Is your diocesan newspaper any good?

[ktm]

The one my diocese produces leaves something to be desired.

 

[T.A.Stobie_SFO]

You made voting tough.

I would rate mine average to good depending on the week. Excellent not often. I said yes based on your title.
You can read our diocesian paper at: theleaven.com/

 

[Sherlock]

I receive “The Catholic Spirit”, which is the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It values pluralism over orthodoxy, and so the Catholicism presented in its pages is a kind of a “big tent” Catholicism, wherein whatever you think is OK (provided you’ve knitted your brows a few times over the issue, which presumably signals that you have an informed conscience) except, of course, the politically correct sins such as racism and tax cuts. It’s basically, with few exceptions, the newspaper of the Minnesota Democratic party (DFL)—except that it is sorta against abortion (I say “sorta” because abortion is almost always presented as merely one of a whole range of issues, given the same moral importance as increased funding for education). If I were a Catholic trying to learn more about my faith, I would be very, very confused if “The Catholic Spirit” were my only guide.

 

[T.A.Stobie_SFO]

Sherlock:

I receive “The Catholic Spirit”, which is the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It values pluralism over orthodoxy, and so the Catholicism presented in its pages is a kind of a “big tent” Catholicism, wherein whatever you think is OK (provided you’ve knitted your brows a few times over the issue, which presumably signals that you have an informed conscience) except, of course, the politically correct sins such as racism and tax cuts. It’s basically, with few exceptions, the newspaper of the Minnesota Democratic party (DFL)—except that it is sorta against abortion (I say “sorta” because abortion is almost always presented as merely one of a whole range of issues, given the same moral importance as increased funding for education). If I were a Catholic trying to learn more about my faith, I would be very, very confused if “The Catholic Spirit” were my only guide.

:bigyikes: egads! You are really hurting for solid diocesian leadership.

You and your archdiocese are in my prayers.

 

[Guy]

Our paper seems to have the same mentality as the* National Catholic Reporter* as far as some of the editorials and letters to editor go. However I do enjoy Fr. Mikulski’s Question Box–he is quite solid and I used to enjoy Bishop Povish’s column before he passed away.

 

[fix]

My diocese, Rochester, carries mostly heterodox columnists like McBrien. He is that trendy vicar from South Bend who thinks he is Pope. The paper is not a fountain of orthodoxy to say the least.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Isn’t there a missing category between " Yes, it’s excellent" and “No, it stinks”? Somewhat on the order of, “Sometimes it is informative and helpful, and sometimes there are more than a few errors?”

That would be MY newspaper. Some of the articles are marvelous, helpful, very Catholic in all POV. Some of them are fluff. Some of them are so-so. Some of them are questionable. And some of them are horrendous!

But still it’s better than Catholic Digest, which in the past year or two has REALLY SUNK to a level of almost heresy. I wound up cancelling my subscription.

 

[ktm]

Tantum ergo:

Isn’t there a missing category between " Yes, it’s excellent" and “No, it stinks”? Somewhat on the order of, “Sometimes it is informative and helpful, and sometimes there are more than a few errors?”

I guess I should have added this option. But, having said that, if your paper more than rarely has errors (i.e., theological) in it, I would say that it stinks. I mean really, can’t we at least expect a diocese’s newspaper to teach the true faith? Oh wait sorry, I guess not. Never mind, temporary insanity on my part I guess.

 

[robertaf]

Good Morning Church

I am sorry I didn’t answer the poll because there was no correct answer for me. Our paper neither stinks nor is it excellent. I wouldn’t even say it is pretty good. Maybe average and sometimes slightly below.
It may be just the time we live in. I see that a big majority of articles and opinions are about social issues and the clergy scandal. Maybe this is what a good Diocesan newspaper is suppose to be but I would prefer to see more parish news and more educational items. A few more Spiritual ones would not be unwelcome.

 

[Bruised_Reed]

My paper stinks. It’s a mouthpiece for the bishop and diocesan liturgist. There used to be an excellent column by one of the only orthodox priests in the area and he stopped writing his column rather than write a column against the war as ordered by the bishop.

His last column said something to the effect that he wanted to devote more time to his parishoners, etc. I turned to my mom and said, “I bet the bishop had something to do with this and it has nothing to do with how he spends his time.” Uh-huh.

 

[martino]

There were no choices between excellent and stinks!!

Mine is pretty good, probably not excellent.

 

[OhioBob]

I too vote for something between “excellent” and “stinks”. Our diocesan paper (“Catholic Times” - Diocese of Columbus) is pretty good. I can’t say it is the most valuable theological resource there is, though. It has some national Catholic news, a rather complete run down on diocesan news, events, some columns and the like. It’s mostly fluff, but it does help me keep up with what is happening around the diocese.

Not exactly coffee table reading, but not everything has to be.

Blessings.

 

[Brendan]

Mine varies from OK to good.

Most of the articles are pretty good, an occasional one stinks ( you would not belive what the Michigan Catholic’s Sacred Music reviewer considers to be Sacred Music )

 

[parishminister]

I voted for excellent, simply because there was no middle ground offered as a choice…

Most of the time, it is excellent and I look forward to reading it each week. Some weeks, it’s just average.

You can read samples if you want at www.catholicstandard.com

As for theological accuracy, that might be asking a lot of the editors.
I do expect them to support Church teaching and positions and have not been disappointed in that respect. In fact, before the CCC was published, the Standard ran weekly articles to give us a preview of what was included.

My prayers for those with diocesan troubles and secular, or at the very least, lukewarm catholic newspapers.

God bless…

alice c/

 

[yinekka]

In Melbourne, our diocesean newspaper is called Kairos but it is brought out in magazine format. It is quite orthodox but I don’t think many people read it; not many copies arrive at out parish and there are always alot left.

 

[Seven_Sorrows]

Ours is a 4-8 page newspaper with nothing notable to read. It gives the bishops schedule, then has each article in both english and spanish, so really the newspaper is really only 2-4 pages long. Then you take out the ads. So you are down to about 4 articles that don’t really talk about anything, especially not anything to make your faith grow, usually articles about the history of the dio. or some event coming up. This is sad because we are the largest dio in calif, and maybe the U.S…it is the San Bernardino dio.

 

[DrCat]

martino:

There were no choices between excellent and stinks!!

Mine is pretty good, probably not excellent.

“What’s a newspaper?”

Sorry, couldn’t resist. - and, No I didn’t vote for that answer. In fact, I couldn’t vote at all since my (inter)diocesan newspaper is good, but I wouldn’t say excellent. (Maybe even a little better than good, but not excellent, either.)

What I call my diocesan newspaper, however, is really the official newspaper of the local Episcopal Conference. (We are not part of the USCCB.)

John

 

[kristalyn]

Ours isn’t excellent, but it doesn’t stink either, so I didn’t vote.

I think it’s mostly pictures of First Communions, Confirmations, Graduations…

There is an editorial, and it’s orthodox enough. It’s really just mostly the whiny opinions of the editor on fluffy blah-ness.

Nothing good and strong. Nothing strongly bad.

Just a quickie read every other Saturday so I can see what’s going on in our diocese!

 

[Bruised_Reed]

The Arlington Catholic Herald gets my vote as one of the best. My Catholic formation was as an adult and in Northern Virginia. I would even say the paper assisted in my formation. I first read Mary Beth Bonacci there for example.

It’s too bad that so many are poorly done because they can be an excellent tool for catechesis and evangelization.

 

[The_Hidden_Life]

I’m in the Archdiocese of Seattle and our paper is *The Catholic Northwest Progress. *

seattlearch.org/FormationAndEducation/Progress/Progress+Home+06-24.htm
It positions itself as a serious news and information newspaper and those articles are pretty good. It’s the long-running columns that I generally skip. Maybe I’m too dense to get the theology involved, but in my opinion they aren’t well-written. I’ve only been a subscriber for two months though. So maybe I’ve rushed to judgment.

This week’s cover story is on a local girl’s plea for more modest clothing that made national news, which I was pleased to see.