[4] In more recent times the magazine has advocated reaching out to children, teens, and young people who use and interact with social media (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, YouTube, etc., on devices such as the iPod and iPad) to an intense degree, and find ways to foster their faith life through interior meditation, including, among other exercises, the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the Jesuits' founder.

Its purpose is both to present it clearly and in fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church, and to defend without polemics the truth that is sometimes distorted by unfounded accusations directed at the Ecclesial Community.

[7]The periodical was founded by the Jesuit priest Carlo Maria Curci, who "felt the need for an exposition, at the highest intellectual level, of the point of view of the Papacy in matters religious and political.

"[8] During the years of the risorgimento, the Church was physically and intellectually "in a state of siege"[9] and many thought the undertaking "too hazardous," but Pius IX himself "insisted that Curci was right that the flood of anti-Papal propaganda [from liberals, Protestants, and others] could only be met by a reasoned statement of the Papal case..."[10] Other sources cite the desire to defend "catholic civilization" against a perceived growing influence of liberals and freemasons.

[11][12] The first issue was released in Naples on 6 April 1850 in Italian (rather than Latin), although due to censorship by the House of Bourbon the editorial office was transferred to Rome that same year.

"[15] In 1924, Pope Pius XI wrote: "from the journal's very beginning the authors set for themselves that sacred and immutable duty of defending the rights of the Apostolic See and the Catholic faith, and struggling against the poison that the doctrine of liberalism had injected into the very veins of States and societies.."[16] The historian Richard Webster described its influence in 1938 as reflecting the views of the Pontiff.

Early editors include: As students, Jesuit priests Carlo Piccirillo (1821–1888) and Giuseppe Oreglia di Santo Stefano (1823–1895) contributed to the magazine.

La Civiltà Cattolica contributed to the Syllabus of Errors, the First Vatican Council (1869–1870) and to the task of restoring Thomist philosophy, which flourished during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII (1878–1903).

(A decline had occurred particularly after the Non Expedit, a papal policy promulgated in the late 19th century that discouraged Catholics from taking an active part in the political process.)

After the signing of the Lateran treaty in 1929, Father Enrico Rosa, the editor of the journal met with Alleanza Nazionale, (an anti-fascist) group of Catholic monarchists.

Rosa affirmed that neither of the two are admissible by the Christian spirit, and that the periodical did not sustain them, though he did admit that the force of the controversy in that historical moment did not help to express the positions in a very clear way.

[30] Farinacci reported that another journal article, which had just been published a few months before, asserted that "the Judaic religion was profoundly corrupted" and had warned "that Judaism still aims for world domination.

[33] Il Regime Fascista in 1938 published an article which asserted "even though we ourselves have never felt such cruelty and hatred...Both for Italy and Germany there is still much to learn from the disciples of Jesus, and we must admit that both in its planning and in its execution, Fascism is still far from the excessive severity of the people of Civilita Cattolica".

The editor, Father James Martegnani (1902–1981), favoured a right-wing coalition between the Common Man's Front, the Italian Social Movement and part of the Christian Democracy party.

[citation needed] In the late 20th century Father Robert Graham published articles which sought to refute the accusations relating to the "silence" of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust.

The Papacy of Pope John Paul II influenced La Civiltà Cattolica with a renewed missionary perspective, with revived apologetical articles, and with the task of promoting the New Evangelization.

In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt described Civilta Cattolica as "for decades the most outspokenly antisemitic" magazines in the world, which "carried anti-Jewish propaganda long before Italy went fascist.

"[37] The Second Vatican Council held in the 1960s led the Roman Catholic Church to renounce charges of deicide and other negative views of Jews that had commonly appeared in the pages of Civilta Cattolica and other publications.

[39] Pinchas Lapide, however, likened the Jesuits to Himmler's SS because in the era of Hitler both were closed to people within certain degrees of Jewish descent (a requirement that was dropped in 1946).

[49] Der Stürmer printed a special edition dedicated to "Jewish ritual murder" which included extensive quotations from "La Civiltà Cattolica".

[52][53] The reviewer opined that the book's three options for dealing with "the Jewish problem", i.e. assimilation, Zionism and ghettoization, were not feasible, thus suggesting that God must have reasons for placing Jews in Christian societies.

[52] The reviewer rejected Belloc's option of expulsion (it being contrary to Christian charity) and also elimination by "a friendly and gentle manner, through absorption" since in his opinion it had "been shown to be historically unachievable.

[60] The journal in 1938 wrote that Hungary could be saved from the Jews, who were "disastrous for the religious, moral, and social life of the Hungarian people", only if the government "forbids [Jewish] foreigners to enter the country".

[63] Michael Phayer notes that the journal continued to publish "slander about the Jews even while they were being murdered en masse by German mobile killing squads.

[64] In 1971 Emmanuel Beeri (Encyclopaedia Judaica) noted that from the 1950s onwards Civiltà's attitude became more dispassionate in conformity with the Vatican's moves toward reconciliation between Jews and the Catholic Church.

[67] David Kertzer noted a disturbing trend in De Rosa's history of the journal, and also in We Remember the Shoah, that seeks to distance the Church from the Holocaust.

[68] Kertzer pointed out that the anti-Judaism that the Church describes involved denunciation of the Jews not purely on religious grounds but also for socio-political reasons and thus says "the whole carefully constructed anti-Semitic/anti-Judaism distinction evaporates".