ABSTRACT
Whereas in the pre-Fascist period the strength of the Catholic press lay in a network of daily newspapers, especially in northern and central Italy, today it lies with the popular, weekly and monthly publications like Famiglia Cristiana (one million readers) and Il Messaggero di Sant’Antonio (900,000), as well as with a network of diocesan weeklies having a total readership of about 1,200,000. It is these publications which really penetrate to the Catholic faithful in town and country. In fact, only L’Eco di Bergamo, Il cittadino of Lodi (both diocesan controlled) and L’Avvenire (owned by the Italian Bishops’ Conference) survive as dailies, but with small circulations: L’Osservatore Romano, the semi-official organ of the Vatican Secretariat of State, has even fewer regular readers.
