La Croix is not explicitly left or right on major political issues, and adopts the Church's position, although it is not strictly a religious newspaper; its topics are of general interest, including world news, the economy, religion and spirituality, parenting, culture, and science.

[citation needed] Father Emmanuel d'Alzon (1810–1880), the founder of the Assumptionists and the Oblates of the Assumption, started the paper.

Also, La Croix's biggest early advocate was Father Vincent de Paul Bailly.

[1] La Croix succeeded in bringing together certain groups of Catholics who were seeking to position themselves outside of party politics and official ideologies.

The newspaper's publishing house, la Bonne Presse, was purchased by Paul Féron-Vrau, who oversaw operations until the Assumptionists returned to France under the amnesty laws of 1905.

The readership continued to decline, but the new team led by Bruno Frappat, former editing director of Le Monde who arrived in January 1995, hopes to fight against this trend of general disaffectation with the press which is plaguing a large number of French newspapers.

On the other hand, they have increased their diversification, taking on a bigger presence in French children's press and adding new publications of a Catholic nature.

Today, La Croix is one of only three daily national French newspapers to turn a profit,[5] and the most successful in growing its circulation in the 21st century.

Hertoghe accused the four major French newspapers—Le Monde, Le Figaro, Libération and Ouest-France—in addition to La Croix, of biased reporting during the U.S. war in Iraq.