The article argues for the development of Catholic social teaching on freedom of the press. After examining the press’s role in the recent sexual abuse scandal in the Church in the United States, the author reviews this role in light of current Catholic social teaching on the press. Finally, he examines the challenges of a development in the teaching, appealing to the thought of Charles Taylor, David Hollenbach, and Kenneth Himes, and arguing for a model of self-understanding by which the Church can efficaciously engage the free press as an indispensable interlocutor in a democratic civil society.