Cheeky Reporter

All but a handful of Roman Catholic magazines and newspapers in the U.S. are published by dioceses or religious orders--and usually display a nervous, reverential caution in telling what goes on inside the church. A cheeky, one-year-old exception is Kansas City's National Catholic Reporter, owned and edited by laymen who take orders from no one (although they get moral and financial support from Missouri Bishop Charles Helmsing). "It is the freshest thing that has appeared in Catholic journalism," says Monsignor Francis J. Lally of the Boston Pilot.

In format, the Reporter is a national weekly newspaper. Its aim is to bring the same kind of critical reporting to affairs of the church that a good secular paper brings to the doings at city hall. The Reporter was the first Catholic journal to expose a confidential order from the Apostolic Delegate limiting ecumenical contact with Protestants, the first to publish the membership list of the Pope's birth-control commission. Its reporting on Vatican II, by James Johnson and Desmond O'Grady, has been consistently discerning in conveying the moods and trends of the council.

A Jewish Columnist. The Reporter makes no secret of its enthusiasm for church renewal, but it also lets conservative Catholics have their say. It has published long defenses of the natural-law argument against birth control, for example, as well as attacks on it. Its columnists include conservative Catholic Garry Wills, a frequent contributor to the National Review, and liberal Catholic John Leo of Commonweal -as well as Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg and Lutheran Theologian Martin Marty.

More than most papers, the Reporter is frequently carried along by the momentum of its readers, and the correspondence columns customarily fill at least one of its ten or more pages. The letters to the editor sometimes make the best reading in the Reporter: a lively, lengthy debate on clerical celibacy was sparked by an article, written by a priest, advocating modification of the church's rule against married clergy. Readers also provide most of the items for "Cry Pax!", a weekly column noting with deadpan wit the latest in churchly foibles--such as that the movie Rotten to the Core was approved by the Legion of Decency, or that a Brooklyn firm sold costumes modeled after the garb of priests, bishops and nuns for trick-or-treating children to wear in celebration of "the religious meaning" of Halloween.

Boldness & Initiative. The Reporter's irreverence is not meant to defame the church--although some bishops think so, and have frequently suggested to Helmsing that he try to tone the paper down. The paper's staff members are all Catholics who feel that laymen have a spiritual responsibility to help make the church an open society. "If the mayor owns a newspaper," explains Editor Robert Hoyt, "the paper winds up making the mayor look good. This does not serve the needs of the community, and it really doesn't serve the needs of the mayor. He needs information and criticism more than he needs a publicity bureau. The same is true in the church."

Hoyt, who was born in Clinton, Iowa, 43 years ago, has spent 16 years working on Catholic and secular papers. Bishop John Cody, who is now Chicago's Archbishop, hired Hoyt to edit the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocesan weekly in 1957, and running that paper (he still does) gave Hoyt the concept of the National Reporter.

The Reporter's stories often lack concision, or show a progressive bias; its treatment of secular events--the Viet Nam war, for example--sometimes displays more naivete than knowledge. Nonetheless, many Catholic editors agree that the Reporter has inspired other church journals to greater boldness and initiative, and its own readers are responsive. In its first year, circulation rose from 11,200 to more than 50,800, and is still climbing.

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