{{short description|Liberal American Catholic journal of opinion}} {{other uses|Commonweal (disambiguation)}} {{COI|date=June 2021}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox magazine | title = Commonweal | image_file = Commonweal Cover 11 2022.jpg | image_size = | image_alt = | image_caption = | editor = Dominic Preziosi | editor_title = Editor | previous_editor = | staff_writer = | frequency = 11 issues a year | circulation = 20,000 | category = | company = Commonweal Foundation | publisher = | firstdate = 1924 | country = United States | based = New York City | language = English | website = {{official URL}} | issn = 0010-3330 }} '''''Commonweal''''' is a liberal<ref name="Jordan Baumann 1999 p. 414">{{cite book | last1=Jordan | first1=P. | last2=Baumann | first2=P. | title=Commonweal Confronts the Century: Liberal Convictions, Catholic Tradition | publisher=Touchstone | year=1999 | isbn=978-0-684-86276-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dd9mZegMznsC&pg=PA414 | at=back cover}}</ref><ref name="Sandbrook 2007 p. 25">{{cite book | last=Sandbrook | first=D. | title=Eugene McCarthy: The Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism | publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-307-42577-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wMqSzTPXl7QC&pg=PA25 | page=25 }}</ref>{{efn|Though see {{harvtxt|Sandbrook|2007}} and {{harvtxt|Clancy|Green|1987}}<ref name="Clancy Green 1987 p. 11">{{cite book | last1=Clancy | first1=W. | last2=Green | first2=E. | title=Time's Covenant: The Essays and Sermons of William Clancy | publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press | series=University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions | year=1987 | isbn=978-0-8229-7645-5 | url=https://archive.org/details/timescovenantess00clan | url-access=registration | page=[https://archive.org/details/timescovenantess00clan/page/11 11] }}</ref> for a more refined comparison of ''Commonweal'' with the American liberal tradition.}} Catholic journal of opinion, edited and managed by lay people, headquartered in New York City. It is the oldest independent Catholic journal of opinion in the United States.
==History== Founded in 1924 by Michael Williams (1877–1950) and the Calvert Associates, ''Commonweal'' is the oldest independent Roman Catholic journal of opinion in the United States. The magazine was originally modeled on ''The New Republic'' and ''The Nation'' but “expressive of the Catholic note” in covering literature, the arts, religion, society, and politics.
One of the magazine's most famous contributors is Dorothy Day, who began writing for it in 1929. In 1932, she met Peter Maurin, who had visited the offices of ''Commonweal'' to spread his ideas of a more radical practice and theory of the works of mercy; the editor of the magazine turned him away but suggested he contact Day. Together, they founded the Catholic Worker.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Loughery |first1=John |title=Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century |last2=Randolph |first2=Blythe |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-9821-0349-1 |location=New York |pages=123, 133–34}}</ref> Day continued to contribute to ''Commonweal'' for several decades.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Day, Dorothy |url=https://search.opinionarchives.com/Commw_Web/DigitalArchive.aspx?panes=2 |website=OpinionArchives}}</ref>
Among its other notable contributors, ''Commonweal'' has also published Hannah Arendt, Hilaire Belloc, Georges Bernanos, G. K. Chesterton, Ross Douthat, Terry Eagleton, Graham Greene, Elizabeth Johnson, Alasdair MacIntyre, Thomas Merton, Michael Novak, Marilynne Robinson, and Charles Taylor. It has printed the short fiction of Whittaker Chambers, Alice McDermott, J. F. Powers, Valerie Sayers, and Evelyn Waugh; the poetry of W. H. Auden, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Theodore Roethke, and John Updike; and the artwork of Jean Charlot, Rita Corbin, Fritz Eichenberg, and Emil Antonucci.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/history|title=A Brief History of Commonweal | Commonweal Magazine|website=www.commonwealmagazine.org}}</ref>
==Overview== The name "commonweal" is a more archaic version of "commonwealth," meaning "the public good."<ref>{{Citation |title=commonweal |date=2023-02-01 |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=commonweal&oldid=71124990 |work=Wiktionary |access-date=2023-05-26 |language=en}}</ref> Founding editor Michael Williams chose that name for the magazine because it suggested the magazine's social outlook.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Van Allen |first=Rodger |title=The Commonweal and American Catholicism: The Magazine, the Movement, the Meaning |publisher=Fortress Press |year=1974 |isbn=0-8006-1076-8 |location=Philadelphia |pages=7}}</ref> William Morris's earlier newspaper of the same name may have influenced the decision, as well.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wickham |first=Harvey |date=4 June 1930 |title=For the Common Woe |url=https://search.opinionarchives.com/Commw_Web/digitalarchive.aspx |journal=The Commonweal |volume=XII |issue=5 |pages=133–34 |via=OpinionArchives}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=McCarraher |first=Eugene |date=24 Jun 2019 |title=Turn the Page |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/turn-page |access-date=6 June 2023 |website=Commonweal}}</ref> The magazine was originally titled ''The Commonweal'', until it dropped the definite article in 1965.<ref>Steinfels, Peter. "Introduction." In Commonweal ''Confronts the Century: Liberal Convictions, Catholic Tradition'', edited by Patrick Jordan and Paul Baumann, 15. New York: Touchstone, 1999.</ref> left|thumb|The front cover of the first edition of ''The Commonweal'' From its inception, the organization has aimed to engage people through more than its print magazine. The group of mainly lay people who became its first board called themselves "the Calvert Associates" and wanted to spread "Calvert ideals," after the Baron of Baltimore, a proponent of religious liberty (in his case, for Catholics in the English colonies).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Van Allen |first=Rodger |title=The Commonweal and American Catholicism: The Magazine, the Movement, the Meaning |publisher=Fortress Press |year=1974 |isbn=0-8006-1076-8 |location=Philadelphia |pages=6}}</ref> Today, ''Commonweal'' continues to organize community discussion groups "for civil, reasoned debate on the interaction of faith with contemporary politics and culture."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Commonweal Local Communities |url=https://pages.commonwealmagazine.org/communities/ |access-date=2023-06-06 |website=pages.commonwealmagazine.org}}</ref>
''Commonweal'' publishes editorials, columns, essays, and poetry, along with film, book, and theater reviews. Eleven issues of ''Commonweal'' are released each year, with a circulation of approximately 20,000.
Since 2018, the magazine has hosted a weekly or biweekly podcast, whose episodes usually supplement the magazine with interviews on subjects that recently appeared there.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-05-25 |title=The Commonweal Podcast on Apple Podcasts |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-commonweal-podcast/id1436418164 |access-date=2023-05-31 |website=Apple Podcasts |language=en-US}}</ref>
The journal is run as a not-for-profit enterprise and managed by a board of directors.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Commonweal Foundation Board of Directors {{!}} Commonweal Magazine |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/board |access-date=2023-05-31 |website=www.commonwealmagazine.org |language=en}}</ref>
==Viewpoint== ''Commonweal'' frequently publishes writers from various political and theological perspectives, but tends toward a liberal slant. This orientation has evolved over time.
In the first issue, the editors claimed their lay independence from the Catholic hierarchy and their freedom to publish dissenting voices, while also declaring, "As a sure background ''The Commonweal'' will have the continuous, unbroken tradition and teachings of the historic Mother Church."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=November 12, 1924 |title=An Introduction |url=https://search.opinionarchives.com/Commw_Web/DigitalArchive.aspx?panes=2 |journal=The Commonweal |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=5 |via=OpinionArchive}}</ref> Reviewing the magazine's first two issues, the ''New York Times'' called it a "propagandist" for the Church, but one which used "[s]uavity, not ferocity," to defend its ideas.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=21 November 1924 |title=Topics of the Times: A Defender Who Doesn't Attack |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/11/21/archives/topics-of-the-times.html |journal=New York Times |volume=LXXIV |issue=24408 |pages=18}}</ref> Its ideas have often run counter to other Catholic publications, however, as when it criticized Franco in the 1930s.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=15 October 1951 |title=The Press: Commonweal & Woe |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,815546,00.html |magazine=Time}}</ref>
After it had gained notoriety, "''Commonweal'' Catholic" became a (sometimes pejorative) term for readers of the magazine, indicating their interest in reformist ideas in church and society.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wakin |first=Daniel J. |date=2003-11-01 |title=James O'Gara, 85, Editor Of Commonweal Magazine |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/01/nyregion/james-o-gara-85-editor-of-commonweal-magazine.html |access-date=2023-05-23 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Today, the magazine's stated mission emphasizes progressive politics.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Commonweal {{!}} Commonweal Magazine |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/about |access-date=2023-05-23 |website=www.commonwealmagazine.org |language=en}}</ref>
==See also== * ''America'' * ''Catholic Worker'' * ''National Catholic Register'' * ''National Catholic Reporter''
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *Rodger Van Allen, ''The Commonweal and American Catholicism: The Magazine, the Movement, the Meaning'', Philadelphia: Fortune Press, 1974 *Rodger Van Allen, ''Being Catholic: Commonweal from the Seventies to the Nineties'', Loyola University Press, 1993 *Patrick Jordan and Paul Baumann, ''Commonweal Confronts the Century: Liberal Convictions, Catholic Tradition'', Touchstone, 1999 *[https://www.proquest.com/docview/302640496 Robert B. Clements (1972). "The Commonweal: The Williams-Shuster Years" ]
== External links == {{wiktionary|commonweal}} * {{Official website}}
Category:Catholic magazines published in the United States Category:Magazines established in 1924 Category:Magazines published in New York City