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 All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...

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 2001 after the merger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic C ...

(USCCB) that reports on the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. The agency's domestic (United States) service shut down on 30 December 2022, but CNS continues to function and provide reports concerning world events and Catholic news. The news agency's domestic distribution platform and archives were acquired by '' Our Sunday Visitor'' and used to launch OSV News.

History

CNS was established in 1920 as the National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC) Press Department. In the 1960s it became the National Catholic News Service; it later dropped "National" from its name in 1986 to indicate its intention to provide worldwide coverage. It is now owned by the USCCB, the NCWC's successor. From 2004 to 2016, Tony Spence led CNS as its director and

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

. He was removed in April 2016 after a number of Catholics criticized his posts on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that favored

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...

. In February 2021,

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

in a meeting with CNS journalists to celebrate the 100th anniversary of CNS, praised CNS as "an invaluable contribution to the

English-speaking world The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English language, English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the ...

". On 4 May 2022, Catholic News Service announced that it would cease its operations in the United States on 31 December 2022 due to a decision of the USCCB; CNS added that its Rome bureau would continues to operate and "continue to report on Vatican and related international events". The news agency's domestic distribution platform and archives were acquired by '' Our Sunday Visitor'' and used to launch the new OSV News.

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 List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

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 Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. 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

*
Former official website
(archive)
''Origins'' online
(archive) {{Authority control 1920 establishments in the United States News agencies based in the United States Catholic media

History

Organization

See also

References

Further reading

External links