The Catholic Miscellany
Encyclopedia
The Catholic Miscellany, successor to the U.S. Catholic Miscellany, the first Catholic newspaper in the United States
, is the official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston
. It was founded by Bishop John England, the first bishop of Charleston in 1822. He had been assigned to the area the previous year.
in 1821. He had to buy advertisement space in either the Charleston Mercury or the Charleston Courier
to answer nativist attacks. Nativism
was a movement prominent in those days that sought to restrict political rights of foreign-born citizens.
Irish Catholic
s were a prime target in the south. The need Bishop England perceived for a Catholic communications forum in the New World
prompted the activist prelate to start up the United States Catholic Miscellany on June 5, 1822.
To market the premiere issue, Bishop England laid out a prospectus which was often repeated over the years and which was mailed to friends and potential investors: “Amongst the various wants of the Catholics of these states I do not know of a greater temporal (one) than a weekly paper, the principal scope of which will fair and simple statements of Catholic doctrine from authentic documents, plain and inoffensively exhibited, refutation of calumnies, examination and illustration of misrepresented facts of history, biographies of eminent ecclesiastics and others connected with the Church, reviews of books for and against Catholicity, events connected with religion in all parts of the world, etc.”
The new Catholic paper was originally in a magazine format, 6"x9", that evolved into an eight-page tabloid-sized paper similar to the current one. No photographs were published in the U.S. Catholic Miscellany. The original circulation was 600 and peaked at 1,030; less than half of the subscribers actually paid the $4 annual subscription rate, according to an article published by the American Catholic Historical Society (the document housed in the diocesan archives bears no citation as to date or authorship). Finances were a continual problem for the newspaper.
Bishop England wrote most of the articles, signing them either “+John, Bishop of Charleston” or using a nom de plume
such as “Curiosity” when the piece was not official church teaching. The bishop's work was editorialized throughout the paper. Some of his explanatory articles ran for as many as 20 installments.
Towards the end of Bishop England's episcopate, editors and writers had assumed many of the writing duties. When the bishop died in 1842, The Miscellany reported under the headline, Death of the Bishop: “Our beloved Bishop is no more! After a long and distressing illness, he expired last Monday morning at ten minutes past 5 o’clock, in the 56th year of his age, and 22nd of his Episcopate.
We cannot give expression to the feelings of our heart, overwhelmed with grief at this irreparable calamity.”
By then there were 1,500,000 Catholics in the nation and other Catholic publications had started. Bishop Ignatius A. Reynolds
continued the United States Catholic Miscellany as a regional newspaper when he was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Charleston in 1844.
His editor was Father Patrick N. Lynch
, who was destined to succeed him as bishop in 1858.
Soon after Bishop Lynch's was installed, South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1860 and The Miscellany changed its name to reflect its secessionist viewpoint. The banner of the Dec. 29 edition appeared as Catholic Miscellany. Starting with the first issue of 1861, the paper was called Charleston Catholic Miscellany.
The American Catholic Historical Society credited the title change to the paper's smaller range, noting that Georgia had become its own diocese in 1850, but the editor, Father James Corcoran, wrote that he could no longer tolerate “those two obnoxious words (i.e.: United States), which being henceforth without truth of meaning would ill become the title of the paper.”
On Dec. 11, 1861 fire swept across the peninsula of Charleston, destroying the Cathedral of Saint John and Saint Finbar
, the editorial offices of the paper and its press, along with many other buildings. The Miscellany ceased publication.
Following the Civil War
, Bishop Lynch tried to revive the Catholic paper, but funds to support it were not available in post-bellum South Carolina.
, a nationally distributed Catholic weekly newspaper. In 1960, The Banner became part of a three-diocese consortium, designed and published in Waynesboro, Georgia, with some local articles and photographs accompanying national and international copy from a wire service, the Catholic News Service. The editorial offices of The Banner were located in Columbia.
In 1990, Bishop David B. Thompson
returned the diocesan newspaper to its historic roots, renaming it The New Catholic Miscellany and moving it to Charleston.
In March 1995, The Miscellany staff began producing the paper in-house and printing it locally. That same year, the paper won its first national award for excellence. Bishop Thompson was presented with the prestigious Bishop John England Award by the Catholic Press Association
, a group of hundreds of magazines, newspapers and newsletters. Named after the founder of the Catholic press in America and Bishop Thompson’s predecessor, the award is “for outstanding performance as a publisher.” It was presented exactly two weeks before the 175th anniversary of paper. In 2002, the word "New" was dropped from the nameplate and the paper became The Catholic Miscellany.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, is the official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston
Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the southern United States and comprises the entire state of South Carolina, with Charleston as its see city. Currently, the diocese consists of 92 parishes and 24 missions...
. It was founded by Bishop John England, the first bishop of Charleston in 1822. He had been assigned to the area the previous year.
U.S. Catholic Miscellany
Bishop England wrote in defense of his faith and about Irish immigrants since he had been assigned to the Diocese of CharlestonRoman Catholic Diocese of Charleston
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the southern United States and comprises the entire state of South Carolina, with Charleston as its see city. Currently, the diocese consists of 92 parishes and 24 missions...
in 1821. He had to buy advertisement space in either the Charleston Mercury or the Charleston Courier
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
to answer nativist attacks. Nativism
Nativism (politics)
Nativism favors the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. It may also include the re-establishment or perpetuation of such individuals or their culture....
was a movement prominent in those days that sought to restrict political rights of foreign-born citizens.
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Roman Catholic and Irish .Note: the term is not used to describe a variant of Catholicism. More particularly, it is not a separate creed or sect in the sense that "Anglo-Catholic", "Old Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox Catholic" might be...
s were a prime target in the south. The need Bishop England perceived for a Catholic communications forum in the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
prompted the activist prelate to start up the United States Catholic Miscellany on June 5, 1822.
To market the premiere issue, Bishop England laid out a prospectus which was often repeated over the years and which was mailed to friends and potential investors: “Amongst the various wants of the Catholics of these states I do not know of a greater temporal (one) than a weekly paper, the principal scope of which will fair and simple statements of Catholic doctrine from authentic documents, plain and inoffensively exhibited, refutation of calumnies, examination and illustration of misrepresented facts of history, biographies of eminent ecclesiastics and others connected with the Church, reviews of books for and against Catholicity, events connected with religion in all parts of the world, etc.”
The new Catholic paper was originally in a magazine format, 6"x9", that evolved into an eight-page tabloid-sized paper similar to the current one. No photographs were published in the U.S. Catholic Miscellany. The original circulation was 600 and peaked at 1,030; less than half of the subscribers actually paid the $4 annual subscription rate, according to an article published by the American Catholic Historical Society (the document housed in the diocesan archives bears no citation as to date or authorship). Finances were a continual problem for the newspaper.
Bishop England wrote most of the articles, signing them either “+John, Bishop of Charleston” or using a nom de plume
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
such as “Curiosity” when the piece was not official church teaching. The bishop's work was editorialized throughout the paper. Some of his explanatory articles ran for as many as 20 installments.
Towards the end of Bishop England's episcopate, editors and writers had assumed many of the writing duties. When the bishop died in 1842, The Miscellany reported under the headline, Death of the Bishop: “Our beloved Bishop is no more! After a long and distressing illness, he expired last Monday morning at ten minutes past 5 o’clock, in the 56th year of his age, and 22nd of his Episcopate.
We cannot give expression to the feelings of our heart, overwhelmed with grief at this irreparable calamity.”
By then there were 1,500,000 Catholics in the nation and other Catholic publications had started. Bishop Ignatius A. Reynolds
Ignatius A. Reynolds
Ignatius Aloysius Reynolds was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Charleston from 1844 until his death in 1855....
continued the United States Catholic Miscellany as a regional newspaper when he was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Charleston in 1844.
His editor was Father Patrick N. Lynch
Patrick Neeson Lynch
Patrick Neeson Lynch was an Irish-born clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Charleston from 1857 until his death in 1882.-Biography:...
, who was destined to succeed him as bishop in 1858.
Soon after Bishop Lynch's was installed, South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1860 and The Miscellany changed its name to reflect its secessionist viewpoint. The banner of the Dec. 29 edition appeared as Catholic Miscellany. Starting with the first issue of 1861, the paper was called Charleston Catholic Miscellany.
The American Catholic Historical Society credited the title change to the paper's smaller range, noting that Georgia had become its own diocese in 1850, but the editor, Father James Corcoran, wrote that he could no longer tolerate “those two obnoxious words (i.e.: United States), which being henceforth without truth of meaning would ill become the title of the paper.”
On Dec. 11, 1861 fire swept across the peninsula of Charleston, destroying the Cathedral of Saint John and Saint Finbar
Cathedral of Saint John and Saint Finbar
The Cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar was the first Roman Catholic cathedral in Charleston, South Carolina. Begun in 1850 and consecrated on April 6, 1854, it was destroyed on December 11, 1861, in a fire that ravaged much of Charleston. A new cathedral—the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist,...
, the editorial offices of the paper and its press, along with many other buildings. The Miscellany ceased publication.
Following the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Bishop Lynch tried to revive the Catholic paper, but funds to support it were not available in post-bellum South Carolina.
Revival
Ninety years after The Miscellany was discontinued, The Catholic Banner appeared in 1951. The Banner was published as a section of Our Sunday VisitorOur Sunday Visitor
Our Sunday Visitor is a Roman Catholic publishing company in Huntington, Indiana which prints the American national weekly newspaper of that name, as well as numerous Catholic periodicals, religious books, pamphlets, catechetical materials, inserts for parish bulletins and offertory envelopes....
, a nationally distributed Catholic weekly newspaper. In 1960, The Banner became part of a three-diocese consortium, designed and published in Waynesboro, Georgia, with some local articles and photographs accompanying national and international copy from a wire service, the Catholic News Service. The editorial offices of The Banner were located in Columbia.
In 1990, Bishop David B. Thompson
David B. Thompson
David Bernard Thompson is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Charleston from 1990 to 1999.-Biography:David Thompson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After studying at St...
returned the diocesan newspaper to its historic roots, renaming it The New Catholic Miscellany and moving it to Charleston.
In March 1995, The Miscellany staff began producing the paper in-house and printing it locally. That same year, the paper won its first national award for excellence. Bishop Thompson was presented with the prestigious Bishop John England Award by the Catholic Press Association
Catholic Press Association
The Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada is an association of newspaper and media specialists specialized on reporting on the Roman Catholic Church. Founded in 1911, it has over 600 member organizations...
, a group of hundreds of magazines, newspapers and newsletters. Named after the founder of the Catholic press in America and Bishop Thompson’s predecessor, the award is “for outstanding performance as a publisher.” It was presented exactly two weeks before the 175th anniversary of paper. In 2002, the word "New" was dropped from the nameplate and the paper became The Catholic Miscellany.