Looking for recommendations for articles to re-publish in our parish bulletin

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I came upon this forum while searching for alternatives to BustedHalo. I love BustedHalo and I have written permission from them to use their articles in the weekly parish bulletins I put together. I publish the English-language bulletins for 2 Catholic parishes in Taipei and 2 in Shanghai.

Can you suggest other websites that I should consider? I will contact them to seek their permission as well.

I used to re-publish articles from ChurchMilitant but some parishioners complained. In the bulletins I edit, I try to strike a balance between conservative and liberal views. BustedHalo strikes me as a bit more liberal, and I haven’t received any complaints about their articles (the opposite, actually).

I also reprint tweets from Pontifex but I would like to include tweets from Roman Catholic feeds, too. These work as great filler material for the bulletin (I wouldn’t consider the Pontifex feed filler, though 😄 )
 
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Mtatum1958 said:
Contact Catholic Answers to see what, if any permissions may be granted
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I do not understand your reply. I do not plan to republish anything from the Catholic Answers Forum. I am hoping CAF members can recommend to me Catholic websites for articles, and then I would ask those publishers and authors for permission.
 
Thanks. I understand now. @Mtatum1958 was recommending Catholic Answers, not the Catholic Answers Forum, and then suggested how I could seek permission to reprint. Cheers
 
Don’t think you have to get all your “articles” from this year. Sometimes a quote or article from a century ago by G. K. Chesterton or Fulton Sheen will have more new ideas - new to your readers - than anything written nowadays. Don’t think " balance" has to mean only liberal/conservative.

I often read and post short or long quotes from Chesterton in my social media and get a favorable response from a variety of people who usually disagree. The old quotes get more attention because they are unfamiliar, unlike most liberal or conservative stuff from 2020.
 
I receive The Loop via email every weekday. It references/reprints articles of interest to Catholics from may sources. You’d have to ask them about permission to use their material.
 
Have been bulleting for different parishes for over a decade.

Our editorial policy is that the bulletin gives Mass schedule with intentions for the coming week, the daily readings for the coming week, prayer list, next week’s schedule for emhcs and readers.

Then is the upcoming weeks classes groups etc schedule. Announcements of things that are happening more than a week out in our parish.

Next is things for about the school

Things from the USCCB, for instance “Civilize It” and FCFC will have something every week between now and november.

Things from the Diocese.

Things from neighboring parishes

Any special notes from the priests

That is so much that we can never fit it all in 4 pages!

The bulletin is not intended to be a magazine for our parishes
 
If you are going to take an article from a magazine, I suggest avoiding any source implied to be Catholic, but not approved by the Church. This includes Church Militant, National Catholic Reporter, and similar.

Even if you take a harmless article that happens to be orthodox, you attach the parish credibility to a questionable source, that bulletin readers may turn to for other articles. (Heh, the magazine must be Catholic, it’s in the bulletin).

“the Lutheran News” (if such exists) would not be so problematic. Of course it isn’t a Catholic affiliated or approved journal, but everyone knows it is not. It doesn’t cause as much ambiguity issues.

But better to stick with Catholic approved sources.
 
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Actually, the bulletins we publish have a mix of articles from Catholic publications, prayers (seasonally relevant, if possible), puzzles based on the current Gospel, quotes from Catholic saints, pundits, and philosophers (Chesterton and Archbishop Sheen are personal favorites but Kreeft, Peguy, and Blondel, too), excerpts from books whose publishers have given me permission, and sermons from priest who post online and from some Catholic university sources. I also try to include a Catholic infographic, and I try to include nice looking church-related photos from Unsplash and Pixabay (because they look good and are open copyrights)

At one point, I would balance an essay or commentary from ChurchMilitant with a poem from Commonweal, until I began receiving request to avoid ChurchMilitant.

The parishes themselves have different characters – some have more young families than others, some have more grad students and some have more working professionals. Naturally, I reserve a page for local parish community announcements and activities.

Since my time is short and this is a volunteer project, I only customize the community announcements. So to appeal to the different kinds of parishioners, I aim for a mix of content.
BustedHalo has been a great source but they seem to have slowed down with a lot of reprints from past posts lately.

So I am taking this as an opportunity to diversify sources again.
 
But better to stick with Catholic approved sources
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Everything I use are either contributed by Catholic priests or from Catholic resources except for the comic strip. I use the one from Agnus Day, which is Episcopalian

www.agnusday.org

Almost all of the strips are online with the Roman Liturgical Calendar. When what they have available does not align, I look for the Gospel reading in their archive
 
commenter said:
But better to stick with Catholic approved sources.
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Approved by whom? Are there any particular endorsements without which a publication cannot be legitimately devoted to Catholicism?
 
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ThomasMT said:
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commenter:
But better to stick with Catholic approved sources.
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Approved by whom? Are there any particular endorsements without which a publication cannot be legitimately devoted to Catholicism?
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There are 3 categories:
  1. Publications by the Church itself; this includes your diocesan newspaper.
  2. Independent publications, often initiated by laity, which have ongoing approval by their local bishop Ordinary, they are considered “in union with the Church”. This includes EWTN, American Chesterton Society, Catholic Answers magazine, etc.
  3. Other publications that are “devoted to Catholicism” but not in union with the local bishop Ordinary (even if they have priests writing for them).
Category 3 includes some Liberal ones, such as Commonweal, National Catholic Reporter, as well as Church Militant, OnePeterFive, Lepanto, Rorate, etc on the other side. None of the ones in category three are in union with the Church, even if they include individual church going Catholics; even priests.

The Encyclical Pascendi, by Pope St Pius X, sections 50 to 53, is still relevant now, as is Vatican 2 document on Social Communication.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib3-cann822-833_en.html#TITLE_IV.
 
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USCCB website, Civilize it site, Vatican news ought to give you plenty. If you are not in the us, your own bishops conference website and your Diocese website would be primary sources
 
Even if a publication or website reaches a global audience, still its headquarters are in some city. That’s the local bishop Ordinary who approves it - or not, per Canon Law. “Approval” is not necessarily full endorsement. It just means it reaches a minimum standard.

Sometimes a bishop might write an article for the New York Times, National Catholic Reporter, or Rorate. That doesn’t mean the publication itself is approved by the Church.
 
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I’ve used articles from the ‘Franciscans for Life’ written by an old friend of CAF, Bro JR. They are always gracious in allowing reproduction of such articles. Look them up, their back catalouge is a rich source of good stuff.
 
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