Witness to Permanence: Reflections of a Catholic Journalist

This book is the moving story of a man who has spent fifty years in Catholic journalism at the heart of the twentieth century Catholic development. It is also the story of the growth of the National Catholic Register, the important influence it had on the Church in America, and the role Msgr. Matthew Smith played in developing a small diocesan newspaper into the largest Catholic newspaper in the world, a circulation that numbered in the millions. Through the eyes of Paul Hallett we see the changes that the Church undergoes, both the positive effects of the Second Vatican Council as well as the decline and confusion that have taken place since then.