Bringing online a venerable Roman Catholic archive

Jesuits have published La Civiltà Cattolica without interruptions since 1850, making it among the oldest and most prestigious of Catholic periodicals. The title’s name translates as "The Catholic Civilization" and it offers a dialogue between faith and culture.

Today, at a press conference held at the Vatican, Civiltà Cattolica’s editor in chief Antonio Spadaro announced that a large portion of the publication’s voluminous archives were being made available online, thanks to Google’s book project. The older, public domain issues long have been available to users of Google Book Search. But now, La Civiltà Cattolica has authorized us to make the complete set of issues, up through 2007 available in full view, worldwide, for free.

Civilta Cattolica held a press conference today at the Vatican

The issues have been scanned from libraries around the world, ranging from the University of Michigan to Oxford to the Bibliotheque Municipale de Lyon. Examples are this issue from 1976 and this one from 2007.

The online archives illustrate La Civiltà Cattolica’s and church history. Easy access will allow researchers and readers to probe the publication’s much debated positions and influence on issues ranging from anti-semitism to the Second Vatican Council reforms.

This is only La Civiltà Cattolica’s latest initiative to engage its readers through the Internet. It is reaching out through all forms of social media, from Facebook to YouTube to Twitter. During today's press conference, Spadaro explained that sharing of the publication's digital content represents an important step forward in reaching global audiences of all ages.

We’re delighted to help offer access to such an important digital resource.

Posted by Giorgia Abeltino, Public Policy & Gov't Relations Counsel, Italy