 The bimonthly journal was published through papal funding by order of Pope Pius IX and, according to Papal critic Susan Zucotti, readers recognised it as representing contemporary Vatican opinion However, Catholic writer E.E.Y.Hales wrote that "it was not an official organ of the Papal government, indeed the Pope often expressed the keenest displeasure with what it said.Curci [the paper's first editor] was independent-minded; so were his collaborators..." Papal influence was demonstrated by the dismissal of Curci by Pius IX in 1875.