On 5 June 1822, Bishop John England of the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina began the first Catholic newspaper in the United States called United States Catholic Miscellany.

Bishop England began the newspaper as a means of defending the Catholic faith and the Irish in the face of attacks from the Nativist movement which opposed what it considered foreign and anti-American influence in the United States.

United States Catholic Miscellany was a weekly newspaper which explained and defended Catholic teaching, reviewed books, published biographies of famous Catholics and informed its readers about events related to religion. Its subscription reached a height of 1,030.

When South Carolina seceded from the United States in 1860, United States Catholic Miscellany changed its name to Catholic Miscellany and in 1861 to Charleston Catholic Miscellany. On 11 December 1861, a fire destroyed the offices of the newspaper and it ceased publication, but it would much later be revived and is now known as The Catholic Miscellany – the official newspaper of the Diocese of Charleston.