The editors of America, a Jesuit journal of opinion, have attacked me and national review for the position taken by national review (July 29) on the recent encyclical of Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra. America’s argument is not with the merits of national review’s comments, but with our presumption in having written (other than merely to praise the encyclical) at all—on the extraordinary grounds that I am a Catholic, and that to have written, under the circumstances, is disrespectful.
I gently remind the editors of America that national review is no more a Catholic magazine because its editor is a Catholic, than the present Administration is a Catholic Administration because its head is a Catholic. The editorial in question represented the position of the editorial board of national review, on which the three major religious faiths are represented, Catholic, Protestant, and Jew. It is under the circumstances impudent for America to catechize national review for exercising, in behalf of its readers, its independent editorial judgment on a papal encyclical.
Comments