Discovering the Catholic Herald

I received a copy of the Catholic Herald in the mail a few days ago. Occasionally I receive samples from different publications and usually find they don't add much beyond what I'm already reading on the internet.

In this case, however, every time I picked up this weekly Catholic news magazine to take a look through before tossing it out, I kept finding I was slowing down and reading it with attention. That in itself was rare but I also liked the features such as the global map showing what was happening in the Church worldwide. (Oh, right, the U.S. is not the center of the Catholic world!) I liked the schedule of daily mass readings tucked into a corner. I liked the blend of news analysis, editorials, and pieces looking at common elements with a Catholic eye.

You can read a lot of this online at their site. In fact, they say the reason they began a U.S. edition (this is originally a U.K. publication) is that half their website visitors were American. However, there was really something gripping for me in having a magazine to pick up and peruse for a few days.

My copy was from Dec. 7, not the gorgeous double issue whose cover I show above. And it isn't cheap. But that is the price of a decent magazine these days, I have a feeling. Anyway, take a look. You might like it as much as I do.