Posted on 05/10/2005 6:48:31 AM PDT by Aristotle721
In the Chicago offices of US Catholic, a monthly magazine, the editor held an emergency meeting yesterday with her staff to discuss coverage of controversy.
In New York, the editor of the biweekly Commonweal magazine arrived at his office to find a blunt e-mail message from a critic declaring, ''You're next."
And at Boston College, the school's president was asked at a faculty lunch to explain whether the ability of professors to question teachings of the Roman Catholic Church is now under threat at the Jesuit university.
The announcement Friday that the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, an oft-quoted commentator on the workings of the Catholic Church, has been forced to resign after seven years as editor of America magazine has sent shock waves through the worlds of Catholic journalism and academia. Reese was ousted after facing five years of criticism from the man who is now Pope Benedict XVI for publishing articles that questioned the Vatican's writings on issues such as same-sex marriage, stem cell research, and salvation for non-Christians.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Reese was not "ousted" as far as we know. What are the exact details of his departure?
Jesuit Father Jose M. de Vera, spokesman for the Society of Jesus in Rome, said Father Reese decided to resign after discussing the situation with his Jesuit superiors, following Cardinal Ratzinger's election as Pope Benedict XVI. Father de Vera denied reports that Father Reese was forced to resign, but he acknowledged that pressure had been coming from the Vatican for several years.
"He tendered his resignation. It was not imposed, contrary to what was written," Father de Vera told Catholic News Service May 9. (Source: CNS)
That this is conveniently left out by the MSM is unsurprisingly telling.
Where's my can of "Raid"?
>> And at Boston College, the school's president was asked at a faculty lunch to explain whether the ability of professors to question teachings of the Roman Catholic Church is now under threat at the Jesuit university. <<
More specifically, the theology professors have been teaching dissent and apostasy as if it were within the bounds of authentic Catholicism.
Interestingly, the Hillel office down the hall had First Things and other, more thoughtful publications, in its much more extensive reading rack.
Is it St. Anthony Messenger you were referring to the other day? (I think I've seen it -- though not in years; my feeling was it was at about the level of My Weekly Reader.)
Good! Pope Benedict is kicking you-know-what, and taking names.
"the Rev. Pat McCloskey, the editor of St. Anthony Messenger, a 311,000-circulation Franciscan monthly based in Cincinnati. "I'm afraid that a move like this one will cause more and more Catholic thinkers to say that they want to write for publications that are not identified as Catholic and to teach at schools that are not identified as Catholic, because there is more freedom there."
If a "Catholic thinker" wants to put his/her freedom to write articles that are against Catholic teachings above their loyalty to the Catholic faith, then it's long past time for him/her to leave the church and find an appropriate Protestant denomination. Are these people not aware that ever since the Reformaiton in the 16th century, the number of Protestant denominations continues to splinter and grow exponentially? If they still want to protest the church's teachings, they can form their own denominations, but please do not think they can continue to pretend they are Catholics.
In other news, dog bites man.
But several priests with direct knowledge of the situation said that individual bishops filed complaints with the Vatican or the Jesuit order about articles that appeared in the magazine.
I can only think of three possibilities for those bishops.
Yeah, that's the one. And you're right--it's the Weekly Reader version of termite-scrivening.
You bought the spin of the MSM and some termite/leftywonk/pinktutu-wearers.
It's better than you think. About 40% of the USBishops are actually Catholic. Now how many would actually complain about America--you're likely right--only 3, maybe 6 come to mind.
Which ones?
I was thinking Bruskewitz, Chaput and George. Obviously only a guess. Feel free to add (or subtract).
Commonweal, the National Catholic Reporter, First Things, New Oxford Review, and the Wanderer (there are others) are all privately owned and not affiliated with any diocese or religious order. They are editorially beyond the reach of the hierarchy.
This whole Reese thing is overblown. He was at the end of his seven year commitment to the magazine, and likely orchestrated his resignation (along with his Jesuit superiors) for maximum effect.
How many Catholics now know about the existence of America magazine who did not last week?
Sink--how do you know about the 7-year committment? Sounds nice, but how plausible, or provable? About your theory that the whole event was orchestrated by one of the parties: I've come to see the same thing.
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