Black Catholic Messenger, NCR announce partnership

A screenshot of the Black Catholic Messenger's website. (NCR screenshot)

A screenshot of the Black Catholic Messenger's website. (NCR screenshot)

Two Catholic publications have begun a partnership to increase both coverage of African American Catholics and readership of those stories. Beginning this month, the National Catholic Reporter will publish articles from the Black Catholic Messenger on its site and in its print publication.

"We are incredibly excited about this opportunity to partner with a Catholic media organization that is also dedicated to the cause of justice, and that is seeking more ways to include the voices of Black Catholics," said Black Catholic Messenger editor Nate Tinner-Williams, who is also a seminarian with the Josephites. "This is truly part and parcel to the mission of BCM."

Tinner-Williams and a group of Black Catholic laypeople and allies founded the online-only publication in the fall of 2020 to carry on the legacy of Fr. Daniel Rudd, founder of the first Black Catholic newspaper.

The Messenger site features news, articles about history, saints and popular culture and opinion pieces by and about Black Catholics.

The first BCM article published in NCR was an appreciation and obituary about Shawnee Daniels-Sykes, the nation's only Black Catholic female bioethicist, written by Tinner-Williams.

"We are so grateful to the Black Catholic Messenger team for agreeing to be part of this partnership," said NCR executive editor Heidi Schlumpf. "We hope NCR's long history and broad readership will bring more attention to the important work being done by their writers, while providing more news and commentary by Black Catholics for NCR readers as well."

A version of this story appeared in the Dec 23, 2022 - Jan 5, 2023 print issue under the headline: Black Catholic Messenger, NCR announce partnership .

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