"Good News" Update

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        With this column I inaugurate what I hope will be another regular update feature: good news in the Church. There hasn’t been much good news over the past forty years, but one can hope that under the new pontificate that will change, despite the disagreements traditional Catholics have had over theological positions taken by the former Cardinal Ratzinger, especially where the Message of Fatima is concerned. We shall see.

        But for now, here’s some good news: that smarmy liberal Jesuit, Thomas Reese, has been removed under Vatican pressure as editor of the Jesuit weekly America, a leading organ of modernism in America. Good riddance!

        Why is this significant? Because Reese is considered a "moderate" modernist, so that his sacking sends a message to the entire modernist apparatus in this country. As reported in "The Prowler" column of American Spectator on May 10, 2005, an "ordained source" at the Vatican says that "Pope Benedict knows better than any one else who the trouble makers are in the United States, and he knows who has worked against the Church's teachings there. You will be seeing changes soon."

        What is so pleasing about this bit of good news is that, as The Prowler reports, Reese "was one of a number of American commentators in Rome during the recent pontifical election, and while he was often restrained in his remarks about then-Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, he made it clear he was not a supporter of his candidacy. America magazine, the public organ of the Jesuit order in U.S., is one of the most liberal Catholic periodicals, second only to the National Catholic Reporter, an independent publication. That America was essentially viewed by the mass media and a number of American Catholics as an official church publication only confused matters."

        In other words, the sacking of Reese targets one of the very centers of modernist insurgency in the United States. America, in fact, had "published articles with views that opposed the Roman Catholic Church's teachings on homosexual priests, stem-cell research, whether Catholic politicians can be denied communion if they support abortion rights, and homosexual unions." The staff at America will have to think long and hard about running such articles again.

        But how will the Vatican respond if the magazine does continue to promote the modernist line of opposition to infallible Church teaching? The answer to that question will determine whether there is more good news, and even signs of real reform and restoration in the Church, or yet another Vatican capitulation to the modernists.

        Our Lady of Fatima, pray for Pope Benedict!