History
The Catholic Herald was established in 1888 by Derry-born Charles Diamond, who owned and edited the paper until his death in 1934. Diamond was an outspoken and controversial figure, described by one of his successors as "the kind of a man who made a good many enemies". On January 8, 1920 he was arrested and charged with publication of an article that allegedly encouraged assassination in Ireland. Diamond died on February 19, 1934. After his death the paper was bought by Ernest Vernor Miles, a recent convert to Roman Catholicism and head of the New Catholic Herald Ltd. Miles appointed Count Michael de la Bédoyère as editor. De la Bédoyère's news editor was writer Douglas Hyde (not to be mistaken for the Irish politician), also a convert who arrived from the Communist Daily Worker.
While Diamond's newspaper was a London-based Irish political paper, the new version was explicitly British and aimed at growing numbers of English converts who did not necessarily have roots in Ireland. In fact, in the months leading up to his death, Diamond had planned the re-launch, helped by Father Bede Jarrett, OP, who advised Diamond to modify the paper. Father Jarrett died three months before Diamond.
De la Bédoyère was an enthusiastic campaigner for many of the changes that came about with Vatican II, the year he retired from the newspaper, especially the Mass said in the vernacular. De la Bedoyere was also an enthusiastic supporter of ecumenism and used his editorship to warn of the dangers of Soviet Russia after it became an ally in World War II. He almost went to prison for criticising what he saw as Churchill's appeasement of the "godless" Soviet Union. Sir Desmond Morton, Winston Churchill's personal assistant, admitted that the Prime Minister had wanted to close down The Catholic Herald.
In 1958, The Herald went to press with the news that Pope Pius XII had died, having actually to gone to press while the Pontiff was still alive. By the following morning, he had died, so The Herald carried the story while none of the nationals did.
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