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OCT. 28, 1964
The National Catholic Reporter is the child of the Second Vatican Council. It was born on Oct. 28, 1964, just as the council's third session began in Rome. Its first front-page headlines were modest enough: "Report Negroes leaving the Church," "Ask dramatic council action for world attack on poverty," "Confessors 'pinned to the wall' by pill questions, says Jesuit expert," and similar.
By its second issue ATCR was taking a precocious delight in receiving its first subscription cancellation - a cancellation quickly offset by a spate of congratulatory letters, and an offer from one reader to pay for the canceled subscription.
It had also, with the second issue, taken its first baby steps into gentle disagreement. Arnerica magazine had been generous in its welcome of the new newspaper. But NCR editor Robert G. Hoyt felt immediately obliged to suggest, when America ran an editorial on birth control, that the America editorial "states as a fact what the editors hold as an opinion."
By the time the council's third session ended in December 1964, today's NCR was already in evidence. With one major 50-years-later distinction: Today, women's bylines are everywhere.
Forty-eight years ago NCR was quickly recognized for an editorial independence best characterized by the generous nature and superb writing of its editor, Hoyt. It had become an extremely popular open forum for its readers on even the most sensitive topics. By the end of its first year, it had displayed the skills of its innovative and...