<p>For many years the circulations of two nationally circulated Catholic newspapers held steady. These were the newspapers at the ends of the political and theological spectrum: on the left, the <strong><em>National Catholic Reporter</em></strong> (40,000 subscribers); on the right, <strong><em>The Wanderer</em></strong> (30,000 subscribers). The <em>Reporter</em> is a biweekly, <em>The Wanderer</em> a weekly. The former is in its forty-ninth year, while the latter has been published for more than a century, beginning as a German-language publication.</p><p>Throughout the post-Vatican II period these publications battled it out while seldom mentioning one another. It doesn’t look as though the battle will continue much longer. Neither publication is healthy. The <em>Reporter</em> is the healthier of the two, with a paid circulation now under 33,000—this after having maintained 40,000 for years. It is <em>The Wanderer</em> that likely will leave the field first. It too kept its paid circulation steady for a long time, but readership has plummeted recently and is now less than 11,000.</p><p>It is possible, even with today’s exorbitant postal costs, for small-circulation periodicals to stay alive. <strong><em>The American Conservative</em></strong>, a monthly founded by Patrick Buchanan, has fewer than 7,000 subscribers yet seems to be humming along well enough, and other politically oriented magazines have similarly small lists. None of these magazines bring in enough from subscription fees or advertising to cover costs. They rely on underwriters to make up the shortfall. Seldom do newspapers have the equivalent, since newspapers and magazines are rather different animals. This means that when subscription fees and advertising revenue no longer cover the expenses, newspapers disappear. There is no Daddy Warbucks to cover the deficit.</p><p>Given the rapidity with which its readership has declined, <em>The Wanderer</em> seems to be headed toward its final issue, perhaps within a year or so. <em>The Reporter</em> will take longer to reach the same predicament, but reach it it will.</p><p>The all-too-soon demise of Catholic print publications—even ones I read to disagree with—is no happy matter for someone brought up on newsprint. When my city newspaper finally disappears, I will forget about it within a month. Not so with Catholic newspapers. They have been a part of my regular reading since I first discovered them in the vestibule of the church. The city newspaper might continue as an online publication; it can gin up a stream of online revenue through local advertising. Catholic newspapers won’t have that option: National advertisers don’t go with them even now because they have too few readers overall, and local advertisers don’t because they have too few local readers; it will be all the harder to attract advertisers for online-only publications.</p><p> </p><p>For serious Bible study I prefer the <strong>Revised Standard Version—Catholic Edition</strong>, but for daily devotional reading I prefer the translation by <strong>Msgr. Ronald A. Knox</strong>. The copies I have of the <strong>Knox Bible</strong>—and I have several, having bought them up while they still could be found in pristine condition—are on my coffee table and bookshelves at home and in my office at work. I have them both in fine leather editions and in standard hardcover, in combined volumes and in separate volumes for the Old and New Testaments. I think I have four elegantly bound leather copies of the New Testament alone—I won’t live long enough to wear them out.</p><p>I often have recommended the Knox version but have done so with hesitation, since it has been difficult for people to track down copies through used-book dealers. No more. I am pleased to note that the complete Knox Bible has been republished in a particularly handsome hardback format by <strong>Baronius Press</strong>. The company has its chief office in London, but you don’t have to write to London for a copy: The Knox Bible is available now at shop.catholic.com. Each copy comes with a paperback copy of Knox’s <strong><em>On Englishing the Bible</em></strong>. This is one of my favorite of his books, a delightful defense of why he translated as he did.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Stand with Children</strong> is an outreach of <strong>Catholics for the Common Good</strong>, a lay-run organization headquartered in San Francisco. CCG has an impressive list of advisors, including <strong>Salvatore Cordileone</strong>, Archbishop of San Francisco; <strong>George Niederauer</strong>, retired Archbishop of San Francisco; <strong>Allen Vigneron</strong>, Archbishop of Detroit; <strong>Mark Brumley</strong>, president of Ignatius Press; <strong>Raymond Flynn</strong>, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican; and <strong>Robert Destro</strong> of Catholic University’s law school.</p><p>The purpose of Stand with Children is to “promote the reality that marriage unites a man and a woman with each other and any children born from their union.” This is difficult to do in a secular culture that doesn’t want to hear any argument based on religion. Can the argument for “traditional” marriage be made in convincing secular terms?</p><p><strong>William B. May</strong>, the president of CCG, thinks it can, and he tries to make it in a short book titled <strong><em>Getting the Marriage Conversation Right</em></strong>. He offers advice on how to discuss—and how not to discuss—what marriage really is. Most of the book is in question-and-answer format and concerns same-sex marriage (a term May advises not using because to many people it suggests that marriage between two persons of the same sex is theoretically possible). His is one of the better treatments I’ve seen on the subject—to the point and easily comprehended. The whole book can be read in an hour or two.</p><p>Even though the book is new, events have caught up with a portion of it. To the charge that same-sex marriage is inevitable, May replies: “Every time ‘traditional’ marriage has been on the ballot, the voters have supported it. Those trying to redefine marriage have never had an electoral victory—not one win.” That changed on November 6, when voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington approved same-sex marriage laws. But May’s overall argument in no way depends on voter consistency, so this “oops” is inconsequential.</p><p><em>Getting the Marriage Conversation Right</em> can be obtained through the website of Catholic for the Common Good, ccgaction.org, or through the publisher, <strong>Emmaus Road</strong>, at emmausroad.org. Steep discounts are given for bulk purchases since the book is intended for mass distribution through parishes and civic groups.</p><p> </p><p>On the same subject is a pastoral letter issued in September of <strong>John Myers</strong>, the Archbishop of Newark. <strong><em>When Two Become One</em></strong> is available for free download at the archdiocesan website, rcan.org. This 16-page letter is one of the best treatments of marriage I have seen. Early on it makes the important point that marriage, while protected by religion, is not in origin a religious institution; after all, it predates all known religions and therefore can’t be consider a construct of any particular religion, Christian or otherwise. This means it should be possible to argue in favor of marriage without resorting to religious claims that many people won’t accept. It also means that advocating legal protections for marriage doesn’t equate with advocating the establishment of a particular religion.</p><p>Much of the Archbishop’s discussion concerns same-sex marriage and why it really isn’t marriage at all. He covers many of the points found in <em>Getting the Marriage Conversation Right</em>, but he writes in a more discursive way. His pastoral letter might be thought of as the theory, while William B. May’s book might be thought of as the manual for the troops. Myers notes the urgency of the problem while counseling, “This is not a time to be alarmist, but it is a time for clarity of thought and rightness of action. Make no mistake about it: The freedom of the Church as an institution . . . and Catholic believers as individuals will be significantly curtailed by any redefinition of marriage that would abandon the understanding of marriage.”</p>