Free Republic

Resignation of America editor should not surprise Catholics, expert saysBoston, May. 17, 2005 (CNA) - All of the kafuffle surrounding the resignation of Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ, as editor of America Magazine is unfounded, according to First Things editor Fr. John Neuhaus. Fr. Neuhaus expressed his views on the issue in a column published in the Boston Globe yesterday. He explained that the leadership of the Jesuits decided that Fr. Reese should be moved into a different ministry, which sparked a controversy that the “oppressive Pope Benedict XVI” allegedly ousted him from the editorial chair.Fr. Neuhaus pointed out that America...

The `naked public square,' twenty years later William F. Buckley, Jr., once wrote that "the moral curiosity of Richard John Neuhaus is one of the country's most important assets." A lot of the country became aware of that twenty years ago, when Neuhaus's seminal book, The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America, was first published. The book's title injected an enduring image into our national conversation about Church-and-state. Where stands that debate, twenty years on? The Naked Public Square brilliantly analyzed a discomfort that many Americans felt but couldn't quite identify precisely. Something seemed out-of-kilter in the matter...