| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Sir Rocco Forte and Lord Black of Crossharbour |
| Editor | Luke Coppen |
| Founded | 1888 |
| Headquarters | Herald House, Lambs Passage, Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8TQ |
| Circulation | 23,000 |
| Official website | [1] |
The Catholic Herald is a London-based Roman Catholic newspaper, published in broadsheet format and retailing at £1.50 (€1.80 in the Republic of Ireland).
The Herald reports a total readership of c.21,000 copies distributed to Roman Catholic parishes, wholesale outlets and postal subscribers. This includes 1,000 issues distributed in the Republic of Ireland. The newspaper's Editor-in-Chief is Damian Thompson.[1]
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The Catholic Herald was established in 1888 by Derry-born Charles Diamond, who owned and edited the paper until his death in 1934. Diamond was an outspoken and controversial figure, described by one of his successors as "the kind of a man who made a good many enemies". On January 8, 1920 he was arrested and charged with publication of an article that allegedly encouraged assassination in Ireland. Diamond died on February 19, 1934. After his death the paper was bought by Ernest Vernor Miles, a recent convert to Roman Catholicism and head of the New Catholic Herald Ltd. Miles appointed Count Michael de la Bédoyère as editor. De la Bédoyère's news editor was writer Douglas Hyde (not to be mistaken for the Irish politician), also a convert who arrived from the Communist Daily Worker.[2]
While Diamond's newspaper was a London-based Irish political paper, the new version was explicitly British and aimed at growing numbers of English converts who did not necessarily have roots in Ireland. In fact, in the months leading up to his death, Diamond had planned the re-launch, helped by Father Bede Jarrett, OP, who advised Diamond to modify the paper. Father Jarrett died three months before Diamond.
De la Bédoyère was an enthusiastic campaigner for many of the changes that came about with Vatican II, the year he retired from the newspaper, especially the Mass said in the vernacular. De la Bedoyere was also an enthusiastic supporter of ecumenism and used his editorship to warn of the dangers of Soviet Russia after it became an ally in World War II. He almost went to prison for criticising what he saw as Churchill's appeasement of the "godless" Soviet Union.[3] Sir Desmond Morton, Winston Churchill's personal assistant, admitted that the Prime Minister had wanted to close down The Catholic Herald.
In 1958, the Herald went to press with the news that Pope Pius XII had died, having actually to gone to press while the Pontiff was still alive. By the following morning, he had died, so the Herald carried the story while none of the nationals did.
Its editors have included:
The Catholic Herald is now owned by Sir Rocco Forte and Lord Black of Crossharbour, the latter a prominent convert. In recent years The Catholic Herald has become known as one of the most conservative British Catholic news organs.
The online version of the newspaper includes articles from the print edition of The Catholic Herald, as well as web-only content, such as the coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s April 2008 trip to the United States. The site was revamped in February 2008.
In a November 2002 interview Philip Pullman was asked "What's your response to the reactions of the religious right to your work? The Catholic Herald called your books the stuff of nightmares and worthy of the bonfire." He replied: "My response to that was to ask the publishers to print it in the next book, which they did! I think it's comical, it's just laughable."[4]
Though widely reported, the Herald had not called for the book to be burned. Catholic writer Leonie Caldecott was defending J. K. Rowling and joked that there were better things for fundamentalists to burn (it was around Guy Fawkes Night).[5][6]
The Catholic Herald features in a newspaper round-up at the end of "The Big Report" episode of the cult satirical news show The Day Today. Chris Morris shows a spoof copy of the paper with a Gothic masthead and the headline: “Eating Turkey at Christmas Is Like Nailing An Egg To The Cross".[7]