Thomas Reese

Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese's column for Religion News Service, "Signs of the Times," appears regularly at National Catholic Reporter.

Reese entered the Jesuits in 1962 and was ordained in 1974. He was educated at St. Louis University, the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and at the University of California Berkeley, where he received a Ph.D. in political science. He worked in Washington as a writer and lobbyist for tax reform from 1975 to 1978. He was an associate editor of America magazine, where he wrote on politics, economics and the Catholic Church, from 1978 to 1985 and editor-in-chief from 1998 to 2005. He was a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center from 1985 to 1998 and 2006 to 2013. During the summers, he works as a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. 

While at Woodstock, he wrote the trilogy on the organization and politics of the church: Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church (1989), A Flock of Shepherds: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops (1992), and Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church (1996). He also edited The Universal Catechism Reader (1990), an analysis of the first draft of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and Episcopal Conferences: Historical, Canonical and Theological Studies (1989). He is also author of a NCR e-book, Caring for Our Common Home: A Readers’ Guide and Commentary on Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the Environment (2015).

In 2014, Reese was appointed by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission that reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. He was reappointed to another two-year term in May 2016, and he was elected to a one-year term as chair of the commission in June 2016. His writings for NCR do not necessarily reflect the views of the commission.

Reese was senior analyst for the NCR from March 2013 to June 2017. He is based in Washington, D.C.

By this Author

Four challenges for the bishops at synod on young people

Father Brett Kavanaugh would be suspended and investigated

Pressing pope to accept his resignation, Cardinal Wuerl does the right thing

Why the Catholic Church can't move on from the sex abuse crisis

Doubts about Viganò's accusations aside, Pope Francis needs a better response

Four things the church must do to respond to sex abuse

Pennsylvania grand jury report is a new low for Catholic Church

How to read Pennsylvania's grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse

Pope Francis pushes Catholics to actively oppose the death penalty

How can the church punish bad bishops?

The Catholic Church needs a way to deal with bad bishops

Humanae Vitae: Sex and authority in the Catholic Church

The priesthood, celibacy and sex

Pope Francis teaches discernment for coping with spiritual battles

At last, bad news is good news in the Catholic sex abuse scandal

Catholic bishops are quick to attack Trump but slow to advise their voters

Cardinal Dolan makes good points but ignores politics of abortion

Pope Francis' five loves to combat the ills of today's culture

Irish vote shows need for new pro-life strategy

Francis cardinals make up almost half of electors of next pope

Advertisement