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Ingrid Shafer, Chair, Publications Committee, 405-224-3988
Leonard Swidler, President, 215-477-1080

May 9, 2005
For Immediate Release:

ARCC CALLS POPE BENEDICT XVI TO REINSTATE FR. THOMAS REESE, S.J. AS EDITOR OF AMERICA MAGAZINE

The Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church calls on Pope Benedict XVI to recall his childhood under a fascist regime that ruthlessly stifled freedom of the press and to use his authority to allow the Jesuit superiors to reinstate Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., as Editor of America Magazine. Quite apart from compromising the intellectual integrity of the publication, the forced resignation of Fr. Reese violates the provisions of the Vatican II document Dignitatis humanae (see Vatican website) which clearly states that:

This Vatican Synod declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that in matters religious no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs. Nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits. (Section 2)

Truth, however, is to be sought after in a manner proper to the dignity of the human person and his social nature. The inquiry is to be free, carried on with the aid of teaching or instruction, communication and dialogue, in the course of which men explain to one another the truth they have discovered, or think they have discovered, in order thus to assist one another in the quest for truth. (Section 2)

Religious bodies also have the right not to be hindered in their public teaching and witness to their faith, whether by the spoken or by the written word. (Section 4)

In seven years as editor of this premiere Catholic magazine, Fr. Reese has allowed diverse and often opposing voices from across the wide spectrum of Catholic thought to engage in precisely the kind of unhindered dialogue called for in Dignitatis humanae.

Unless and until this injustice has been officially rectified, ARCC calls on all truth-seeking Catholics to withhold their annual Peter’s Pence contribution and to put a note in the envelope, indicating why there is no donation and where the money is being sent instead.