Vatican City, 6 April 2013: The Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica (Catholic Civilization)
has new print and digital versions. The Italian-language periodical was established
in 1850 and is Italy's oldest-running journal.
"Every 12 days for 163 years,
it has published a journal of more than 100 pages," the director, Jesuit Father Antonio
Spadaro explained today at a press conference in the Vatican. "It is a cultural journal
that features articles written only by Jesuits. Its editors are specialists but they
use a language for readers who are not 'experts.'”
“La Civiltà Cattolica hasn't
changed its format since 1970," the director continued. "This is the first time in
the journal's 163 years that its graphic layout has been subjected to an actual and
coordinated design plan, which covers from a restyling of the masthead … to a version
for tablets. … In structural terms, the 'cronache' (reports) section will disappear,
since our world is one in which reporting is entrusted to daily newspapers or even
to real-time blogs and tweets. Instead, we will be focusing on 'bridges,' that is,
on reflections, critical evaluations, reasoning, and even on the most current contemporary
events, thanks to the 'Focus' section that will consist of articles tied to current
events in politics, economics, the international stage, society, and law. Reflection
on the Church will have a fixed place at the heart, that is the centre, of the journal.
New sections, such as 'Profile' and 'Interview,' will be added.
"The journal
will also become available for browsing on tablets with applications for iPad, iPhone,
Android, Kindle Fire, and Windows 8. Right now it is possible to download the last
two issues of the journal: the last one of the old version and the first one of the
new version.”
"In addition, thanks to collaboration by Google, a project has
been launched to make all the issues published from 1850 to 2008 accessible on the
web. In fact, Google had digitalized the volumes for their Google Books project, through
agreements with several libraries in Europe and the United States. The issues still
protected by copyright law will now be made available by our authorization.”