After Editor Ouster, Some US Catholic Theologians Expect More Scrutiny

[DeepModem Mom]

New York Times:
Following Editor's Ouster, Some Catholic Theologians in U.S. Expect More Papal Scrutiny
By ANDY NEWMAN
Published: May 15, 2005


After a busy week in which the Vatican forced out the prominent American editor of a Roman Catholic magazine, then put an American in charge of enforcing church doctrine for the first time, many Catholic intellectuals in the United States are feeling the spotlight of papal scrutiny swinging this way....

***

"Oh, boy," the Rev. Robert F. Drinan, a Georgetown professor and former congressman from Massachusetts, said with a sigh upon learning that the archbishop of San Francisco, William J. Levada, was going to Rome as chief doctrinal officer.

Father Drinan, a Jesuit, was already ruing the departure of the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, the editor of America, a small but influential Jesuit weekly, and one of the sought-after commentators during the recent papal changeover. Father Reese resigned May 6. Several Catholic officials in the United States said that his dismissal was ordered in March by Archbishop Levada's predecessor at the doctrinal office, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI.

Cardinal Ratzinger was said to have received complaints from American bishops about articles in the magazine that questioned official church positions on gay marriage, stem cell research and salvation for non-Christians....

***

Archbishop Levada, as head of the American bishops' committee on doctrine, had a role in affirming the Vatican's official condemnation of the Rev. Roger Haight in February. Father Haight's 1999 book "Jesus, Symbol of God," considers, among other things, the possibility of non-Christians being saved without Jesus' help. He has been banned from teaching at Catholic universities....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/national/15reese.html

[Democat]

1. The Pope will be working with the Republican Party, as he has been

But it will be more out in the open now.

Watch the 2006 and 2008 elections for the Catholic Church to all but endorse Republican candidates.

This Pope is bad for the church and bad for Catholics.