Hmm…I cancelled New Oxford Review several years ago because it was such a downer. All it seemed to be about was gloom and doom: priests who are wacky, bishops who are unfaithful…I can’t remember, except that every time I read it I felt depressed and hopeless about the Church. I always hoped for just one positive note, just a little box on page 12 that said, ‘Here’s a prayer we can pray for vocations’ - some slender thread of hope that God is taking care of His Church and there might actually be a New Springtime afoot…but I never got it, so I cancelled. Perhaps it has changed…
For about 6 years I’ve subscribed to the Catholic Answer (OSV) and it was good in the beginning because I was really hungry for answers/info about my faith (coming back to the Church). But that was before I got internet access and discovered Catholic Answers and EWTN (I live in Poland, so I can’t watch TV or get ‘local’ Catholic radio in English). I began to notice that the people on the EWTN Q&A forums were far more gentle and charitable than Father Stravinskas, and the people at Catholic Answers have been my models and teachers in how to respond gracefully and gently - with charity - pretty much to anyone. As I continued reading Stravinskas vs. EWTN and listening to Catholic Answers, I found Stravinskas just more and more bitter, uncharitable and, like New Oxford Review, a total downer.
I finally decided not to renew The Catholic Answer after Father Stravinskas’ truly nasty attack on home-schoolers (not on home schooling, against which he made at best a complete straw man argument, but the people who home school). I was fed up with his arrogance and said so on my ‘cancel’ note.
Then I got the ‘all-new’ version of The Catholic Answer and it was a breath of fresh air. I do think it’s a bit ‘lighter’ than the old version (the articles aren’t as dense and turgid, but more lively and perhaps pitched a bit lower - a high school kid could read them). But the tone is upbeat, hopeful about the Church, positive - and the questions are NOT all about this or that priest abusing the rubrics in ways that Father Stravinskas NEVER would do, etc., etc. Now there are some apologetic articles and there was a piece on something ‘hot’ (The Da Vince Code). It seems more like a team effort with much broader appeal now, rather than a one-man-and-his-pet-peeves show.
I thought I heard that Envoy Magazine was folding?
Sure wish I could afford an overseas subscription to This Rock!
You could take down the names of the magazines everyone is suggesting and ask for them to send you a back issue of each one. Read them all - choose the one that suits you.
