Orlando, Fla., May 26, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Speaking to a joint meeting of Catholic communicators in Florida this week, Archbishop John Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said in a speech that ousted ‘America’ magazine editor, Fr. Thomas Reese, should have better represented Catholic teaching during his time with the Jesuit-run journal.
The Archbishop, who shared a podium with Fr. Reese during the three-day long meeting of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada and the Catholic Academy of Communications Arts Professionals, said that the cleric’s participation in the event was planned before the recent ‘America’ scandal.
He said that while he believes Fr. Reese to be a “fine gentleman” and a “fine priest”… “I generally find myself in agreement with a recent editorial in Our Sunday Visitor and with Russell Shaw's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal that a priest-editor, who in some way is expected to represent the magisterium of the Church, cannot appear to give equal weight in a publication sponsored by a religious community to articles which present the teaching of the Church and articles which dissent from it.”
Fr. Reese’s resignation from the controversial weekly reportedly came at the request of his Jesuit order. Reese’s supporters such as the National Catholic Reporter have argued his departure has been the consequence of “pressure from Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, recently headed by now Pope Benedict XVI.