America Apologizes (update)

America's on-line apology and e-mail response to concerned readers:

Following up on the previous post, the following Editor's Note can be found in the Letters section of the most recent issue of America appearing on the magazine's website:

Editor's Note

We apologize for publishing an advertisement in a recent issue that was offensive to readers and to ourselves as well, once it was pointed out to us by several subscribers. The item offered for sale was intended by the advertiser, as he acknowledged in correspondence with a concerned reader, to be an assault on Catholic faith and devotion. Unhappily, the offending elements passed undetected through our advance review process. We regret this and will continue to do our best to detect such trickery by potential advertisers in the future.

Of course, some will call this just more Jesuit trickery, but it seems like just your basic apology to me.

Thanks to Kevin for also pointing out the response that concerned America readers received to their e-mails:

Dear Reader:
We too are offended and very much regret we did not catch the mistake prior to publication. We are returning payment for the ad and protesting the abuse to the artist.

The problem was not evident in the black and white proofs we have used to check final copy.We are taking a number of new steps to review advertising in advance of publication.

Thank you for being so attentive.

Sincerely,

Drew Christiansen, S. J.
Editor in Chief