It looks as if this guy might be the first victim.

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U.S. Catholic editor quits, Vatican pressure seen

By Tom Heneghan, Religion EditorSat May 7, 8:38 AM ET

A leading Catholic commentator has resigned as editor of an influential
Jesuit magazine in the United States amid reports the Vatican doctrinal
department formerly run by Pope Benedict had demanded his ouster.

Father Thomas Reese announced his unexpected departure from America
magazine on Friday in a statement that named his successor and made no
comment on the reasons for the change.

The National Catholic Reporter, the U.S. weekly that broke the story
later on Friday, said the Vatican had objected to articles in the
magazine discussing condom use to prevent AIDS, homosexual priests and
secretive Church disciplinary measures.

Reese, 60, a frequent commentator on U.S. television and author of
several authoritative books on how the Church operates, was not
immediately available for comment.

"The resignation caps five years of tensions and exchanges among the
Congregation (for the Doctrine of the Faith), which was headed at the
time by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, the Jesuits
and Reese," the National Catholic Reporter wrote, quoting unnamed
sources.

"Though pressure for Reese's ouster clearly came from the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, to what degree Ratzinger was personally
involved in the decision is not known."

The Congregation, the modern successor to the Inquisition, is the
Vatican's office to ensure doctrinal orthodoxy. It disciplined many
critical theologians under the firm leadership of Cardinal Ratzinger
from 1981 to 2005.

In recent years, articles in America have criticized the Congregation
for its secrecy and objected to some of its policy statements,
especially Dominus Iesus (Lord Jesus) in 2000 that said Protestant
denominations were not true churches.

But America regularly published opposing points of view, including by
Ratzinger and other conservative theologians.

"UNWINNABLE DISPUTE"

In an email announcing the appointment of associate editor Father Drew
Christiansen as America's new editor, Reese said he was "proud of what
my colleagues and I did with the magazine."

Christiansen wrote: "By inviting articles that covered different sides
of disputed issues, Father Reese helped make America a forum for
intelligent discussion of questions facing the Church and the country
today."

According to the National Catholic Reporter, Reese's Jesuit superiors
told him he had to quit after he returned to America's New York
headquarters from reporting on Benedict's election.

They felt the dispute with the Vatican, which wanted to appoint a board
of censors for the magazine if Reese did not resign, was "unwinnable,"
the weekly reported.

America takes a moderate line but Reese is outspoken on the need for the
2,000-year-old Church to keep up with the times. The new pope has
opposed many of the ideas he champions.

In an editorial last month, Reese argued the Vatican should share power
more with bishops around the world, consider scrapping mandatory
celibacy for priests and allow debate on the possibility of ordaining
women priests.

"There have been too many issues taken off the discussion table. This
has been very unhealthy for the Church," he argued in the editorial
published between Pope John Paul's death on April 2 and Ratzinger's
election 17 days later.

"By some estimates, over 100 theologians have been silenced or
reprimanded by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," he
wrote. "A church that cannot openly discuss issues is a church
retreating into an intellectual ghetto."

Christiansen, Reese's successor, is a leading U.S. Catholic expert on
theology, ethics and international affairs.



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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050507/ts_nm/religion_jesuit_dc