Dark Ages

Cross posted at Political Arguments.

I wanted to blog about this when it happened, but the opportunity passed me by. On May 6 Thomas J. Reese, S.J., the editor in chief of America magazine, was forced to resign by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The ouster is seen as a warning shot to other liberal Catholic publications and universities. Most notable among these is Commonweal, which—perhaps sensing that its fate is already sealed—has published a sharp and courageous critique of Reese's dismissal.

It is hard to judge what is more appalling, the flimsy case made by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF)—apparently at the instigation of some American bishops—against Reese's orthodoxy and stewardship of America, or the senselessness of silencing perhaps the most visible, and certainly one of the most knowledgeable, fair-minded, and intelligent public voices the church has in this country.
...
For those who had hoped that the pastoral challenges of his new office might broaden Benedict's sympathies, this is a time of indignation, disappointment, and increased apprehension. For those who know Reese and his work, the injustice of the CDF's action is transparent. No intellectually honest person could possibly claim that Reese's America has been in the business of undermining church teaching. If the moderate views expressed in America, views widely shared by the vast majority of lay Catholics, are judged suspect by the CDF, how is the average Catholic to assess his or her own relationship to the church?
...
Those calling for the strict regulation of Catholic discourse argue that public dissent from church doctrine creates scandal, confusing or misleading the "simple faithful." What really gives scandal to people in the pews, however, is the arbitrary and self-serving exercise of ecclesiastical authority. What the CDF has done to Thomas Reese and America is the scandal. Is it possible that not one bishop has the courage to say so? That too is a scandal.

Thomas J. Reese is Jesuit and a scholar—he was ordained in 1974, the same year that he earned a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. His studies of the Roman Catholic Church's organization and hierarchy are highly regarded. Reese is also something of an expert on tax reform.

This is precisely the kind of scholar that the Jesuit order attracts: brilliant, engaged, well-versed in matters theological and secular. It's what's propelled the Society of Jesus to be the largest order in the Roman Catholic Church, even after enduring a forty-year suppression. It's the greatest promise for the emergence of a serious Catholic contribution to current dialogues in philosophy and social thought.

Ultimately, that is why non- (and lapsed-) Catholics should take interest in the suppression of opinions by Ratzinger's new Inquisition. What is the alternative? A Church that cannot produce arguments, but only apologetics? A "leaner, smaller, purer Church"—so lean it starves for knowledge, so small it goes unnoticed by the world, so pure it doesn't care?