A blogger recently linked to an article from US Catholic magazine and I read it. The stupidity of the article made me wish I hadn’t. Years ago, I would go to the library and read magazines and books on the Church and they were very negative and angry. US Catholic, America and Commonweal were the only Catholic magazines I found in any of the dozen libraries I went to. At the time, I was not attending Mass and did not know much of the Church but the hostility and criticism in the magazines seemed to me to be wrong. I didn’t know exactly why, I just knew my experience in the Church did not even remotely resemble anything these writers were presenting. My Catholic school education also made me very suspicious of the writers who wanted to change Church teachings. If the Church was really what it said it was, then its teachings would not change according to time, culture, etc.. Today, I know more about my faith, and when I see false statements, silly arguments or childish reasoning, I get angry. I never used to, but if there is one thing I can’t stand it is when people misrepresent things. So now I avoid these publications and have never missed them since I found other magazines, not found in my local public libraries. But I have to say, America and Commonweal had some great writing in them –these great articles squeezed in between junk. If you can, subscribe to any or all of these Catholic publications:

Crisis (Great magazine of culture, politically conservative-would like to see more balance there)


Catholic World Report (by Ignatius Press, good coverage of world events important to the Church)


National Catholic Register ( AWESOME Catholic newspaper, exactly what a publication should do, inform and inspire)


Latin Mass Magazine ( Excellent on culture, traditionalist, any criticism of things in the Church here is done respectfully)


Envoy ( Funny and high quality apologetics magazine)


St. Austin Review ( Only 1 I have not subscribed to yet, looks good and very impressive list of contributors)