 |
Thomas J. Reese, SJ (born 1945) is an American Catholic Jesuit priest, author, and journalist. He is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter , and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America .
He was an associate editor of America from 1978 to 1985, where he wrote about a variety of topics including public policy, politics, the American Catholic bishops, and dance. [1]
He was a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center from 1985 to 1998, where he wrote a trilogy on the politics and organization of the Catholic Church. [2]
He was also a visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars from 1994 to 1995
He returned to America as editor-in-chief from 1998 to 2005. During his tenure as editor, the magazine supported the consistent ethic of life [3] as espoused by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, supported the social justice teachings of the church, opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, [4] reported on Catholic Church sexual abuse cases, [5] and encouraged discussion of issues facing the church.
While he was editor, the magazine won awards from the Catholic Press Association. [6]
As editor of a journal of opinion, he published a variety of authors, some critical of Vatican positions. [7] He was forced by the Vatican to resign from America in 2005. [8] [9] [10]
He subsequently spent a sabbatical year at Santa Clara University, where he continued to contribute during the summers of 2010 to 2020 as a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. [11]
In 2006 he returned as a fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, D.C. Reese wrote for the National Catholic Reporter from 2013 to 2017, and was senior analyst there. [12] In 2017, he became senior analyst at Religion News Service. [13] He was appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2014 and in 2016 was elected chair of the commission. [14] His term as commissioner expired at the end of May 2018.
As a high school student and young seminarian, Reese was a Goldwater Republican, and when he entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1962, he was comfortable with the Catholic Church of the 1950's in which he was raised. His political science training and his disillusionment with the Vietnam War made him more politically progressive. The Second Vatican Council made him more theologically progressive with a greater understanding of the liturgy, the role of the church in the world, social justice, ecumenism and interreligious relations. [15]
In 2018, he argued that the anti-abortion movement "should strongly support programs that give women a real choice — increasing the minimum wage, free or affordable day care for working and student moms, free or affordable health care for mothers and their children, parental leave programs, education and job-training programs, income and food supplements, etc." It "also has to support birth control as a means of avoiding unwanted pregnancies" as a "lesser of two evils" in reducing the number of abortions. [16]
He also argued that the prohibition of artificial contraception in Humanae vitae was a 'mistake' and that a majority of American Catholics ignore it. He said that arguing that contraception led "to conjugal infidelity, disrespect for women, gender confusion, and gay marriage" is "an insult to all the good people who have used contraceptives at some point in their lives." [17] Cardinal Timothy Dolan expressed his "serious reservations" to Reese's proposed strategy, "considering it a capitulation to the abortion culture, and a grave weakening of the powerful pro-life witness." [18]
In a 2021 column, Reese outlined several liturgical reforms he would like to see, and criticized the Tridentine Mass as well as Pope Benedict's 2007 document Summorum Pontificum which gave priest the option to celebrate the Latin Mass without their bishop's permission. Reese said that the authority over the use of the Tridentine Mass should be returned to the bishops in their dioceses. "The church needs to be clear that it wants the unreformed liturgy to disappear and will only allow it out of pastoral kindness to older people who do not understand the need for change," he wrote. "Children and young people should not be allowed to attend such Masses." [19] The article drew strong backlash from Traditionalist Catholics, who said that Reese was being hypocritical and encouraging authoritarianism to deal with people he disagrees with. [20] [21]
On NCR, Reese has asserted that climate change is the "No. 1 pro-life issue" facing the Catholic Church today. [22]
John Courtney Murray was an American Jesuit priest and theologian who was especially known for his efforts to reconcile Catholicism and religious pluralism and particularly focused on the relationship between religious freedom and the institutions of a democratically-structured modern state.
The National Catholic Reporter (NCR) is a progressive national newspaper in the United States that reports on issues related to the Catholic Church. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, NCR was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964. Hoyt wanted to bring the professional standards of secular news reporting to the press that covers Catholic news, saying that "if the mayor of a city owned its only newspaper, its citizens will not learn what they need and deserve to know about its affairs". The publication, which operates outside the authority of the Catholic Church, is independently owned and governed by a lay board of directors.
Peter Hans Kolvenbach was a Dutch Jesuit priest and professor who was the 29th superior general of the Society of Jesus, the largest male Catholic religious order.
Catholics for Choice (CFC) is a dissenting Catholic group that advocates for abortion rights, based in Washington, D.C. Formed in 1973 as Catholics for a Free Choice, the group gained notice after its 1984 advertisement in The New York Times challenging Church teachings on abortion led to Church disciplinary pressure against some of the priests and nuns who signed it. It has lobbied nationally and internationally for abortion rights goals and led an unsuccessful effort to downgrade the Holy See's status in the United Nations. CFC was led for 25 years by Frances Kissling and is currently led by its President Jamie L. Manson.
Carlo Maria Martini was an Italian Jesuit, cardinal of the Catholic Church and a Biblical scholar. He was Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2004 and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983. A towering intellectual figure of the Roman Catholic Church, Martini was the liberal contender for the Papacy in the 2005 conclave, following the death of Pope John Paul II. According to highly placed Vatican sources, Martini received more votes in the first round than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the conservative candidate: 40 to 38. Ratzinger ended up with more votes in subsequent rounds and was elected Pope Benedict XVI.
America is a monthly Catholic magazine published by the Jesuits of the United States and headquartered in midtown Manhattan. It contains news and opinion about Catholicism and how it relates to American politics and cultural life. It has been published continuously since 1909, and is also available online.
Richard Peter McBrien was a Catholic priest, theologian, and writer, who was the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, U.S. He authored twenty-five books, including the very popular Catholicism, a reference text on the Church after the Second Vatican Council.
The Catholic Herald is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly magazine, founded in 1888 and a sister organisation to the non-profit Catholic Herald Institute, based in New York. After 126 years as a weekly newspaper, it became a magazine in 2014. In early 2023, a 50.1% controlling stake was purchased by New York based alternative asset firm GEM Global Yield LLC SCS (Luxembourg). It reports 565,000 online readers a month, along with 30,100 weekly registered newsletter subscribers and a print readership distributed in the US and UK, Roman Catholic parishes, wholesale outlets, the Vatican, Cardinals, Catholic influencers, and postal/digital subscribers.
James J. Martin is an American Jesuit Catholic priest, writer, and editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America and the founder of Outreach.
The Saint Ignatius Institute (SII) is an undergraduate program at the University of San Francisco (USF), a private university operated by the USA West Province of the Society of Jesus in San Francisco, California, United States.
Catholic News Service (CNS) is an American news agency owned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that reports on the Catholic Church.
The official teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992 oppose all forms of abortion procedures whose direct purpose is to destroy a zygote, blastocyst, embryo or fetus, since it holds that "human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life". However, the Church does recognize as morally legitimate certain acts which indirectly result in the death of the fetus, as when the direct purpose is removal of a cancerous womb. Canon 1397 §2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law imposes automatic excommunication on Latin Catholics who actually procure an abortion, if they fulfill the conditions for being subject to such a sanction. Eastern Catholics are not subject to automatic excommunication, but by canon 1450 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches they are to be excommunicated by decree if found guilty of the same action, and they may be absolved of the sin only by the eparchial bishop. In addition to teaching that abortion is immoral, the Catholic Church also generally makes public statements and takes actions in opposition to its legality.
Robert Walter McElroy is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as the sixth bishop of the Diocese of San Diego in California since 2015.
Agnes Mary Mansour was an American former Catholic nun, as well as a politician and public official. She is known for having been given a choice from the Vatican in 1983 to end her religious vows or to resign from her position as the director of the Michigan Department of Social Services, which required her to support and allocate public funding for abortions. The controversy involved her belief that abortion was tragic but should be legal, despite her vows as a religious and the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Because the Catholic Church opposes abortion as a matter of doctrine, some Catholic bishops have refused or threatened to refuse communion, or threatened to declare excommunication upon Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. In some cases, officials have stated that ministers should refuse communion to such politicians per canon 915 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law; elsewhere, that the politicians should, on their own, refrain from receiving communion ad normam canon 916; and in other cases, excommunication has been suggested.
The Catholic Church and abortion in the United States deals with the views and activities of the Catholic Church in the United States in relation to the abortion debate. The Catholic Church opposes abortion and has campaigned against abortion in the United States, both saying that it is immoral and making statements and taking actions in opposition to its classification as legal.
Elected on 13 March 2013, Francis is the first member of the Society of Jesus to be appointed pope and the first non-European to hold the office since the 8th century. He described his papal name as pointing to what he wants to emulate in Saint Francis of Assisi: to have a poor church, for the poor, always going out to the margins, and to show concern for the natural environment. His papal motto Miserando atque eligendo contains a central theme of his papacy, God's mercy, which has led to conflict with orthodox Catholics on issues such as reception of Communion by remarried Catholics. In addressing real life situations he often appeals directly to his experience, in continuity with his synodal way, which showed a renewed emphasis on listening and dialogue. He has placed greater emphasis on church synods and on widespread consultation and dialogue, uplifting the roles of laypersons and of women in the Catholic church and criticizing clericalism.
Joshua J. McElwee is an American journalist who is currently news editor for the independent newspaper and web publication National Catholic Reporter. His reporting, feature writing, and analysis have earned many awards from the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada and have been featured in a number of other outlets.
"Error has no rights" is a historical Catholic and traditionalist Catholic principle. It asserts that it is the responsibility of governments to suppress non-Catholic religions as they do not have a right to express publicly any religion outside of Catholicism which should be the only religion allowed by the State, but had the right to privately profess and practice any religion. Alternatively, it asserts that while non-Catholics had civil or political rights, there is no theological toleration for such religious beliefs. It was still the official position of the Catholic Church in the 1950s, and was repudiated or superseded in the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965 by Dignitatis humanae. It is also argued, based on the interpretation that the moral right to error is distinct from the legal right, that this principle was not superseded by Dignitatis Humanae.
Andrew Joseph Christiansen was an American Jesuit priest and author. He was Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Human Development at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service, a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and the former editor-in-chief of the Jesuit magazine America. His areas of research included nuclear disarmament, nonviolence and just peacemaking, Catholic social teaching, and ecumenical public advocacy.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
