Founded in 1911, the Catholic Press Association (CPA) of the United States and Canada, according to its directory, reaches over 26 million people through Catholic magazines, media, and diocesan newspapers. That’s many faith lives touched every month!
Here is a sampling of some of the best Catholic periodicals in North America. All descriptions are via the CPA directory and the websites for these publications.
America and its website are forums for discussion of religion, politics, and culture from a Catholic perspective in the Ignatian tradition of finding God in all things. Published continually since 1909, it is the only weekly Catholic magazine in the country.
America Media leads the conversation about faith and culture by producing relevant and accessible content across multiple platforms. Contributors are the principal figures in the American church; the decision-makers and opinion leaders who lead the ecclesial and civic debate about religion, society, politics and the arts. Those with something to say to the American church say it in America: popes and presidents; Nobel laureates; Pulitzer Prize winners; world-renowned scholars; and distinguished men and women of letters.
Frequency: Biweekly
Year Founded: 1909
The Tidings has a long history of telling the story of the Catholic Church — both in Los Angeles and across the globe. On July 1, 2016, we transformed the Tidings newspaper into a multimedia platform, Angelus News.
Angelus News informs Catholics and non-Catholics alike about the good works in our parishes, schools and ministries not only in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, but around the world.
Frequency: Weekly
Year Founded: 1895
FAITH magazine started as the magazine of the Catholic Diocese of Lansing. Today FAITH Catholic Publishing and Communications publishes printed magazines for 28 dioceses, plus a handful of religious communities, National organizations and Catholic colleges. The mission of this publication is to connect people with Jesus and his Church.
The magazine is stunningly designed, with a wonderful balance of meaty text and solid imagery. Often singled out by the Catholic Press Association for excellence in journalism, FAITH enriches the spiritual journey of readers with an attractive publication.
Frequency: 10 issues annually
Year Founded: 2000
This quarterly magazine has three goals: to educate Catholics about the US home missions, to motivate young men to consider Glenmary priesthood or brotherhood, and to invite all Catholics to respond to their baptismal call to be missionary by partnering with Glenmary as financial contributors, prayer partners, professional coworkers and/or volunteers.
Glenmary Home Missioners (aka The Home Missioners of America) was founded in 1939 by Father William Howard Bishop, a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, to serve what he termed “No Priest Land, USA.”
At that time, he noted that more than one-third of the counties of the United States, mostly in Appalachia and the South, had no resident priest. Father Bishop foresaw that this area—then as populous as Canada, as large as Mexico and covering one-fourth of the United States—could be lost to the Church unless this vast priestless “home mission” area was recognized by and designated a specific ministry of the Church. The magazine seeks to continue that tradition.
Frequency: 4 issues annually
Year Founded: 1939
This Redemptorist magazine founded in 1913 conveys a timely pastoral message to Catholics on matters of faith, Christian living, and social justice, in order to continue their conversion to Christ. While embracing core Church teachings, Liguorian offers its readers the best elements of Catholic spirituality and tradition.
It’s mission: Liguori Publications, faithful to the charism of Saint Alphonsus, is an apostolate within the mission of the Denver Province. It is a collaborative effort of Redemptorists and laity to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ primarily through print and digital media. It shares in the Redemptorist priority of giving special attention to the poor and the most abandoned.
Frequency: 10 issues annually
Year Founded: 1913
Established in 1907 and published by the Foreign Mission Society of America to convey to American Catholics the needs and reality of mission work and its relevance to the Catholic Church in the United States.
Maryknoll, a Catholic non-profit mission movement comprised of four organizations, has been the heart and hands of the US Catholic Church’s overseas mission work for more than 100 years.
This publication is focused on Maryknoll missioners around the world working in solidarity among the poor and marginalized. Articles include issues of importance to people the missioners serve and to the Catholic Church.
Frequency: 6 issues annually
Year Founded: 1907
The print edition of ONE magazine is published quarterly by Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), an agency of the Holy See working in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India, and Eastern Europe. The magazine also has an impressive blog “ONE-to-ONE,” which keeps readers abreast of CNEWA’s world every day.
CNEWA has been a lifeline for the poor throughout the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe for more than 90 years.
From forming priests to serve the people of God in Egypt to providing irrigation to farmers in southern Lebanon — from teaching needy children in Ethiopia to educating sisters in India — from providing emergency relief to Syrian Christian refugees to counseling for war-scarred children in Gaza, CNEWA connects you to your brothers and sisters in need. Together, we build up the church, affirm human dignity, alleviate poverty, encourage dialogue — and inspire hope.
Frequency: 4 issues annually
Year Founded: CNEA founded in 1926
St. Anthony Messenger is a national Roman Catholic family magazine published by the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province, Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States, with the explicit ecclesiastical approval of the Archbishop of Cincinnati.
The first issue was published on June 1, 1893. Over the decades it grew into one of the principal Catholic family magazines in the United States. In recent decades, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, the magazine expanded into Franciscan Media, which has become one of the country’s largest publishers of popular, inspirational and educational Roman Catholic spirituality resources.
In its publishing history, the magazine has featured interviews with and articles about prominent Catholics, and includes educational, inspirational, and informative articles and columns each month.
Year Founded: 1893
Frequency: 10 issues annually
Published by the Claretians, U.S. Catholic puts faith in the context of everyday life. With a strong focus on social justice, the magazine offers a balanced take on the issues that matter most in our world, adding a faith perspective to such challenges as poverty, education, family life, and pop culture. Each month’s issue features comprehensive reporting, interviews, opinion essays, cultural commentary, media reviews, and more. For 80 years U.S. Catholic has been a bold, forward-thinking forum for discussion among a broad range of voices.
Frequency: 12 issues annually
Year Founded: 1935
3 thoughts on “Top Catholic Magazines”
Please send me a sample copy of a recent magazine. Thank you
I am a writer on scriptural themes. How can I contribute articles to Catholic online publications.
I have an idea about the “news of fresh disaster” which seems to dominant morning news show. To me this is a manifestation of a godless world view. By the latter I mean how we have viewed reality from the Middle Ages when people view reality through the lens of the Church to today when modernity, godless world view, has infiltrated media’s morning TV news. The answer to the shift is what I call the redemptive view of reality based on the Holy Spirit making us co-redeemers in our modern world.
I am looking for a venue, print or online, for the above idea.
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