A conspicuous target of ex-Pope Cardinal Ratguts says, "It's fun to be Catholic again"

"It is clear to [Father Tom] Reese," writes Sally Quinn, "that Francis would not have been Benedict's choice to succeed him."


"I was running a journal of opinion and they only wanted one opinion. They wanted an echo chamber of what was coming out of the Vatican."

-- Father Tom Reese, quoted by Sally Quinn

by Ken

"I've got a very good feeling about this new Catholic Pope Francis I," Howie wrote on Saturday ("What Does Santorum Think Of The Pope Now?"), "and have since the day he was chosen to replace the Nazi Pope someone seems to have made resign."

When it comes to stuff like popes -- stuff that normally comes in various sizes and shapes but in only one flavor -- I'm more of a wait-and-see guy. I look at it this way: Nobody accused the College of Cardinals of being a conclave of MENSA guys, but they know which side their communion wafers are buttered on, and they certainly didn't intend to elect a Pope David Souter.

Well, Sally Quinn has found a fellow who's a pretty close observer of both tone and subtance as it comes out of the Vatican, and he doesn't have any doubt at all that this pope has already brought about an enormous, almost unimaginable change in the way the Church does its business. His name is Tom Reese, and he's a priest, who not that long ago was editor of a Jesuit magazine called America, until he ran afoul of none other than still-Cardinal Ratguts when he was still the previous monster-pope's right-hand hatchet man on matters of doctrine, meaning he was his point man in the all remaining elements of human decency from their Church. So successful was Ratguts at this purge of principle from the cult that he was promoted to succeed his master as monster-pope.

The crucial bullet point is in Sally's lead: ""Five years ago, I would have been afraid of saying anything like what the pope said in his [recent] interview. I'm ecstatic. I haven't been this hopeful about the church in decades." As she puts it a few grafs down, "It is clear to Reese that Francis would not have been Benedict's choice to succeed him."

I'm going to try to encourage you to read the whole piece, because I think you're going to enjoy making Father Tom's acquaintance. As was so often the case during the reign of terror of the monster-popes, the people the Church hierarchy should have been most proud of, should have made its public face to the Catholic and non-Catholic world, instead found themselves at the Monster-Pope Enemies List.

Pope Francis and the church's new attitude

Friday, September 27

"Five years ago, I would have been afraid of saying anything like what the pope said in his [recent] interview," says the Rev. Tom Reese. "I'm ecstatic. I haven't been this hopeful about the church in decades."

Father Reese had good reason to be afraid. One of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's last acts before becoming Pope Benedict XVI was to fire Reese, who was then editor in chief of the Jesuit magazine "America," which published the Pope Francis interview last week. Ratzinger fired Reese while Pope John Paul II was dying in 2005. It wasn't the editorials in "America" that riled Ratzinger. "I never had an editorial about abortion, women priests or gay marriage," he says. "That would have been touching the third rail. It was mostly a dialogue."

How things have changed. As it turns out, Reese was ahead of his time, espousing for years the views that Francis espouses. And he paid the price for it. Put another way, it is clear to Reese that Francis would not have been Benedict's choice to succeed him.

According to Reese, the Vatican had indicated its displeasure at "America" for five years before Reese was fired. They accused him of being anti-hierarchical. But the "high point of my career," Reese said, were two articles he published by Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican official in charge of ecumenics. Kasper challenged Ratzinger on church theology. Reese submitted the galleys to Ratzinger, who wrote a response. "That was the kind of communication I wanted to have in the magazine," he says. Big mistake, it turns out. Ratzinger was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the watchdog of the Vatican.  Word came from Rome: "Reese has got to go," he says. "I was running a journal of opinion and they only wanted one opinion. They wanted an echo chamber of what was coming out of the Vatican."

Once fired, Reese went to the Woodstock Theological Center, which closed in June. He is now on sabbatical before returning in January to a job with the National Catholic Reporter. The church won't be able to fire him this time. It's an independent publication, unlike "America."

 "Francis is saying, ‘Get out in the streets and do something. You'll make mistakes. That's fine,' " says Reese. "Staying in the sacristy is killing the church. We need to get out to the people, not wait for them to come to us." He says the most important challenge is "how to preach the gospel in a way that is understandable and attractive. . . . We need to take the best thinking of our generation and explain Christianity to our generation. That will take hard work and [require] experimentation. In the last three decades the church has been unable to have these discussions. Now we'll be able to."

Reese says, "I'm very optimistic. Already I've seen tremendous change in the attitude and the culture of the church. This church sees leadership as service. They don't want bishops to think they are princes," Reese says. "We've been burying the lead. The important thing is compassion for others, concern for the poor, the simplicity of the church."  What people don't need, he says, "is leading with rules and regulations, admonitions and finger wagging." Francis is "not afraid of change, and discussion. He has respect for the history and the tradition of the church. But instead of seeing the past as some idealized state we must return to, we learn from that and now we move into the future. It's a journey of faith."

Today Reese thinks that "we're going back to where we were after the Second Vatican Council, before things closed down. Things got more open to discussion and debate." Now he says there is hope for reform.

"Pope Francis has even said we don't have an adequate theology of women," Reese says.

"Today I don't think there would be a problem with an editorial calling for optional celibacy," he says. Before Francis became pope he wrote a book called "On Heaven and Earth," says Reese, in which he talked about "celibacy being a law, not a matter of faith, that could change." For instance, Reese says now that he would feel "much freer to write or talk about supporting optional celibacy."

"It's fun to be a religion reporter again. For a while it felt like being on the crime beat. It's fun to be Catholic again."

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