| Catherine Pepinster | |
| Categories | Catholicism |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Weekly (except Christmas and Easter) |
| Circulation | 22,313[1] |
| First issue | May 16, 1840 |
| Company | Tablet Publishing Company |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Website | www.thetablet.co.uk |
| ISSN | 0039-8837 |
The Tablet is a Catholic international weekly review published in London, with a circulation of 22,313[1] in Britain and around the world. Contributors to its pages once included Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Pope Benedict XVI (as Cardinal Josef Ratzinger) and Pope Paul VI (as Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini).
Contents |
Ownership
The Tablet was launched in 1840 by a Quaker convert to Catholicism, Frederick Lucas, just 10 years before the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales. It is the second-oldest surviving weekly journal in Britain after the Spectator (which was founded in 1828).
For the first 28 years of its life, the Tablet was owned by the Catholic laity. In 1868, Fr (later Cardinal) Herbert Vaughan, who had founded the only British Catholic missionary society, the Mill Hill Missionaries, purchased the journal just before the First Vatican Council that defined papal infallibility. At his death he bequeathed the journal to the Archbishops of Westminster, the profits to be divided between Westminster Cathedral and the Mill Hill Fathers.
The Tablet was owned by successive Archbishops of Westminster for 67 years. In 1935, Archbishop (later Cardinal) Hinsley sold the journal to a group of Catholic laymen. In 1976 ownership passed to The Tablet Trust, a registered charity.[2]
Editors since 1935
From 1936 to 1967 the editor was Douglas Woodruff, formerly of The Times, a historian and reputed wit whose hero was Hilaire Belloc. His wide range of contacts, and his knowledge of international affairs, made the paper, it was said, essential reading in embassies around the world. He restored the fortunes of The Tablet, which had declined steeply. For many years (1938-1961) he was assisted by Michael Derrick, who after the Second World War was often acting editor.
Woodruff was followed as editor by the publisher and, like Woodruff, part owner Tom Burns, who served from 1967 to 1982. Burns, a conservative in his political views, was a progressive on church matters, firmly in favour of the Vatican II church reforms. A watershed came in 1968, when The Tablet took an editorial stance at odds with Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, which restated the traditional teaching against artificial contraception. This public association with dissenting attitudes on contraception gave rise to the nickname "The Pill", more recently "The Bitter Pill", for "The Tablet".
Burns was followed by the BBC producer John Wilkins, who had been Burns’s assistant from 1967 to 1971. Under his editorship the journal's political stance was seen as centre-left. The paper continued to have a distinctive voice, consistently advocating further changes in the Church's post-Vatican II life and doctrine. Circulation climbed steadily throughout Wilkins's 21-year tenure. He retired at the end of 2003.
Catherine Pepinster, formerly executive editor of The Independent on Sunday, was appointed as the first female editor of the Tablet at the beginning of 2004.[3] She has said that the journal will continue to provide a forum for "progressive, but responsible Catholic thinking, a place where orthodoxy is at home but ideas are welcome".[citation needed]
Criticisms
In 1980, Franjo Seper, leader of the Holy Office, was reportedly amused when informed that The Tablet had demanded the suppression of his Congregation following the action it had taken against the Swiss theologian Hans Küng. "Isn’t that the paper that used to be Catholic?", he asked.[4]
British journalist Damian Thompson, editor-in-chief of the rival publication the Catholic Herald, and facilitator of the Holy Smoke blog (hosted by the Daily Telegraph), has been a recurrent critic of The Tablet, claiming that the newspaper supports a number of unorthodox ideas within the Church. [5][6] [7]
In August 2009, the Tablet published an editorial entitled "the old rite put in its place" which misquoted and distorted a letter from newly installed Archbishop Vincent Nichols. The view from bishops and others in the church was that this was a deliberate attempt on the part of the Tablet to create an air of hostility between Archbishop Nichols and Pope Benedict XVI. On August 29, 2009 Scottish composer James MacMillan wrote an open letter to Editor Catherine Pepinster and her assistant, Elena Curti to resign "in the name of anything that is decent". [8]
See also
- Rocco Palmo - contributor in Philadelphia
References
- ^ a b Standard Certificate of Circulation - The Tablet, ABC, 12 February 2009
- ^ The Tablet Trust, Registered Charity no. 271537 at the Charity Commission
- ^ The Independent, March 20, 2006.
- ^ 1980 statement from Seper
- ^ Yikes. The Tablet's cross with Holy Smoke, Damian Thompson, Holy Smoke Column, 13 December 2008
- ^ Voices from the lower depths
- ^ The Tablet hits out at Right-wing bloggers 'from the lower depths'
- ^ James MacMillan calls on Tablet editor to resign
Links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
