Nat'l Catholic Register or Nat'l Catholic Reporter

[chicago]

The website says the paper "consistently wins national and international awards for “Best Investigative Reporting” and “General Excellence” from the Catholic Press Association. " Darn. It really makes it hard to make good judgements when you read things like that.

The thing is, the ARE generally excellent at journalism for in it’s own right… much more so than most other Catholic publications. The problem is that their perspective is from the theologically liberal end of matters and this becomes a concern at the point where there are issues of essential dissent.

That said, while it isn’t the best fare for the average Catholic who is uninitiated about certain disctinctions and concerns nor is the publication of the perspective of many who post here, it does provide (as another already noted) a worthy outlet for news, reporting, opinion, and coverage/advocacy of/from another important and very real element that you just won’t get many other places.

So I say read it on someone else’s dime and take it for what it is worth, but with a grain of caution and salt, also. But only if you already understand enough about the faith and these ideologies/controversies to appreciate it for what it is and can offer.

 

[mdgspencer]

No, actually it has always been called the National Catholic Register for the last forty years or so. There was another Catholc weekly called Twin Circle or something of the sort, which, I would guess, has long been out of business.

I forget, it used to be called something else, no? Twin whatever? I seem to remember it from that time.

 

[mdgspencer]

I would just worry about someone weak in faith reading it weekly, and in fact they may end thinking it in the mainstream of the faith. But I see otherwise that there may be no such harm.
I recall Pope John Paul II’s remark that faith is a matter of assent, not of dissent.

The thing is, the ARE generally excellent at journalism for in it’s own right… much more so than most other Catholic publications. The problem is that their perspective is from the theologically liberal end of matters and this becomes a concern at the point where there are issues of essential dissent.

That said, while it isn’t the best fare for the average Catholic who is uninitiated about certain disctinctions and concerns nor is the publication of the perspective of many who post here, it does provide (as another already noted) a worthy outlet for news, reporting, opinion, and coverage/advocacy of/from another important and very real element that you just won’t get many other places.

So I say read it on someone else’s dime and take it for what it is worth, but with a grain of caution and salt, also. But only if you already understand enough about the faith and these ideologies/controversies to appreciate it for what it is and can offer.

 

[chicago]

No, actually it has always been called the National Catholic Register for the last forty years or so. There was another Catholc weekly called Twin Circle or something of the sort, which, I would guess, has long been out of business.

Twin Circle. That’s what I was thinking of. When I heard the priest who now (or at least at the time several years ago did) head up the publication, he mentioned Twin Circle as a sort of predecessor to the Register, I thought. Now I’d like to know what, exactly, the histories of the two publications are. Thanks!

 

[chicago]

I would just worry about someone weak in faith reading it weekly, and in fact they may end thinking it in the mainstream of the faith. But I see otherwise that there may be no such harm.
I recall Pope John Paul II’s remark that faith is a matter of assent, not of dissent.

Well, honestly, it may in some ways be mainstream thought… as much as we wish it were not so. Indeed, I think that perhaps 20 years ago, NCR was probably right on the pulse of where much in American Catholicism, at least, was.

That said, I would agree that it is not the kind of thing that the unititiated ought to be given as a norm,

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Nat’l Catholic Register or Nat’l Catholic Reporter Which of these would you recommend? Why? Which of these is more traditional and faithful to the Magisterium?

Is there a Catholic magazine that you would highly recommend as a good learning tool that isn’t too ‘over the top’ for a lowly commoner without a degree in theology?

I like the Reporter - it covers more of the Church than Rome alone, as it should, & while I’ve never read the other one, I simply can’t see why the Reporter is savaged as it is. “America” & “Commonweal” are good too, but the Reporter has the most varied coverage - it’s better than “The Tablet”, which we have in the UK, largely because it is a bigger paper.​

As I don’t know both - I can’t compare them.

I like “Inside the Vatican”, apart from the sniping at “liberals”, which soon becomes rather tedious. It’s pleasant to report that there has been much less of that in recent issues. I would also recommend the “Catholic World Report” - it’s a bit transatlantic for my taste, but as it’s a US publication one makes allowances for this

Overall, I think the “Reporter” is the most theologically balanced - & I greatly respect John Allen