He was an associate editor of America from 1978 to 1985, where he wrote about a variety of topics including public policy, politics, the American Catholic bishops, and dance.[1]
As editor of a journal of opinion, he published a variety of authors, some critical of Vatican positions.[7] He was forced by the Vatican to resign from America in 2005.[8][9][10]
As a high school student and young seminarian, Reese was a Goldwater Republican, and when he entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1962, he was comfortable with the Catholic Church of the 1950's in which he was raised. His political science training and his disillusionment with the Vietnam War made him more politically progressive. The Second Vatican Council made him more theologically progressive with a greater understanding of the liturgy, the role of the church in the world, social justice, ecumenism and interreligious relations.[15]
In 2018, he argued that the anti-abortion movement "should strongly support programs that give women a real choice — increasing the minimum wage, free or affordable day care for working and student moms, free or affordable health care for mothers and their children, parental leave programs, education and job-training programs, income and food supplements, etc." It "also has to support birth control as a means of avoiding unwanted pregnancies" as a "lesser of two evils" in reducing the number of abortions.[16]
He also argued that the prohibition of artificial contraception in Humanae vitae was a 'mistake' and that a majority of American Catholics ignore it. He said that arguing that contraception led "to conjugal infidelity, disrespect for women, gender confusion, and gay marriage" is "an insult to all the good people who have used contraceptives at some point in their lives."[17] Cardinal Timothy Dolan expressed his "serious reservations" to Reese's proposed strategy, "considering it a capitulation to the abortion culture, and a grave weakening of the powerful pro-life witness."[18]
In a 2021 column, Reese outlined several liturgical reforms he would like to see, and criticized the Tridentine Mass as well as Pope Benedict's 2007 document Summorum Pontificum which gave priest the option to celebrate the Latin Mass without their bishop's permission. Reese said that the authority over the use of the Tridentine Mass should be returned to the bishops in their dioceses. "The church needs to be clear that it wants the unreformed liturgy to disappear and will only allow it out of pastoral kindness to older people who do not understand the need for change," he wrote. "Children and young people should not be allowed to attend such Masses."[19] The article drew strong backlash from Traditionalist Catholics, who said that Reese was being hypocritical and encouraging authoritarianism to deal with people he disagrees with.[20][21]
On NCR, Reese has asserted that climate change is the "No. 1 pro-life issue" facing the Catholic Church today.[22]
Publications
Books
The Politics of Taxation. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989.
Episcopal Conferences: Historical, Canonical, and Theological Studies (editor), Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1989.
The Universal Catechism Reader (editor), San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990.
A Flock of Shepherds: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Kansas City, MO.: Sheed & Ward, 1992.
Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church, Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University, 1996.
In Het Vaticaan: De Organisatie van de Macht in de Katholieke Kerk, Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, 1998.
Im Inneren des Vatikan: Politik und Organisation der katholischen Kirche, Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 1998.
O Vaticano por dentro: A Política e a Organização da Igreja Católica, Bauru, Brasil: Editora da Universidade do Sagrado Coração, 1999.
No Interior do Vaticano: A Política e Organização da Igreja Católica, Portugal: Publicações Europa-América, Lda., 1998.
NCR eBook, Caring for Our Common Home: A Readers’ Guide and Commentary on Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the Environment (2015).[12]
Monographs
Communication II: Decision-Making Examined, Jesuit Self-Study California/Oregon Provinces, 1969.
The Generation Gap, Jesuit Self-Study California/Oregon Provinces, 1971.
95th Congress Rated on Tax Reform, Arlington, VA: Taxation with Representation, 1978.
Co-Discipleship in Action: Bishops and Laity in Dialogue, Woodstock Theological Center, 1991.
^Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989. A Flock of Shepherds: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Kansas City, MO.: Sheed & Ward, 1992. Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church, Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University, 1996.