American Religious Refuge From Communism: An Albanian Catholic’s Story

The libraries of the University of San Francisco (USF), a Jesuit institution, this month completed digitizing a unique American periodical, the Albanian Catholic Bulletin, accessible here to any interested readers. The Bulletin came out mainly in English with a small section in Albanian, reversing the usual practice of foreign-language immigrant media.

Published annually, the journal was created and maintained in California for 15 years by an ethnic Albanian exile, Gjon Sinishta, born in 1930 in the former Yugoslav region of Montenegro, today an independent country. His story sheds light on the Cold War, communism, and America’s role in protecting religious freedom and sheltering worthy newcomers.