Vatican ousts critic

last updated 8 January 2015

New York

The Vatican last week forced the editor of one of the top Roman Catholic publications in the United States to resign. The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit who had edited the weekly magazine America for seven years, published articles that clashed with church teachings on homosexuality and abortion. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—now Pope Benedict XVI—reportedly ordered the ouster himself in mid-March, when he was serving as the late Pope John Paul II’s chief watchdog on Catholic doctrine. Stephen Pope, a Boston College theologian, said the news would have a “chilling effect” on moderate and liberal voices in the Catholic church.