Maurice Timothy Reidy ’97 of Jesuit Magazine ‘America’ Discusses Withdrawing Kavanaugh Endorsement

By Carrie Compton

Published Sept. 28, 2018

2 min read

Like so many others, staff members at the Jesuit Catholic magazine America were glued Thursday to the testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, whom the magazine had endorsed, and Christine Blasey Ford, who alleges he sexually assaulted her in high school. Then the magazine withdrew its endorsement, saying in an editorial that the nomination “is no longer in the best interests of the country.” The editorial quickly drew national attention and a flurry of commenters on both sides. PAW spoke with Maurice Timothy Reidy ’97, the magazine’s deputy editor-in-chief, to hear how America came to its conclusion.

Background Initially the editorial board was in favor of the nomination, largely because of Judge Kavanaugh’s opinion specifically around Roe v. Wade. The editorial position of the magazine has traditionally been that this is a question that should be left to the states rather than being legislated from the bench, and that seemed to be consistent with his point of view, too.

We watched the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Kavanaugh and, like the rest of the country, we wanted to hear these accusations from Dr. Ford to see Kavanaugh’s response. What was immediately clear to us was that she was very credible. It raised a lot of questions for us about how, in light of these allegations, a nominee like Judge Kavanaugh could move forward given the divided state of the country over matters of sexual assault and given how angry he was in his responses. So, basically, what the editorial says is there’s no good solution here. This is what we deem to be the most prudent of a lot of bad options.

The deciding factor We were writing the editorial as it was happening and determining what our opinion was as this was happening, trying to get it out last night, which is a unique challenge to write in the moment. It was mostly Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony that convinced us.

The reaction Nobody is lukewarm on this question. We received word from a lot of people who were very pleased that we took this step. We also got a lot of angry emails from people. Look, we are published by the Jesuits of the United States, though we do not officially represent the Jesuits as an order — that’s important to make clear. There are those who see us as being that voice. And since Judge Kavanaugh went to a Jesuit high school, since he’s a prominent Catholic in Washington, D.C., circles, I think some people probably saw this as, frankly, a betrayal. We’ll be publishing a long series of letters in our next issue with these responses.

A Catholic perspective As a magazine that writes for American Catholics, we try to cover the church and the world from a Catholic perspective, and I think we’re generally surprised at how this has divided people. We see ourselves as trying to bring people together, or that we try to allow for multiple voices and points of view in our pages, and the fact that, it seems to me at least that the initial response is that there’s very little sympathy for the other side on this issue. That’s worrisome because in the end, our goal is to try to have a civil conversation in our pages, to bring various voices together, have people listen to each other and hopefully learn from each other. And on this particular issue, that’s proving very difficult.

Interview conducted and condensed by Carrie Compton

1997

2 Responses

Jerome P. Coleman ’70

5 Years Ago

There is no better example of the deserved criticism of Jesuitical thinking than the author's distinction without a difference that the magazine published by Jesuits does not officially represent Jesuits. Surely, you jest.
As a father of two daughters currently attending outstanding Jesuit universities, I am appalled your magazine (a limited circulation publication that speaks for whom again?), has withdrawn support for Judge Kavanaugh in "the best interests of the country."

St. Ignatius Loyola, the soldier saint, is rising from his grave to protest such cowardice and treason concerning one of his own sons.

Ms. Ford's story is full of holes, though it appears she has convinced herself of it. Nevertheless, this outstanding man is pilloried without the benefit of the doubt, echoes of Duke and UVA. Your withdrawal abandons concepts of Judeo/Christian justice. Is it in the country's best interest to cast this man out as demanded by the media and the Democratic establishment? No spine there, and extraordinarily poor judgment "in the moment," "trying to get it out last night." Rush to judgment and destroy the judge -- great job of that.

Norman Ravitch *62

5 Years Ago

Mr. Coleman worries that the editors of America, the Jesuit magazine, may have misinterpreted the Jesuit calling by politicizing its views on Brett Kavanaugh. As an historian, I prefer to worry about the Jesuit tradition. For some it is a liberal Catholic tradition, especially in the years since the Vietnam War and in the days of the first and only Jesuit pope, Francis. For others like myself, the Jesuits represented the application of intellectual activity for the glorification of the most ultramontane tendencies of the Roman Church. The Jesuits sought to educate mostly the elites as a way of keeping them Catholic against the Protestant and later the secular threats to Catholicism. Sometimes this involved what could be called liberal, but more often than not it could be called ultra-conservative and reactionary. It was the Jesuits who brought the Bohemians, the Polish nobles, and the Austrians back into the Catholic fold after having become very Protestant in the 16th century. The Jesuits took the very religiously tolerant Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 16th century and turned it into an anti-Semitic, anti-Protestant, anti-Eastern Orthodox bastion of Rome. Evangelical Catholics disputed the theology of the Jesuits that was not to their liking, and many disapproved of the tradition of mental reservation which the Jesuits had pioneered in self-defense. Voltaire was educated by the Jesuits, and he called them a pack of pederasts!

Some Jesuits fought the Nazis, others fought the Jews during the great European Civil War of the first half of the 20th century. So when you say Jesuit, be careful what you mean and don't mean.