Editor of Jesuit Magazine Leaving

VATICAN CITY - The editor of the Jesuit weekly America is leaving the magazine after the Vatican received complaints about articles he published on touchy issues such as same-sex marriages and stem cell research, Jesuit officials said Friday. ADVERTISEMENT

The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a widely respected expert on the Catholic Church and the Vatican who was editor for seven years, is being replaced by his deputy, the Rev. Drew Christiansen, the magazine said in a statement.

Jesuit officials in Rome and the United States, who spoke on condition they not be identified, said some American bishops had contacted the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about articles in the magazine over the years that had presented both sides of controversies over sensitive church issues.

The Vatican has had a sometimes tense relationship with the Jesuits, some of whose members in the past have questioned papal pronouncements on birth control, priestly celibacy and the ban on women priests.

The magazine had made a point of publishing broad points of view — including some that clashed with church teaching — irking some Catholics in the United States and Rome, the officials said.

Some of the hot-button issues included gay priests, stem-cell research, whether Catholic politicians can be denied communion if they support abortion rights, and same-sex unions.

The magazine also wrote about a Vatican document that outlined the idea that divine truth is most fully revealed in Christianity and the Catholic Church in particular.

The document "Dominus Iesus" was issued in 2000 by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith — the office that was headed by German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI last month.

Critics complained the document could set back Church efforts to reach out to other Christians and believers outside the Church.

Reese is based in New York where the magazine is edited. He was in Rome for the election of Benedict, who had enforced a hard line on church doctrine and silenced theologians who diverged from it in his 24 years as Pope John Paul II's orthodoxy watchdog.

While in Rome, Reese met with his superior who mentioned there had been complaints about a couple of articles, a Jesuit official in Rome said. The official said Reese had left Rome with the idea he would resign.

Any response to complaints from U.S. bishops or Vatican officials would be made by the Jesuit General in Rome, the Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, and the 11 Jesuit leaders in the United States.

In the statement from newly named editor Christiansen, he noted that under Reese, the magazine often gave two sides of the debate on sensitive church issues — and that made it more relevant.

"By inviting articles that covered different sides of disputed issues, Father Reese helped make America a forum for intelligent discussion of questions facing the church and the country today," Christiansen said.

When contacted Friday, Reese said only that his tenure ends on June 1 and that he would move immediately to California and continue in his Jesuit ministry. He referred other comment to his news release.

He said he was "proud of what my colleagues and I did with the magazine, and I am grateful to them, our readers and our benefactors for the support they gave me. I look forward to taking a sabbatical while my provincial (regional boss) and I determine the next phase of my Jesuit ministry."

An official at the Jesuit headquarters in Washington, the Rev. Albert Diulio, said Reese and his provincial supervisor had reached the decision together, and noted that Jesuits tend to rotate jobs every six or seven years.

An official with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declined to comment on the matter. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said she had no information.

The Jesuit order founded by St. Ignatius Loyola in 1540 is renowned for its intellectual rigor and its excellent teachers, scholars and scientists. The Vatican has at times taken aim at its independence.

In the most recent publicized incident, John Paul named a temporary replacement to lead the order after the Rev. Pedro Arrupe suffered a crippling stroke in 1981, brushing aside Arrupe's choice for an interim leader in an unprecedented change-of-command.

Arrupe, who died in 1991, had pushed for the church to move for a more socially just world while remaining faithful to papal authority. But during his tenure, some Jesuits especially in the United States and the Netherlands challenged Vatican pronouncements on birth control, priestly celibacy and the ban on women priests.

Now they need to force National Catholic Reporter to stop calling itself "Catholic":

Posted Friday, May 6, 2005 at 4:15 p.m. CST

National Catholic Reporter has posted the following breaking news story on its Web site, NCRonline.org.

Editor of Jesuit's America magazine forced to resign under Vatican pressure

By Tom Roberts and John L. Allen, Jr.
Kansas City, Mo. and Rome

Jesuit Fr. Thomas J. Reese, editor for the past seven years of America magazine, a premier publication of Catholic thought and opinion, has resigned at the request of his order following years of pressure for his ouster from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The resignation caps five years of tensions and exchanges among the congregation, which was headed at the time by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, the Jesuits and Reese, according to sources close to the magazine who asked not to be identified.

A release from the magazine May 6, which did not mention the forced ouster, announced that the new editor is Jesuit Fr. Drew Christiansen, who has served as associate editor.

Ironically, Reese received the news that the Jesuits found the debate "unwinnable," according to one source, when he returned to the magazine's New York headquarters from Rome, where he had covered the conclave that elected Ratzinger as pope.

Contacted on background, a Vatican official said he could not discuss the case.

Over the course of a five-year exchange between the doctrinal congregation and the Jesuits, the Vatican congregation had raised objections to various editorial choices at America under Reese's leadership, including:

a.. An essay exploring moral arguments for the approval of condoms in the context of HIV/AIDS;

b.. Several critical analyses of the doctrinal congregation's September 2000 document Dominus Iesus, on religious pluralism;
c.. An editorial criticizing what America called a lack of due process in the congregation's procedures for the investigation of theologians;
d.. An essay about homosexual priests;
e.. A guest essay from U.S. Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, challenging suggestions that the church should refuse Communion to Catholic politicians who do not vote as a number of bishops believe they should vote.

In every instance, however, the pieces represented just a portion of coverage of the subject in America, which always published opposing points of view.

According to one source, the communication about Reese's fate was carried on between the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the superior general of the Jesuits, Dutch Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, with the content then relayed to Reese's Jesuit superiors in the United States. Although critics of Reese both in the United States and Rome have occasionally accused him of an anti-hierarchical mentality, supporters noted in their responses to the congregation that over his seven years as editor, America routinely published weighty pieces by prominent members of the hierarchy, at one stage including Ratzinger himself.

In February 2002, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith proposed creating a three-member commission of censors for the magazine, though the idea was never implemented. According to sources, the congregation told the Jesuits that the action was in response to concern from bishops in the United States.

Sources said no bishops were identified by name and that Reese was never directly contacted. According to a source close to the magazine, Jesuit superiors said some bishops were upset that Reese often commented on church matters for general media and that such commentary should be solely the province of bishops.

Reese often made himself available to media during the bishops' meetings and other special church events to explain aspects of church life and the intricacies of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is the author of three highly respected studies of the Catholic hierarchy: Archbishop, Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church;A Flock of Shepherds: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church.

The entire matter of his disciplining was handled "by chain of command, and the Jesuits were able to hold off for five years, but in the end, saw it as unwinnable. It was either Reese goes or they would appoint a board of censors," said one source.

America, though clearly left-leaning in some of its editorial stances, was widely viewed as a moderate publication that gave vent to a wide spectrum of views. Among its contributors were top theologians, a number of bishops, and, in one instance, Ratzinger himself in an article published in dialogue with Cardinal Walter Kasper, another German cardinal. Over the years, the magazine has also published dozens of articles by noted conservative Cardinal Avery Dulles.

Though pressure for Reese's ouster clearly came from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to what degree Ratzinger was personally involved in the decision is not known.

In the May 6 release, Reese said, "I am proud of what my colleagues and I did with the magazine, and I am grateful to them, our readers and our benefactors for the support they gave me. I look forward to taking a sabbatical while my provincial and I determine the next phase of my Jesuit ministry."

Christiansen, an accomplished educator, writer and editor, previously was a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. He was director of the Office of International Justice and Peace for the United States Catholic Conference from 1991 to 1998 and served as counselor for international affairs for the bishops until December 2004.

"I know I am speaking for all the editors in saying that we are sorry to see Tom go," said Christiansen in the May 6 release. "Fr. Reese greatly improved the magazine, adding news coverage, color and the Web edition. . By inviting articles that covered different sides of disputed issues, Fr. Reese helped make America a forum for intelligent discussion of questions facing the church and the country today."

The coolest Holy Mass I saw on EWTN from the Vatican was the Maronite Holy Mass.

Even my Prebyterian hubby was enthralled by the Aramaic!

Ukrainian Cardinal Lubomyr Husar (L), Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir (C), and Syrian Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud attend a mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City April 14, 2005.

The Eastern Catholic Churches assembled to celebrate their Novendiales Mass on April 14, 2005. The chief celebrant was Mar Nasrallah Peter Cardinal Sfeir, Patriarch of the Maronite Church. For those of us who attend the Maronite Divine Liturgy, to watch it 'LIVE' from the Vatican, was awesome. In keeping with post VCII norms, the liturgy was celebrated in the vernacular ... in this instance, the vernacular was Arabic. However, the Trisagion, Institution Narrative (Consecration) and Epiclesis retained the original Aramaic text - the words spoken by our Lord, in His native tongue, at the Last Supper. The Maronite choir was flown in from Lebanon, equipped with authentic Middle Eastern instruments. You may have noticed that the choir was composed of religious - seminarians and those already ordained.

Here in the US, the same liturgy is chanted in English with those same sacred elements in Aramaic. If you are ever afforded the opportunity to attend a Maronite Divine Liturgy (or any other Eastern Catholic liturgy), take full advantage of it. The Maronite liturgy is one of the oldest in the Catholic Church, dating back to when St. Peter first brought the good news to Antioch. Many of the oldest Maronite Churches are built over the foundations of Jewish synagogues and to this day, the contemporary churches retain certain elements of the ancient synagogue designs in their construction.

In the Maronite liturgy, communion is by intinction and on the tongue. ONLY the priest or bishop, dips the consecrated host into the Precious Blood and places it on the tongue of the communicant with the words "The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is given to you for the remission of sin and eternal salvation". There are NO Eucharistic Ministers or communion in the hand in the Maronite liturgy. A Roman Catholic may attend an Eastern Catholic liturgy and satisfy their Sunday obligation.

Check your local community at the following link and look into attending an Eastern Catholic Liturgy (not to be confused with the Orthodox Church).

Eastern Catholic Churches in the U.S.

The Eastern Catholic Rites retain the rich heritage of our church, without the "novelties" introduced into the Novus Ordo liturgy. Incense is used throughout.

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