If one lives in the UK one has a fairly limited choice in terms of the Catholic press. We have the Universe, to put it nicely, a periodical for readers that find actuarial tables a little racy; the Catholic Times which is rendered unreadable by the terrible impact on the blood pressure that one particular writer has; there is the Suppository (really, the less said the better, other than “Tabula delenda est”; although I recall that its book reviews were quite good); and the Catholic Herald, which is the best of the crop by a mile, but still finds room to air some material that has drunk too deeply of the so-called “spirit of the council”.
St Dominic's reaction to the Suppository
Where does that leave the more traditionally minded Catholic, looking for some impeccably orthodox dead-tree based reading? Well, for my money it has to be The Catholic, a quarterly published by those wonderful chaps, The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, which includes some of the most wonderfully orthodox Catholic material currently available, usually bundled up with one of their marvellous reprints of Catholic devotional material.
I’ll also thoroughly recommend their website, which has links to their many scholarly works and their Purgatorian Confraternity.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
I couldn’t agree with you more – The Catholic is a must have. It costs just £20 per annum which is actually cheaper than most Catholic papers, and it helps supports those wonderful Priests and Monks on Papa Stronsay. I hope everyone reading this post will consider subscribing. Btw, love the picture Raven, though it probably had more to do with Albigensians than the Suppository but what the heck!
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The Catholic Herald is also available as an online digital facsimile of the full print edition. Just go to the bottom of this page:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/subscriptions
Special offer, £10 for a full year’s access, including the archives. Quote CHPROMO in the coupon field for access to the offer.
I must sign up again myself.
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‘Faith’ magazine, published six times a year, is also an excellent Catholic publication.
Annual sub. costs £25 or free downloads available here: http://www.faith.org.uk/Publications/MagOldIssues.htm
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The ‘Suppository’ cannot possibly mean what I assume it does, can it Raven?
And anyway, why burn whatever it is?
Surely it is not a BOOK? Of course not! No echos of the Nazis here on CP&S!
Anyway, it is a lovely illustration.
Almost as nice as Burruguru’s snap of Oscar the other day!
“Books are a load of crap.” – Philip Larkin.
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I must confess to be being a fruit of the Faith organisation, having joined it as a sixth former in 1978 at John Fisher’s School, Purley, and having met and listened to Frs Nesbitt and Holloway, and their acolytes, who now vaunt the blogosphere.
Yes, Faith magazine is well worth viewing.
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After posting in the most obvious way to the above (well I would, wouldn’t I?)…
I read the link to Saint Mary Mag.
What a lot of illiterate and ill-written responses, most of them! Just like Damian. We wouldn’t stand for it.
Still, all this wonderful bitchiness going on, and I haven’t a clue what it’s all about!
Thank the Lord.
(Why does ‘The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer” put me in mind of a rather unsuccessful Mexican Country and Western band?)
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“I must confess to be being a fruit of the Faith ”
Only Burro could get away with a confession like that.
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The Catholic Herald is a mixed bag and of variable worth. It’s not as traditionalist as people like Fr Z like to imagine, and the Tablet is actually a bit more interesting than the Universe (snooze-fest), though the latter seems to toe the line a bit better.
Personally I think blogs have ensured that the Catholic press is now something of a sunset industry.
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Toad,
I am not that sort of ‘fruit’!
Though I’ve heard that oranges aren’t the only fruit, allegedly, whatever that means.
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Now I think about it, the Tablet did make an excellent lining for the cat’s litter tray until they started using the shiny paper (now not even good for that).
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You see, Toad, that’s the USP of CP&S: here you get illiterate and ill-written articles (at least when I write the posts); and literate, well written responses.
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A final thought: I did try reading “New Blackfriars” (the journal of the Oxford Dominicans) for a while (good value too), but found the articles were very mixed: some really very good, some rather barking and the rest were written in humanities-speak (an impenetrable technical language favoured by academics that seems to be designed to say incredibly obvious things in the most opaque approximation of the Queen’s English possible). I do thoroughly recommend the “godzdogz” website, though: some top class writing by the Dominican students on there.
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I quite like reading “Faith” online — very interesting articles.
I must say, Raven, I like the sound of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer. I think I’ll sign up for their magazine.
Here in Ireland we don’t see much of the ‘Tablet’ (well, I’ve never seen it anyway!), and the ‘Irish Catholic’ does not induce me to part with my money. But we have a great wee FREE monthly paper called “Alive!”, published by a Dominican priest in Dublin, and I look forward to it every month and read it from cover to cover. It’s orthodox and staunchly loyal to the Pope and pulls no punches in its reporting, but I suspect that it might not be intellectual enough for most of the contributors to this blog. 😉
It’s available (FREE) online at http://www.alive.ie/ if anyone fancies having a look at it.
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Mimi,
I used to like the ‘Hibernian’. Says a lot about Ireland that such a magazine could survive for so long.
Online I believe that ‘First Things’ is the best available.
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AS LONG AS WE HAVE A SOUL WE ARE A PART OF GOD AND WILL LIVE FOREVER. LIFE AS WE KNOW IT IS A TEST TO SEE IF WE CAN EARN ETERNAL LIFE IN HEAVEN RICHARD ZERR OR THE OTHER PLACE. FOR INSTANCE; WHEN WE MARRY WE HAVE ONE MATE TIL DEATH DO WE PART AND DIVORSE DOES NOR EXIST. WE ARE ONLY COMMITIN MORTAL SIN IF WE HAVE SEX WITH ANY OTHER MATE. WHY ISN,T THIS MENTIONED IN CHURCH..RICHARD ZERR. FURIOUSRLZ1@AOL.COM. PLEASE REPLY
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