” the website claims.

Kavi, 60, began contributing articles for ONE magazine from 2013, after leaving Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN), a Church news agency that began as a forum for Asians to share their stories with themselves and those interested in their continent.

Kavi, a former Jesuit seminarian and father of two, headed the news agency’s India operation for 25 years until December 2012. During his term he set up a countrywide network of reporters who provided authentic and accurate news from the grassroots.

He began his journalism career in 1982 as an in-service trainee with South Asian Religious News, based in New Delhi. Besides reporting and editing stories for the news service, he headed its trainining wing Editaids.

He then joined United News of India, one of the two leading secular news agencies in India, in 1986 and worked there for nearly four years.

Maryknoll Father Robert Astorino, founder director of UCAN recruited him to start its India operation.

After leaving UCAN, Kavi launched www.mattersindia.com in March 2013 with a group of journalists living in different parts of India to provide an alternative news forum for the poor and the downtrodden.