Katolícke noviny – najstaršie slovenské katolícke periodikum

Abstract

The article deals with the history of the Katolícke noviny, which can be divided into several stages. The first stage is connected with Pest-Buda, where a strong Slovak community lived. The Katolícke noviny was edited by the priests Šimon Klempa, Ján Palárik and Andrej Radlinský. At Radlinský’s instigation, the periodical merged with the magazine Cyrill a Method. The second stage is closely related to the Society of St Adalbert. The Katolícke noviny became the official newspaper of the Society in 1870. The editorial staff was led by Pavol Blaho, Juraj Slotta, Andrej Pullman and František Richard Osvald. In the third stage, from 1880 until 1904, the paper was published by Martin Kollár. Subsequently, František Jedlička took over the management of the newspaper, which then became a political weekly. As a result, Hungarian episcopal representatives banned the use of the name ‘Catholic News’. The newspaper was published until 1910. An attempt at a short-term resumption of publishing the paper was made in Nitra in 1919–1920. Nevertheless, it was not until 1940 that the Katolícke noviny began to be published again, and it has been published continuously ever since. The Communist regime retained the Katolícke noviny to demonstrate re­ligious freedom, but it was only the regime’s propaganda. The year 1968 brought some hope of freedom, but it did not last long – soon afterwards, normalisation and strict censorship were introduced. Real freedom did not come until November 1989.