It would be foolish to pretend that in the wake of the announcement of the departure of Thomas J. Reese, S.J., as editor in chief of America, the past weeks have not been turbulent ones for the editors and staff, for many of our readers and for others as well who are concerned about the Catholic Church. The story of the last few years of the magazine, which has been told with varying degrees of accuracy in the media, has prompted much discussion among Catholics across the country. And discussion is always good for the life of the church.
At the same time, some of these voices evince a sense of creeping despair about the present state of affairs. Certainly there are causes for serious concern: the sexual abuse crisis that rocked the church in the United States, the dramatic decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and the shuttering of parishes and schools in almost every American diocese. All these have caused immense sadness among the faithful. Perhaps not surprisingly, a note of doom and gloom has increasingly crept into conversations about the future of the church, especially in the United States.
But the tendency to think the worst about the future must be resisted at all costs. Throughout the church’s history, some of its greatest saints have spoken of the need for hope and the absolute impossibility of Christian despair. In his Spiritual Exercises St. Ignatius Loyola reminds the retreatant that it is characteristic of the Spirit of God to build up, to console and to give hope even in the darkest and most confusing of times. Conversely, what St. Ignatius calls the enemy is known to cause gnawing anxiety, to sadden and to set up obstacles. The thoughtful Christian, counsels St. Ignatius, seeks not only to understand the workings of this enemy, but also to work against the temptation to follow the path leading to despair.
Discouragement may be a natural human emotion in the face of difficulties, but despair is rightly seen by the great spiritual writers as the antithesis of the Christian message. In 1961 Thomas Merton wrote in his book New Seeds of Contemplation that despair is, ultimately, a form of pride that chooses misery instead of accepting the mysterious designs of God’s plans and acknowledging that we are not capable of fulfilling our destinies by ourselves. Despair places our own limited perspective above God’s.
The next year, Pope John XXIII addressed the question of widespread discouragement, in both the secular and religious spheres, in his opening address to the Second Vatican Council. In the daily exercise of our pastoral office, he told the council fathers, we sometimes have to listen, much to our regret, to voices of persons who, though burning with zeal, are not endowed with too much sense of discretion or measure. In these modern times they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin.
John considers this line of thought and rejects it: We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster.... He asks Christians to trust firmly in God and issues a call that is difficult to accept. Nevertheless, it lies at the heart of our faith: Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations, which by men’s own efforts and even beyond their very expectations, are directed towards the fulfillment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs.
And everything, said John, even human differences, leads to the greater good of the church.
But the message of Christian hope is based on more than simple reliance on quotations from even the holiest of men and women. For the Christian believes not so much in quotations, or in elegant turns of phrase or in theological propositions, as in a person: Jesus Christ, the ultimate message of hope.
We had hoped, the disciples on the way to Emmaus tell the man they do not recognize as the risen Christ. We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel, they say in the Gospel of Luke. Are there any sadder words in the New Testament? The disciples have placed their trust in the one they thought would deliver them from bondage, the one they thought was their Lord, the one they thought was the answer. Now their great project seems to have come to an abrupt and painful end.
But the risen Christ is already with them. On the road to Emmaus, he consoles his friends not only with an explanation of the past but also with hope for their futurea future in which he has promised to be with them.
Even in confusing times, the Christian trusts that, as St. Paul says, All things work together for good for those who love God. And in this thought we take counsel from holy men and women in our midst, from the saints and martyrs in centuries past, from ecumenical councils throughout the ages and, most importantly, from the one who promises to be with us until the end of time.
What is the point of this magazine if it fails to explain fully the different points of view shared by Catholics? What is the point if it fails to challenge the faithful with ideas that are not held by the Magesterium?
I can get the Pope's point of view in many publications and from the pulpit. America has offered views that come from thoughtful, inteligent, prophetic, and inspired individuals who surely speak for the Holy Spirit even when they speak with a different voice.
I am not canceling my subscription yet. I am hoping that America can continue to find a way to challenge me to be faithful by showing me the wisdom of our Church as it stands up to those who would challenge such wisdom. And I am hopeful that where I accept such alternate views, I do so with a complete understanding of its source, its logic, and its compatability with an understanding of a Church that truly reflects the vision of Christ.
If America can no longer meet this challenge, I will find other sources that are faithful to the people of the Church and not just the Magisterium.
Your counsel against despair is appreciated but I am one reader who would appreciate transparency above all.
Is Catherine Pepinster's job, as lay editor of The Tablet, safer than if she were a member of a religious order? Fr. Larry N. Lorenzoni, S.D.B. 1100 Franklin Street San Francisco, CA 94109 Phone: 39 339 690-5041 (Cellular, Italy) e-mail: lorenzoni@aol.com
Were not our hearts burning within us? I was craving the message in your editorial. It surpassed all of the others. The apt allusion to the disciples on the road to Emmaus touched and encouraged me. I was grateful all over again for my own Jesuit education, for the urge to find God in all things, and for being reminded of the good news that in our darkest times, the risen Christ is walking with us and speaking to us.
Thank you, Fr. Reese, for your courage and grace, which fill me with hope. Fr. Christiansen, keep up the good work.
In “Ten Helpful Distinctions” in the Oct. 14, 1995 issue, Father Robert P. Maloney, C.M., points out that the hierarchy is one ministry among others in the church, albeit it a very basic one. He then goes on to say:
“The life of the Church throbs in the hearts of all believers, especially in the most humble, the most abandoned, the poor. Saint Vincent de Paul used to say: ‘The poor have the true religion.’ It is important, while giving the hierarchy its due place, not to exaggerate its role. Basically, it serves the Church. At times when there are tensions between some Church members and the hierarchy or scandals within the hierarchy itself, it is useful to note that the Church is thriving at its roots in the lives of the poor.”
Father Reese would have us focus on the poor too. His “2001 and Beyond: Preparing the Church for the Next Millennium,” in the June 21-28, 1997 issue, discussed Christian witness as a fifth strategy of church reform. Father Reese said then:
“While others worried about church politics, church structure and church documents, these two women [i.e., Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa] and millions of other Catholics simply lived the Gospel by working or volunteering for programs aimed at helping the poor and making the world a better place. They witnessed to the Gospel in the world with their time, energy and money. Their witness is so loud and so clear that they remind the rest of us of what really matters.”
It said that Father Henri de Lubac, S.J., (later a Cardinal) wrote The Splendor of the Church soon after the Vatican came down hard on him and his writings. A shining light capable of leading to Christ still arises above all, as Benedict XVI himself affirmed last May 9, from simple human beings.
We are deeply disappointed by the action of the Jesuits. We had thought better of them.
Jim and Mary Ellen Schroeder
This is the first time I have sent a letter to any editor. I was strongly moved and encouraged by your editorial. It gave me great hope for myself, the church and the world. The quotes from St. Ignatius, Thomas Merton and Blessed John XXIII plus the comments about not dispairing and trusting that Christ has better plans for us than we do was exactly what I needed to hear when I heard it. The good news is the article reminded me that I too get to trust Christ regardless of my circumstances. We all get to trust God regardless of what we think our circumstances are. It was a message I sorely to needed to hear. I want to thank you for bringing it to me.
On a very personal note, I was pleased that you quoted both St. Ignatius of Loyola and Thomas Merton in the same article. I am very willing to listen to both of these gentlemen. I am a Benedictine oblate and I went to Jesuit schools for eleven years.
God bless Father Reese and Father Christiansen and the new work the Lord has planned for them to do.
Pax, Michael Miller
Most of the Catholics that I know, love their faith and do not have any desire to change doctrine. However, church leaders, and practices that enable the most vile preditors to cause immeasurable harm to the innocent - changing their lives forever-must be met with the most harsh form of punishment there is.
Our church does not resemble the faith taught to us by Jesus Christ; many in our leadership resemble the people whom Jesus railed against when He walked this earth. How does one bring about change in an organization where one has no voice? We are not raising our voices because no one will listen.
I know it only increases my fears about this new pontificate. It is too predictable. I'll remain a subscriber to America. Fr. Reese was an excellent editor in a line of excellent editors. I have full confidence in Fr. Christiansen. But I have no confidence in the present hierarchy.
Dear Editor:
On one level, the brouhaha surrounding the recent resignation/removal of Father Thomas Reese S.J. as the editor of the national Jesuit weekly America provides a kind of publicity for this publication, and by extension for all Jesuit ministries and enterprises, that money just can't buy. The Jesuits have persevered in maintianing an essential modicum of intellectual inquiry and spiritual integrity in confronting the manifold challenges of living one's faith in the contemporary post-modern world, largely with great aplomb, and this is reflected in all their pastoral and educational ministries. They have not always succeeded, but at their best they have been faithful to the demand of "magis", or great heartedness, that charism at the very core of Ignatius' vision. This is consistently demonstrated no place better than in the pages of America Magazine.
On a quite different level, this act, so early in the pontificate of Benedict XVI, has been a "shot heard round the world". But, like that message that the British attempted to send on the "green" at Lexington, it may not result in the kind of "lesson" for its intended recipients in the ultimate reception that it is accorded by the "post clerical sex-abuse scandal, post-Vatican II, American Catholic Church -- now peopled, in depth, by many intelligent, no non-sense laity. When the proximate target of such a lesson is a "mild mannered", insightful, caring and courageous, but judicious correspondent like Tom Reese S.J., then people do more than shake their heads in wonder. This event has sounded a tocsin and become the prophetic warning shot that sadly signals an early end to the "papal honeymoon". I believe that those who fired this shot have grossly miscalculated the temperament and sensibilities of the Laity, who now are essential to running many of the institutions -- charitable, educational, social welfare, and even those more overtly spiritual and apostolic -- within the American Church. These good hearted folk have now been awakened and sobered. The world over the past century has seen what an awakened and sobered America is capable of, and this is no less true of the American Catholic Church. People so warned know that it is time to keep their powder dry, while they go about proclaiming the kingdom of God as best as they can, " bringing good news to the poor, sight to the blind, binding up the wounded" and transforming many unjust arrangements and institutions in our broken world.
Tom Reese's own faith is a model for us all...and even if his Jesuit brothers cannot come out directly and say so...one only need point to his thoughtful fidelity,quiet intelligence and spiritual integrity that was always so evident and rooted in all of his reports and public appearances from Rome during the papal transition. I for one am voting with my wallet. I finally broke down and subscribed to America myself, instead of reading the "dog eared" copy in the library, as just one simple way to affirm what Tom Reese and America magazine stand for. There are others who will not see my wallet open up so easily. Now at least and at last we are psychologically prepared and steadied. No time for "sunshine soldiers". In the words of the Apostle Paul -- who also enjoyed a challenging and at times confrontational relationship with Peter-- "For freedom Christ has set us free, stand fast therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Gal 5:1). May we all keep that faith!
With warm regards and greatest respect. -- Joe Muriana
Peace to you. With gratitude and prayer.
Gerald B. Kinneavy, Ph.D. Neskowin, OR
I assume that the current political or cultural scene can be criticized with impunity (more articles on the evils of abortion) but when it comes to the actions of the church and matters of its theological stance, the only opinion that can be published is that the current administration of the church is doing a splendid job and no changes of any kind should even be considered.
This is not good.
That might tbe the advice we should get from Fr. Reese and America, for surely the curial and hierarchical action was meant to signal a tightening of the levers of power over Church discourse.
The crudeness of the action would be laughable if not that it was so sad. That(probably a few) bishops were able to bring about this outcomwe shows how devoid of insight they were in regard to the influence of Fr.Reese; the behaviour of their colleagues who stood by and allowed this process to proced in secrecy can only be charitablky described as cowardly,
If leadership thinks this action will reduce serious discussion of Church issues to party line apologetics, they are greivously mistaken.
When our children were baptized, my wife and I vowed as parents to be their first teachers in faith. Our children – as teenagers – now sober us with their questions as well as with their answers: my 12 year-old son (who has never heard of Thomas Reese, S.J. or of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) recently asked me: “Are the Jesuits separate from the Roman Catholic Church?”; some days later, he told me: “I like being a Catholic . . . after all, Jesus is the Messiah.”
The children of our Christian community stand before us now as the “future church”, and literally so. As their elders, we now stand challenged with a critical task: to nurture them in the teachings that draw us together as one family in faith, and – at the same time – to encourage them to ask questions about matters that drive us to bicker as one family in faith. Thus we would prepare them to make a mature informed choice concerning the future of their Christian community in a post-Christian world.
I assume that the current political or cultural scene can be criticized with impunity (more articles on the evils of abortion) but when it comes to the actions of the church and matters of its theological stance, the only opinion that can be published is that the current administration of the church is doing a splendid job and no changes of any kind should even be considered.
This is not good.
That might tbe the advice we should get from Fr. Reese and America, for surely the curial and hierarchical action was meant to signal a tightening of the levers of power over Church discourse.
The crudeness of the action would be laughable if not that it was so sad. That(probably a few) bishops were able to bring about this outcomwe shows how devoid of insight they were in regard to the influence of Fr.Reese; the behaviour of their colleagues who stood by and allowed this process to proced in secrecy can only be charitablky described as cowardly,
If leadership thinks this action will reduce serious discussion of Church issues to party line apologetics, they are greivously mistaken.
When our children were baptized, my wife and I vowed as parents to be their first teachers in faith. Our children – as teenagers – now sober us with their questions as well as with their answers: my 12 year-old son (who has never heard of Thomas Reese, S.J. or of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) recently asked me: “Are the Jesuits separate from the Roman Catholic Church?”; some days later, he told me: “I like being a Catholic . . . after all, Jesus is the Messiah.”
The children of our Christian community stand before us now as the “future church”, and literally so. As their elders, we now stand challenged with a critical task: to nurture them in the teachings that draw us together as one family in faith, and – at the same time – to encourage them to ask questions about matters that drive us to bicker as one family in faith. Thus we would prepare them to make a mature informed choice concerning the future of their Christian community in a post-Christian world.
What is the point of this magazine if it fails to explain fully the different points of view shared by Catholics? What is the point if it fails to challenge the faithful with ideas that are not held by the Magesterium?
I can get the Pope's point of view in many publications and from the pulpit. America has offered views that come from thoughtful, inteligent, prophetic, and inspired individuals who surely speak for the Holy Spirit even when they speak with a different voice.
I am not canceling my subscription yet. I am hoping that America can continue to find a way to challenge me to be faithful by showing me the wisdom of our Church as it stands up to those who would challenge such wisdom. And I am hopeful that where I accept such alternate views, I do so with a complete understanding of its source, its logic, and its compatability with an understanding of a Church that truly reflects the vision of Christ.
If America can no longer meet this challenge, I will find other sources that are faithful to the people of the Church and not just the Magisterium.
Your counsel against despair is appreciated but I am one reader who would appreciate transparency above all.
Is Catherine Pepinster's job, as lay editor of The Tablet, safer than if she were a member of a religious order? Fr. Larry N. Lorenzoni, S.D.B. 1100 Franklin Street San Francisco, CA 94109 Phone: 39 339 690-5041 (Cellular, Italy) e-mail: lorenzoni@aol.com
Were not our hearts burning within us? I was craving the message in your editorial. It surpassed all of the others. The apt allusion to the disciples on the road to Emmaus touched and encouraged me. I was grateful all over again for my own Jesuit education, for the urge to find God in all things, and for being reminded of the good news that in our darkest times, the risen Christ is walking with us and speaking to us.
Thank you, Fr. Reese, for your courage and grace, which fill me with hope. Fr. Christiansen, keep up the good work.
In “Ten Helpful Distinctions” in the Oct. 14, 1995 issue, Father Robert P. Maloney, C.M., points out that the hierarchy is one ministry among others in the church, albeit it a very basic one. He then goes on to say:
“The life of the Church throbs in the hearts of all believers, especially in the most humble, the most abandoned, the poor. Saint Vincent de Paul used to say: ‘The poor have the true religion.’ It is important, while giving the hierarchy its due place, not to exaggerate its role. Basically, it serves the Church. At times when there are tensions between some Church members and the hierarchy or scandals within the hierarchy itself, it is useful to note that the Church is thriving at its roots in the lives of the poor.”
Father Reese would have us focus on the poor too. His “2001 and Beyond: Preparing the Church for the Next Millennium,” in the June 21-28, 1997 issue, discussed Christian witness as a fifth strategy of church reform. Father Reese said then:
“While others worried about church politics, church structure and church documents, these two women [i.e., Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa] and millions of other Catholics simply lived the Gospel by working or volunteering for programs aimed at helping the poor and making the world a better place. They witnessed to the Gospel in the world with their time, energy and money. Their witness is so loud and so clear that they remind the rest of us of what really matters.”
It said that Father Henri de Lubac, S.J., (later a Cardinal) wrote The Splendor of the Church soon after the Vatican came down hard on him and his writings. A shining light capable of leading to Christ still arises above all, as Benedict XVI himself affirmed last May 9, from simple human beings.
We are deeply disappointed by the action of the Jesuits. We had thought better of them.
Jim and Mary Ellen Schroeder
This is the first time I have sent a letter to any editor. I was strongly moved and encouraged by your editorial. It gave me great hope for myself, the church and the world. The quotes from St. Ignatius, Thomas Merton and Blessed John XXIII plus the comments about not dispairing and trusting that Christ has better plans for us than we do was exactly what I needed to hear when I heard it. The good news is the article reminded me that I too get to trust Christ regardless of my circumstances. We all get to trust God regardless of what we think our circumstances are. It was a message I sorely to needed to hear. I want to thank you for bringing it to me.
On a very personal note, I was pleased that you quoted both St. Ignatius of Loyola and Thomas Merton in the same article. I am very willing to listen to both of these gentlemen. I am a Benedictine oblate and I went to Jesuit schools for eleven years.
God bless Father Reese and Father Christiansen and the new work the Lord has planned for them to do.
Pax, Michael Miller
Most of the Catholics that I know, love their faith and do not have any desire to change doctrine. However, church leaders, and practices that enable the most vile preditors to cause immeasurable harm to the innocent - changing their lives forever-must be met with the most harsh form of punishment there is.
Our church does not resemble the faith taught to us by Jesus Christ; many in our leadership resemble the people whom Jesus railed against when He walked this earth. How does one bring about change in an organization where one has no voice? We are not raising our voices because no one will listen.
I know it only increases my fears about this new pontificate. It is too predictable. I'll remain a subscriber to America. Fr. Reese was an excellent editor in a line of excellent editors. I have full confidence in Fr. Christiansen. But I have no confidence in the present hierarchy.
Dear Editor:
On one level, the brouhaha surrounding the recent resignation/removal of Father Thomas Reese S.J. as the editor of the national Jesuit weekly America provides a kind of publicity for this publication, and by extension for all Jesuit ministries and enterprises, that money just can't buy. The Jesuits have persevered in maintianing an essential modicum of intellectual inquiry and spiritual integrity in confronting the manifold challenges of living one's faith in the contemporary post-modern world, largely with great aplomb, and this is reflected in all their pastoral and educational ministries. They have not always succeeded, but at their best they have been faithful to the demand of "magis", or great heartedness, that charism at the very core of Ignatius' vision. This is consistently demonstrated no place better than in the pages of America Magazine.
On a quite different level, this act, so early in the pontificate of Benedict XVI, has been a "shot heard round the world". But, like that message that the British attempted to send on the "green" at Lexington, it may not result in the kind of "lesson" for its intended recipients in the ultimate reception that it is accorded by the "post clerical sex-abuse scandal, post-Vatican II, American Catholic Church -- now peopled, in depth, by many intelligent, no non-sense laity. When the proximate target of such a lesson is a "mild mannered", insightful, caring and courageous, but judicious correspondent like Tom Reese S.J., then people do more than shake their heads in wonder. This event has sounded a tocsin and become the prophetic warning shot that sadly signals an early end to the "papal honeymoon". I believe that those who fired this shot have grossly miscalculated the temperament and sensibilities of the Laity, who now are essential to running many of the institutions -- charitable, educational, social welfare, and even those more overtly spiritual and apostolic -- within the American Church. These good hearted folk have now been awakened and sobered. The world over the past century has seen what an awakened and sobered America is capable of, and this is no less true of the American Catholic Church. People so warned know that it is time to keep their powder dry, while they go about proclaiming the kingdom of God as best as they can, " bringing good news to the poor, sight to the blind, binding up the wounded" and transforming many unjust arrangements and institutions in our broken world.
Tom Reese's own faith is a model for us all...and even if his Jesuit brothers cannot come out directly and say so...one only need point to his thoughtful fidelity,quiet intelligence and spiritual integrity that was always so evident and rooted in all of his reports and public appearances from Rome during the papal transition. I for one am voting with my wallet. I finally broke down and subscribed to America myself, instead of reading the "dog eared" copy in the library, as just one simple way to affirm what Tom Reese and America magazine stand for. There are others who will not see my wallet open up so easily. Now at least and at last we are psychologically prepared and steadied. No time for "sunshine soldiers". In the words of the Apostle Paul -- who also enjoyed a challenging and at times confrontational relationship with Peter-- "For freedom Christ has set us free, stand fast therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Gal 5:1). May we all keep that faith!
With warm regards and greatest respect. -- Joe Muriana
Peace to you. With gratitude and prayer.
Gerald B. Kinneavy, Ph.D. Neskowin, OR