Doc Mac reminds us that today is the Big Day for a venerable and enduring Catholic institution:

Today marks the hundredth anniversary of America magazine. The founder was father John J. Wynne, the Jesuit who conceived the idea of the Catholic Encyclopedia. Wynne had edited the Jesuits’ Messenger of the Sacred Heart since the 1890’s, but he wanted to create a magazine that was less devotional and more wide-ranging so that readers might “find God in all things.” The title was meant to show the magazine’s scope, and it was subtitled “Catholic Review of the Week.”

Your Humble Blogger has popped up in the pages of America a time or two or three, so I’m hardly objective about this. But I think the magazine has been a valuable contributor to the ongoing conversation about Catholicism in America.

And the people who work there are awfully nice, too.

Happy Birthday, America!

Indeed: God bless America!