diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 61ab1f6..cef5869 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: owidapi
 Title: Access the Our World in Data Chart API
-Version: 0.1.0.9001
+Version: 0.1.0.9002
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Christoph", "Scheuch", , "christoph@tidy-intelligence.com", 
             role = c("aut", "cre", "cph"),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index f0ba9ec..2ddd882 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # owidapi (development version)
 
 - Encapsulated request logic in internal `perform_request()` function.
+- Updated variable parsing & introduced graceful error handling in `owid_get_catalog()`
 
 # owidapi 0.1.0
 
diff --git a/R/owid_get_catalog.R b/R/owid_get_catalog.R
index 17abead..292b428 100644
--- a/R/owid_get_catalog.R
+++ b/R/owid_get_catalog.R
@@ -22,19 +22,41 @@ owid_get_catalog <- function(
 
   req <- request(base_url)
 
-  resp <- perform_request(req, "owid_get_catalog")
+  tryCatch(
+    {
+      resp <- perform_request(req, "owid_get_catalog")
 
-  catalog_raw <- resp |>
-    resp_body_string() |>
-    textConnection() |>
-    read.csv() |>
-    tibble::as_tibble()
+      catalog_raw <- resp |>
+        resp_body_string() |>
+        textConnection() |>
+        read.csv() |>
+        tibble::as_tibble()
 
-  if (snake_case) {
-    catalog <- to_snake_case(catalog_raw)
-  } else {
-    catalog <- catalog_raw
-  }
+      # Parse logicals
+      catalog_raw$isInheritanceEnabled <- catalog_raw$isInheritanceEnabled ==
+        "True"
+      catalog_raw$isIndexable <- catalog_raw$isIndexable == "True"
+      catalog_raw$isPublished <- catalog_raw$isPublished == "True"
 
-  catalog
+      # Parse dates
+      catalog_raw$createdAt <- as.Date(catalog_raw$createdAt)
+      catalog_raw$updatedAt <- as.Date(catalog_raw$updatedAt)
+      catalog_raw$lastEditedAt <- as.Date(catalog_raw$lastEditedAt)
+      catalog_raw$publishedAt <- as.Date(catalog_raw$publishedAt)
+
+      if (snake_case) {
+        catalog <- to_snake_case(catalog_raw)
+      } else {
+        catalog <- catalog_raw
+      }
+
+      catalog
+    },
+    error = function(e) {
+      cli_alert(
+        conditionMessage(e)
+      )
+      invisible(NULL)
+    }
+  )
 }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-owid_get_catalog.R b/tests/testthat/test-owid_get_catalog.R
index 12577e5..2d7fff2 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-owid_get_catalog.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-owid_get_catalog.R
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ test_that("owid_get_catalog handles request errors gracefully", {
       cli_abort("Mocked network error")
     },
     {
-      expect_error(
+      expect_message(
         owid_get_catalog(),
         regexp = "Failed to retrieve data from Our World in Data\\."
       )