The Jesuit magazine, America, has been one of the few Catholic magazines to air, respectfully, all sides of the issues now current in the Church. It’s a fair, informed and moderate intellectual voice – one of the few left standing in the Church. Its extraordinarily gifted editor, Tom Reese, interviewed me about homosexuality and the Church a few years back. He was a ubiquitous and learned commentator on television during the last conclave, is anything but a radical, and his great gift was simply in allowing respectful debate in the pages of his magazine. Here’s a sample of his extraordinary career in service of his deep faith:
Besides numerous articles and editorials in America, he also has been published in The Washington Post, The National Tax Journal, Tax Notes, The Social Science Journal, The Jurist, The Bible Today, Biblical Theology, Biblical Theology Bulletin, The Tablet (of London), The National Catholic Reporter, Concilium, The Living Light, Etudes, The Catholic Digest, Worship, Catholic News Service, and Religion News Service. In 2000, the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa.
Here’s another bio of this alleged danger to the Church. You can read the interview with me here. Tell me if you think it’s disrespectful or outrageous. Ratzinger has now fired him. The magazine never campaigned against church doctrine; it merely aired serious, scholarly articles that raised both sides of many issues. But, according to this petty, prissy tyrant now running the Church, Catholics are not allowed to think through both sides of any issue. This is a signal that not even moderate, calm, balanced and respectful examination of Church doctrine or Church government will be allowed in future. The measures Ratzinger used as prefect will actually be intensified as Pope, until all free thought is extinguished. We were fed p.r. that the new Pope was humble, would be conciliatory, would be a pastor not a dictator. I never believed it. We have had the first sign. It’s as dangerous as it is predictable. Message to Catholics: remove your minds. Message to Catholic thinkers: obey on everything – or we will fire you. One silver lining: If I were a Jesuit, I would take the hostility of this clerical tyrant as a badge of honor. Firing this moderate, quiet, modest man is really a call to arms for those of us who need to save our church from this disastrous choice for the papacy.
THE REAL REASON FOR BLAIR’S VICTORY: The right split, with the most hardcore anti-E.U. candidates forming their own party, the UK Independence party. A Brit blogger shows that the combined non-Tory right-wing vote, if given to the Tories, would have changed the outcome in 25 seats. The result would have been a Labour majority of merely 25 – a majority only Gordon Brown could have managed.
The Dish 