Leading US Catholic is forced out by Vatican

A leading Roman Catholic commentator has resigned as editor of an influential Jesuit magazine in the United States amid reports the Vatican doctrinal department formerly run by Pope Benedict had demanded his removal for being "off-message" on condoms.

A leading Roman Catholic commentator has resigned as editor of an influential Jesuit magazine in the United States amid reports the Vatican doctrinal department formerly run by Pope Benedict had demanded his removal for being "off-message" on condoms.

Father Thomas Reese, aged 60, announced his unexpected departure from America magazine on Friday. The National Catholic Reporter, the US weekly that broke the story later on Friday, said the Vatican had objected to articles in the magazine discussing condom use to prevent Aids, and on homosexual priests and secretive church disciplinary measures.

The National Catholic Reporter, quoting unnamed sources, said: "The resignation caps five years of tensions and exchanges among the Congregation (for the Doctrine of the Faith), which was headed at the time by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, the Jesuits and Reese."

The Congregation, the modern successor to the Inquisition, disciplined many critical theologians under the firm leadership of Cardinal Ratzinger from 1981 to 2005.

According to the paper, Reese's Jesuit superiors told him he had to quit after he returned to America's New York headquarters from reporting on Benedict's election.