"America's  Loss"

The recent dismissal of Jesuit Fr. Tom Reese from America magazine follows pretty quickly on the heels of Fr. Roger Haight’s “discipline,” both of these actions imposed directly by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during and immediately after the long tenure of Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. What are we to make of what appear to be “early warning signs” in this new papacy?

Not much, some might say. After all, silencings, book bannings and excommunications are old news. What has happened to Frs. Haight and Reese seems to be “more of the same” on the slippery slope journey begun many centuries ago when Catholics did more accepting and the Vatican did more controlling. A majority of American Catholics today simply ignore non-doctrinal Church teachings that don’t make sense – in other words, certain teachings fly in the face of the “sensus fidelium.” Meanwhile, the Vatican continues to issue disciplines, reward its favorite sons, maintain a divide between the ordained and non-ordained, and generally move through time with impunity all the while dropping sound bites about a “smaller, tighter” Church. This is pretty much the ride that silence offers – non-stop all the way to sexual abuse by clergy.

On the other hand, one cannot ignore the new “kids on the block” who have a passion for the Church of our Brother equal to any in Church leadership. Here we have another “early warning sign.” Voice of the Faithful and other Catholic reform groups are increasingly vocal in pointing out the obvious – all that hierarchical glitter isn’t gold at all. Until the abuse crisis and its cover up were made public, Catholics had been snookered by the pomp and the holy politics of distance. The distance, however great it remains, isn’t what it used to be. We can thank the Americas of our time for helping the laity, and indeed many clergy, to bridge much that has divided us from each other as well as from Church leaders. Whether we agree with the Church or not on the many issues around which there has been no genuine dialogue, we must speak with each other. When that fails, we must at least have each other within hearing.

In America magazine, Tom Reese honored voices from both sides of an argument. To do less is beneath all of us. It will be interesting to see what other Catholic editors will have to say on the subject of silencings in our Church. It will be more interesting to see what the rest of us have to say – and where we will say it.

Somewhere between the routine of silencings and “disciplines” by the Vatican and the noise of closing parish doors across the US lies the future of the American Catholic Church. That future rests on the company we want to keep, including what we read.

What do you think? Write to pthorp.ed@votf.org. PLT