A new interdisciplinary journal dedicated to Catholic women’s intellectual life will launch in print in spring 2026, aiming to offer a quieter, reflective alternative to the fast-paced digital conversation.
The Better Part, slated exclusively for print publication early in the spring of 2026, takes its thematic inspiration from Mary of Bethany, who “chose the better part” and sat with Christ in quiet contemplation while her sister, Martha, busied herself with worldly concerns. According to Heidi Bollich-Erne, the founding editor-in-chief, this underscores the journal’s message of hope to its readers. “This journal itself is a journal of hope,” she told FemCatholic in an interview. “We want to call more women to see the beauty and the harmony of all truth, but also see the beauty in themselves and see the beauty and the goodness of what they are as women.”
The journal is intentionally semiannual, with a second volume slated for the winter of 2026. Rather than inundate readers with more content than they can manage, Bollich-Erne explained that she wants readers to slow their reading pace, sit with a tangible copy of the journal, and think about the ideas within it. She told FemCatholic, “I want to defy the cultural noise…and be timeless and lasting.”
What Does It Mean To Be a Woman?
Bollich-Erne has always been asking questions. Among her earliest memories are long, philosophical conversations with her father. She went on to study theology as an undergraduate at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, and earned a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the Center for Thomistic Studies. When her father died unexpectedly in 2019, Bollich-Erne felt called to a greater intentionality in her search for meaning and purpose. She left a teaching position she held for 12 years and, eventually, made her way to the Ethics and Culture Department at a high school committed to building virtue and development of person.
“I really have to work hard to respond to the culture in realtime,” says Bollich-Erne of her role as a philosophy teacher. “What does it mean to be a woman,” philosophically, in response to cultural questions about gender identity? In pursuit of this answer for her students, she found her way to Edith Stein and her Essays on Woman, “and it awoke something in me that I didn’t even know was there.”
Stein’s work led Bollich-Erne to Mulieris Dignitatem (1988), the apostolic letter of Pope Saint John Paul II on the dignity and vocation of women, and his subsequent letter addressed to women in 1995. This eventually brought her to Pope Paul VI and his address to women at the closing of the Second Vatican Council. She began to notice a gap in her education when it came to the question of womanhood, and she sought to fill it by reading more works by intellectual Catholic women. Bollich-Erne’s search for more stopped short when she learned that there was no journal devoted to making a tangible space for an intellectual, interdisciplinary conversation surrounding these questions about Catholic women’s identity, meaning, and purpose. Thus, The Better Part was born.
The Genius of Woman is Uncharted
Bollich-Erne began her publishing company, JGB Publishing, to launch The Better Part. She began reaching out to other women across disciplines to build a team: Tamara Nicholl-Smith as a contributing editor; Heather Foucault-Camm and Rebecca Teti as editors; and Jane Clark Sharl as executive editor. The goal: to apply truth in all places, in the varied spaces Catholic women find themselves at work.
When the time came to choose a theme for the inaugural issue, Bollich-Erne had wanted to focus on “the genius of woman” and one of her editors challenged her to define the term. Bollich-Erne said she discovered “the genius of woman is mostly uncharted.” From there, she narrowed down the focus to the origins of this idea in Genesis, and in Marian theology; the massive cultural disruption within which we find ourselves, and the individual disruptions women experience; and, finally, an active posture to forge the future “not [as] a conclusion,” said Bollich-Erne, but as “our point of departure…where do we go from here?”
Join the Conversation
Unsolicited submissions for Issue I: Uncharted are being accepted now until November 30, 2025. According to The Better Part website, those interested in submitting their work are invited to consider the ways in which “woman” is still uncharted, and how Catholic women can participate in the unfolding of a more humane future.
Bollich-Erne’s message to those who want to write for the journal: “Don’t self-censor.” All are welcome to submit their work for consideration, and are encouraged to freely express their ideas. She added, “In our space, it was very important to me that women have freedom…be honest, have depth, and be faithful to the Magisterium.”
If anyone is interested in submitting their work for this issue or other issues to come, they can visit The Better Part website for Submission Guidelines and to submit files for consideration. Bollich-Erne told FemCatholic that all published contributors will be compensated for their work.
Print subscriptions to the journal are now open, and those interested can also sign up for a newsletter to receive updates as they are available.
Finally, Bollich-Erne invited those women interested in this work to join her: “Let’s change the conversation, because we have that ability. Let’s go.”
