Catholic News Service (CNS) is an American

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswir ...

owned by the

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (US ...

(USCCB) that reports on the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. The agency's domestic service is set to shut down at the end of 2022, but its Rome bureau will continue to operate and provide news, photos and videos about the pope and the Vatican to Catholic newspapers and magazines. The news agency's distribution platform and archives will be acquired by Our Sunday Visitor and used to launch the new OSV News Service.

History

CNS was established in 1920 as the

National Catholic Welfare Council The National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC) was the annual meeting of the American Catholic hierarchy and its standing secretariat; it was established in 1919 as the successor to the emergency organization, the National Catholic War Council. It co ...

(NCWC) Press Department. In the 1960s it became the National Catholic News Service, and dropped "National" from its name in 1986 to indicate its intention to provide worldwide coverage. It is now owned by the USCCB, the successor to the NCWC. From 2004 to 2016, Tony Spence led CNS as its director and editor-in-chief. He was removed in April 2016 after a number of Catholics criticized his posts on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that favored

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, ...

. Catholic News Service announced on May 4, 2022 that it would cease its operations in the United States effective December 31, 2022.

Organization

CNS describes itself as the primary source of national and global news that the US

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

press reports. It is editorially independent and a financially self-sustaining division of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is based in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The documentary service of CNS, ''Origins'', "publishes texts from the Vatican, pe, bishops, Congress, Senate, Supreme Court and church leaders around the world".

References

External links

*
''Origins'' online
{{Authority control 1920 establishments in the United States News agencies based in the United States

History

Organization

See also

References

External links