[Thorin]

I hope Benedict fires a few more shots across the subversives' bow.

[Rodney King]

The Rev. Richard McBrien, a liberal theologian at the University of Notre Dame, said he's "astonished" because Reese was careful to air scholars' varying views on contested topics. Therefore, McBrien says, the ouster implies that the Vatican and its U.S. allies "don't think it's possible to discuss both sides

That's not it at all. It is really quite simple. The RNC would not fund a magazine that bashed Republicans. Microsoft would not fund a magazine that bashed Microsoft. Why should the Catholic Church fund a magazine that bashes the Church?

[wideawake]

The Rev. Richard McBrien, a liberal theologian at the University of Notre Dame, said he's "astonished" because Reese was careful to air scholars' varying views on contested topics. Therefore, McBrien says, the ouster implies that the Vatican and its U.S. allies "don't think it's possible to discuss both sides."

If the Church has defined true doctrine on a matter, there is no room for discussion.

A discussion concerns two parties trying to reach the truth, not one party defending the truth and the other party asserting a lie.

The Church defined sodomy to be evil 3800 years ago.

There is no reason to "discuss" whether sodomy is evil today. As far as Catholics are concerned, the question is resolved.

[concerned about politics]

As head of the Vatican's all-important doctrinal office, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger built a reputation as the church's enforcer, taking actions with John Paul's assent against a series of high-profile theologians who drifted from Catholic orthodoxy.

That's what he should do. Why would any faithful priests object to that, unless they're from the New Age church of the Antichrist Pope Paul once warned the world about.

[G.Mason]

"The ouster of a respected editor at a Jesuit magazine has Roman Catholic scholars in the United States wondering whether Pope Benedict XVI will continue, or even extend, the disciplinary actions that John Paul II took against dissenters from church teachings."

Not if the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has anything to say about it. In fact Pope Benedict XVI may well not be confirmed.

[Thorin]

I thought you might find this of interest.

[stop_fascism]

The ouster of a respected editor at a Jesuit magazine has Roman Catholic scholars in the United States wondering whether they will be able to keep their cushy jobs while teaching false doctrine.

[Southern Federalist]

It needs to be pointed out that there is a special angle to this happening to a Jesuit. Loyalty to the papacy is part of the very idea of the Society of Jesus, and they take an oath to support the papacy. I'm not Catholic, but I can't think of any reason why a Jesuit journal should be allowed to be forum for dissent from papal teaching.

[conservonator]

One vehicle is the "mandatum" that all Catholics teaching religious subjects are supposed to receive from the local bishop, under rules the U.S. hierarchy issued in 2001 to implement John Paul's decree on universities. A mandatum recognizes that a professor has pledged "to teach authentic doctrine and to refrain from putting forth as Catholic teaching anything contrary to" officially defined truth.

Finn and Tilley say nobody knows how many teachers have, in fact, been certified because there's no clearing house of information and most bishops have kept the matter private.

Make the mandatum useful: make the list public.