Ratzinger backs new journal

By Tracy-Jo Smith
CARDINAL Joseph Ratzinger has given his backing to a new British Catholic magazine which will hit the shelves next month.
The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has promised his full cooperation to the editors of the St Austin Review (StAR). which is hoping to gain a circulation of 3,000 with subscribers in Africa, Australia and America.
The German prefect, one of the world 's leading theologians, wil I permit the new journal to publish his articles for the first time in English. When he has time, he has also promised to write original art icles for the magazine.
The journal ha signed up leading Cat h II c writers
from around the world, including John Saward, Peter Kreeft, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, Phillippe Maxence and Tomasz Glanz.
Co-editor Robert Asch said: "It is going to be a magazine about Catholic doctrine, about Catholic culture written from a Catholic point of view."
He said it would take up where the now defunct Jesuit title, The Month, left off, but would do "a better job".
The first issue, entitled What is Culture?, which will be launched on September 10, will include a piece from Fr Aidan Nichols OP on G K Chesterton, a retrospective on the works of T S Eliot, and the first publication of a previously unknown poem by Hilaire Belloc.