The Catholic Standard, founded in 1951, is the official weekly newspaper for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.[1]
In print and on-line, the Catholic Standard continues its work of communicating the teachings of Jesus Christ and showing how the Catholic faith is being lived in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area, around the nation and the world.
One of two newspapers published by Carroll Publishing Company, the Catholic Standard serves the nearly 600,000 Catholics living in the nation's capital and the five surrounding Maryland counties of Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's, and St. Mary's. Its sister publication, El Pregonero, is the D.C. area's oldest Spanish-language weekly. The publisher of both newspapers is Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, whose weekly column "The Teaching of Christ" appears in both papers and on both websites. The newspaper circulates approximately 46,000 copies each week, mostly delivered by U.S. mail to subscribers and parishes of the archdiocese.
Prior to the Catholic Standard's founding in 1951, Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington were served by a regional edition of the Catholic Review, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The Catholic Standard's founding editor was Father Philip Hannan, who went on to become an auxiliary bishop in Washington and the archbishop of New Orleans.
In recent years, the professional staff of the Catholic Standard has won numerous awards for editorial, advertising, marketing and circulation excellence from the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association and the Catholic Press Association. According to its vision statement, Carroll Publishing exists to offer "the first and best source of news, information and commentary from a Catholic faith perspective that serves the diverse community of the Archdiocese of Washington."