POPE BENEDICT XVI has emphasised that he wants to be a man of dialogue. It is unfortunate, then, that at the beginning of his reign a Jesuit editor who has sought to promote dialogue within the Catholic Church and outside it has been forced to step down.

Father Tom Reese took over the helm at America magazine, the weekly of the American Jesuits, seven years ago. He was by any reckoning a highly distinguished journalist, media commentator and author. I felt, as the then editor of The Tablet, that his example was one I had to emulate. But this week’s issue of America is his last.

All editors come under pressure from proprietors, management, editorial boards and readers. In Tom Reese’s case, a small group of American bishops and conservative laity were not happy with the critical loyalty that characterised the magazine. As the Church’s doctrinal watchdog, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger began to take an interest, and in 2002 he wrote to the Jesuit General in Rome with a list of articles his office found offensive. If Tom Reese was to remain editor of America, the letter told Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, he must accept the establishment of a committee of three American bishops to review all material before publication.

The threat was not carried out at that time, but Reese was warned later that Rome would be watching carefully to see in particular how he dealt with the question of same-sex partnerships. When the doctrinal congregation’s observations on that subject appeared in 2003, denouncing “the legalisation of evil”, I looked to see what America would say. I could not find a single word anywhere in its pages. When I telephoned Reese in surprise, I found out what had happened. “I have to accept a huge amount of self-censorship now,” he told me.

I felt both saddened and alarmed. A restriction laid on America is chilling for all such media in the Catholic Church, including The Tablet. Lay editors are in a less vulnerable position than priest editors, but their responsibilities are not distinct.

There are basically two ways of running media. They can be controlled or they can be independent. A controlled print medium such as the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano exists to give the official line, and is read for that reason. Most diocesan newspapers are similar in function, and hierarchs are always tempted by the control model. Independent media, however, which live or die in the market place, have much more to be forums of disclosure, discussion and debate. They inform and interact with the public opinion which, Pope Pius XII said, is essential in the Church.

A comparison of L’Osservatore Romano and media such as The Tablet in 1968 when Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical letter Humanae Vitae reiterating the ban on contraception is instructive. L’Osservatore’s approach to the encyclical and account of its reception were wholly positive, as one would expect from the official news- paper. Its editorial policy, it said, was to encourage the Catholic people and recall dissenters to the fold, by showing how much agreement the encyclical was meeting. Its “task of information” was to “orientate the faithful”. It was necessary to read media such as The Tablet to be aware of the extent of the crisis in the Church.

L’Osservatore is indispensable, but clearly the Catholic Church would suffer greatly if all its media were like this. Today, however, a strong conservative current in the Catholic Church, reflected notably within some hierarchies, is laying the emphasis on straight proclamation and apologetics, rather than on dialogue. A Jesuit paper such as America, which in my view got the best of both worlds, controlled and independent (most of its revenue comes from its subscribers), finds its function called into question. Back in March, shortly before his election as Pope, Joseph Ratzinger wrote again to Father Kolvenbach, and the result is Tom Reese’s departure this week from the Editor’s chair.

The new Pope pledged himself in his inauguration sermon to love all the people entrusted to him, but in some parts of the Catholic Church today a harsh and denunciatory attitude is at large. Its adherents advocate a cleansing of the Catholic body. They seem to have forgotten that the Second Vatican Council specified that the teaching office of the Church is “not above the word of God, but serves it”, and that there is a hierarchy of truths, ranging from those of revelation to those which are open to discussion and revision or which may even turn out not to be truths at all.

Only a truly pluralistic Catholic media can do justice to the symphony of voices and spiritualities, as wide as the world, that is Catholicism. Those who would prefer to have one single blast issue from all the trumpets will send many deafened concert-goers scuttling for the exits.