A Catholic religious press project after the Second Vatican Council; the appeal of Vida Nueva magazine for renewal in the Catholic Church

Beginning in the 1960s, the Church underwent a programme of profound transformation because of the Second Vatican Council. In Spain, this process of renewal was undermined by the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which began to decline in the last years of the decade. At the same time, the religious magazine Vida Nueva initiated a path of innovation that consisted in moving from family publication to a journalism specialised in religious information. This study analyses the contents of the editorials published by Vida Nueva from 1968 to 1975, with the aim of exploring how this magazine considered itself, and how it understood the role of general and religious journalism. The results reveal that the weekly defined itself as a Christian, conciliar, critical, and independent publication. Its principal objectives were to analyse in depth religious news, promote a renewal of the Church able to read the signs of the times and renew its mission to serve the world, and commit to social transformation in Spain.